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.  

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:

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

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

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.