Hong Kong mahjong rules at a glance

1. Meet the tiles

• There are 144 tiles: Dots, Bams and Craks, numbered 1 to 9, 4 of each.
• Winds and dragons are honor tiles. They have no numbers.
• Flowers and seasons are bonus tiles. There are no jokers.

2. Making sets

• A chow is 3 in a row in one suit. A pung is 3 alike. A kong is 4 alike.
• Honors can make pungs and kongs, never chows.
• A winning hand is 4 sets and a pair.

3. Your turn

• Draw a tile, then discard one. You end with 13 tiles.
• Play goes counter-clockwise: the player on your right is next.
• Set aside flowers and seasons, then draw a new tile.

4. Calling tiles

• Call a chow only from the player on your left.
• Call a pung or kong from anyone. Show the set, then discard.
• Winning beats a pung or kong, and a pung or kong beats a chow.

5. Kongs

• Make a kong from a discard, from 4 tiles you drew, or by adding to a pung.
• After any kong, draw an extra tile from the back of the wall.
• Another player can rob a kong you add to, if the tile wins for them.

6. Winning

• You win with 4 sets and a pair, either self-drawn or from a discard.
• To win, you can call any tile from anyone.
• Your hand needs at least 3 faan, unless your group agrees on another minimum.

7. Faan scoring

• Dragon pungs, your seat wind and the round's wind score 1 faan each.
• All pungs and mixed one suit score 3. Pure one suit scores 7.
• Self-drawn, concealed hand and matching bonus tiles add 1 faan each.
• The limit is the top score. It's 10 faan in our game.

8. Special hands

• Faan from different parts add up, up to the limit.
• Small three dragons is 5 faan. Great three dragons is 8. Don't add the dragon pungs on top.
• Small four winds is 6 faan, plus your seat and round winds. Great four winds and thirteen orphans score the limit.
• Heaven's hand (East wins with the tiles dealt) and Earth's hand (you win on East's first discard) score the limit.

9. Strategy basics

• Find a source of faan early, like a dragon pair or one suit.
• Keep tiles that wait on more winning tiles. Let go of lone winds that don't score.
• Late in a hand, discard tiles that are already showing.