Chapter 06 · The curriculum
Scoring, a.k.a. The Money Math
Points, the doubling ladder, who pays what and when they pay double, and the hands worth bragging about.
Deep breath. Mahjong scoring looks like folklore because it is folklore — every family seasons it differently. Ours is written down, and this chapter is a faithful transcription with commentary. The skeleton:
- Count the winning hand’s points — 番faan if you’re feeling ancestral — earned for how fancy the hand is.
- Convert points to a payout by doubling: every point doubles the money.
- Collect from everyone — with double from whoever earned it.
That’s it. Everything below is just the menu.
The point menu
1 point each
| Feature | Notes |
|---|---|
| Hand of all Seungs (平糊ping wu) | four runs + a pair, the tofu of hands |
| Zi-Mo (自摸zi mo) | self-drawn winning tile |
| Round-wind pong | the wind of the current round |
| Your-wind pong | your seat’s wind |
| Each dragon pong | 中, 發, or white |
| Each of your own flowers | flower number matches your seat |
| No flowers at all (無花mou faa) | ironically |
| All four flowers of one set | all seasons, or all plants |
| Win by robbed pong or kong (搶槓coeng gong) | stolen at the moment of glory |
| Win on a kong replacement tile | the kong pays out twice |
3 points
| Hand | |
|---|---|
| All pongs + a pair (對對糊deui deui wu) | maximum clack |
| All one suit + honors (混一色wan yat sik) | committed, tasteful |
4 points
| Hand | |
|---|---|
| Two dragon pongs + a pair of the third (小三元siu saam yun) | so close to legend |
| Seven pairs (七對子chat deui zi) | see Chapter 5 — yes, we play it |
6 points — the ceiling
| Hand | |
|---|---|
| Full flush (清一色cing yat sik) | one suit, nothing else |
| Four concealed pongs + Zi-Mo | the silent fortress |
| Three dragon pongs or kongs (大三元daai saam yun) | wedding-toast material |
| Three wind pongs or kongs + a pair of the fourth | little four winds |
| Four wind pongs or kongs | the weather report |
| Only honors (字一色zi yat sik) | winds and dragons only |
| Only 1s and 9s | terminal behavior |
| 1 + 9 of each suit + one of every honor (十三幺sap saam jiu) | thirteen orphans |
| Four kongs | statistically rude |
| All 8 flowers | automatic win, mid-hand, no assembly required |
Points stack: an all-pong, one-suit-plus-honors hand with a dragon pong and a Zi-Mo finish is 3 + 3 + 1 + 1 = 8… which the cap immediately flattens to 6. Count it out loud anyway. It’s customary and it’s cardio.
The payout math
Pick a base stake — this unit is called “the chicken,” the value of a 0-point hand. Default is a penny. The table can agree on more before the first deal — dimes, chips, dumplings of enforceable value — but until someone speaks up, a penny it is.
Payout per person = chicken × 2^(points)
Then the multipliers:
- Everyone pays the winner. All three of you. Every win.
- The discarder pays double — the one who 出銃ceot cung funds their own downfall at twice the rate. It’s nothing personal and also entirely your fault.
- Zi-Mo: everyone pays double. Nobody discarded, so everybody’s the problem. This is why self-draws are announced at the volume they’re announced at.
The ladder, chicken = 1:
| Points | 0 (chicken) | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 (Spicy) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Per person | 1 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 16 | 32 | 64 |
| From the discarder | 2 | 4 | 8 | 16 | 32 | 64 | 128 |
Worked example: you win a 3-point hand off Uncle Ming’s reckless discard. Uncle Ming pays 16 chickens, the other two pay 8 each, you collect 32 and say something gracious like “the tiles chose me.” Had you drawn it yourself: Zi-Mo doubles everyone to 16 × 3 = 48, plus the Zi-Mo point itself bumped you to 4 points first, so it’s actually 32 × 3 = 96. Yes, the Zi-Mo point and the Zi-Mo double stack. Scoring gives generously.
The “9-cards” rule
The signature clause. When a player’s exposed melds show nine tiles of a single suit, anyone at the table may — read: will, gleefully — call “9-cards!” From that moment, the threat of a full flush is officially on record — and if you still discard the tile that completes it, you don’t just pay double: the discarder pays all debts. All three shares. Alone.
It’s a formalized version of the oldest mahjong ethic there is: you were warned. The table said it out loud. The suit was right there.
The dealer
The dealer, 莊zong, who wins keeps the deal — 連莊lin zong — and the other three players begin openly conspiring like it’s a period drama.
When nobody wins
The last 14 tiles of the wall are dead — nobody draws them. If the live wall runs out with no winner, the hand is a wash, 流局lau guk: no payments, same dealer re-deals, and everyone agrees the next hand is “the real one.”
One chapter left: the constitution itself — the full house rules, plus the table law that isn’t about tiles at all.