How to Score a game of Mah Jong

Special Hands

Special hands are alternative target sets of tiles that a player can go Mah Jong with. The original Chinese game allowed only a few special hands but some Western derivatives controversially include many more.

Special Hand Name	Description	Award
Buried Treasure	Concealed Pungs in one suit with Winds/Dragons and a pair.	Limit
Heads and Tails	Pungs/Kongs of Ones and Nines.	Limit
The Wriggling Snake	A pair of Ones and a run from Two to Nine in the same suit, with each of the winds.	Limit
Three Great Scholars	Pungs/Kongs of all three Dragons, another Pung/Kong and a pair.	Limit
Four Blessings Hovering Over The Door	Pungs/Kongs of each of the four Winds with any pair.	Limit
The Thirteen Unique Wonders	One of each Dragon, one of each Wind, one of each One and one of each Nine. Any one of these tiles must be paired.	Limit
Heaven's Blessing	Mah Jong immediately made by East with the original fourteen tiles dealt to that player.	Limit
Earth's Blessing	Mah Jong immediately made by West, North or South using the first discard made by East.	Limit
Gathering the Plum Blossom from the Roof	The Plum Blossom is the Five of Circles. This is made by a player who draws a loose tile (the roof) as a replacement for a Kong, a Flower or a Season and that tile is the Plum Blossom which allows the player to go Mah Jong.	Limit
Plucking the Moon from the Bottom of the Sea	The Moon is the One of Circles. This is made by a player who upon drawing the last tile from the wall finds that it is the Moon which allows the player to go Mah Jong.	Limit

Scoring

Since a score can become ridiculously large, a limit is usually applied. In England, the limit is usually 2000 points although tournament limits tend to be 1000 points.

Scoring can be complicated. If a player went Mah Jong with a special hand or a player was Calling on a special hand at Mah Jong, the scores in the Special Hand table apply. Otherwise, the value of each hand is calculated, bonus points are added and, if appropriate, any doubling then takes place. The values of each hand is calculated as per the following two tables:

Combination	Exposed (declared on table)	Concealed (held in hand because completed by drawing from the wall)
Minor tile Pung	2	4
Major tile Pung	4	8
Minor tile Kong	8	16
Major tile Kong	16	32
Pair of Dragons	2	2
Pair of prevailing Wind	2	2
Pair of player's own Wind	2	2

For going Mah Jong	10
For drawing the winning tile from the wall	2
For going Mah Jong with the only possible tile	2

Once the basic scores have been evaluated, each player's score is doubled for each item in the following table:

Pung or Kong of the player's own Wind (concealed or exposed)	Double
Pung or Kong of the prevailing Wind (concealed or exposed)	Double
Pung or Kong of Dragons	Double

Finally, there are some additional doubles that apply to the hand that went Mah Jong only.

No Chows	Double
Non-scoring hand (4 chows and a pair)	Double
All one suit and some Dragons and/or Winds	Double
All major tiles and some Dragons and/or Winds	Double
All Dragons and/or winds	Double
All 4 Winds (3 sets and 1 pair)	Double
All 3 Dragons (2 sets and 1 pair)	Double
Going Mah Jong with a loose tile	Double
Going Mah Jong with the last tile from the wall	Double
Going Mah Jong by Robbing the Kong	Double
Rarely, a player may be Calling after his first discard. This is called an "Original Call". A Mah Jong made with those same 13 tiles plus a tile discarded or taken from the wall in subsequent turns.	Double
Pungs/Kongs of any one suit and a pair. No Winds, Dragons or Chows.	Double three times

The player who went Mah Jong is then paid by the other players the amount scored by his hand. This means that the player who gets Mah Jong always wins the round, even if other players have scored greater amounts. If East wins, the others pay double. If not, East pays double.

Each losing player pays any other losing player with a greater value hand, the difference between the two hands, with East paying and/or receiving double the difference.