Mahjong guides
Mahjong rules and scoring, in plain English.
Hong Kong, Japanese Riichi and Chinese Official mahjong share the same tiles and the same shape of game: draw, discard, claim, and build four sets and a pair. What changes is what a winning hand has to contain and how it is counted.
These guides cover the tiles, how a hand plays out, and the scoring for each style, with calculators so you can settle a score at the table.
Side by side
Three styles at a glance
| Hong Kong | Japanese Riichi | Chinese Official (MCR) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tiles used | 144, including 8 flowers and seasons | 136, no flowers (red fives optional) | 144, including 8 flowers |
| What you need to win | A complete hand worth the table's minimum, most often 3 faan | A complete hand with at least one yaku | A complete hand worth at least 8 fan, not counting flowers |
| Scoring unit | Faan, paid from a doubling table | Han and fu, turned into points | Fan, plus a flat 8 from each payer |
| Pace | Quick and chatty | Tactical, with careful defence | Slower and analytical |
| Declaring a win | Hu | Ron on a discard, tsumo on a self-draw | Hu |
| Signature rules | Flowers, faan limits, house tables | Riichi, dora, furiten | 81 named patterns, 8-fan minimum |
| Who plays it | Home games across Hong Kong and Cantonese communities worldwide | Japan, video games and anime fans, tournaments worldwide | Tournament players worldwide, and in China |
House rules vary a lot, especially in Hong Kong style play. Agree the minimum, the limit and the payout table before the first tile is drawn.
Where to start
Which one should you learn first?
If you have never played, start with how to play. It teaches the shared mechanics using Hong Kong rules and flags where the other two differ. After that, pick by what you enjoy.
- Hong Kong if you want a relaxed social game and quick rounds. Its scoring page has a payout table and calculator.
- Riichi if you like tactics: declaring a ready hand, reading what others are collecting, and knowing when to fold. The scoring page has a full points calculator.
- Chinese Official if you want a precise, tournament-style game with a published list of 81 patterns.
The guides
Everything on this section
- How to play mahjong
A beginner's walk through one hand: the wall, drawing, discarding, claiming and calling a win.
- Mahjong tiles guide
Every suit, honour and flower, how many of each there are, and what the tiles are called.
- Hong Kong scoring and faan
The faan list, minimums, a payout table and a calculator for working out what each hand pays.
- Riichi scoring calculator and yaku list
Han, fu, dora, limit hands and a points calculator for any hand.
- Chinese Official (MCR) scoring
The 8-fan minimum, all 81 fan, and how a hand is paid.
- Mahjong solitaire
The one-player tile-matching game: free tiles, pairs and layouts.
Quick answers
Common questions
- Which style of mahjong is easiest to learn?
- Hong Kong mahjong is usually the gentlest start. Winning needs only a basic hand plus a few faan, and the scoring table fits on one page. Riichi has more rules to learn up front (yaku, fu, furiten) but rewards you with deeper strategy. Chinese Official asks you to learn a long pattern list.
- How many tiles are in a mahjong set?
- A standard set has 144 tiles: 108 suit tiles, 28 honour tiles and 8 flower and season tiles. Riichi is played without the 8 flower and season tiles, so it uses 136.
- Can I use the same set for Hong Kong, Riichi and MCR?
- Yes. Any 144-tile set works for Hong Kong and Chinese Official. For Riichi, set the 8 flower and season tiles aside. If your set has red fives, Riichi players usually include them as bonus tiles.
- How many people play mahjong?
- Four, sitting at the four sides of a square table. There are three-player versions of some styles, but all the guides here assume four players.
- Is mahjong luck or skill?
- Both. The tiles you draw are luck. Which tiles you keep, which you throw, and when you stop building and start defending are skill, and over many hands the better player wins more often.