Hong Kong Mahjong · Limit

All Terminals (清么九) in Hong Kong Mahjong: Limit Hand, Examples and Odds

In Hong Kong mahjong, All Terminals (清么九) is a limit hand, scored Limit: your whole winning hand is 1s and 9s of characters, dots and bamboo — no honours, nothing from 2 to 8 — as four pungs (or kongs) plus a pair. A limit hand scores the 10-fan cap straight away, with nothing added.

All Terminals differs from Terminals and Honours in one thing only: honours. With honours it is just 1 fan (at least 4 fan with the All Pungs it always has); with no honours at all it jumps to the limit.

The rules for All Terminals

• The 14 tiles come from just six kinds: 1 and 9 characters, 1 and 9 dots, 1 and 9 bamboo
• Not a single honour; one honour turns it back into Terminals and Honours
• No chows are possible, so it is always four pungs (or kongs) plus a pair — you cannot chow, only pung or kong
• Punging and winning on a discard are fine; no need for a concealed hand

How All Terminals is scored

A limit hand isn't added up item by item: once it's All Terminals, it scores the limit. The fan below are computed live by the same scoring code the game uses.

If all four pungs are self-drawn (none claimed), it is also Four Concealed Pungs; a limit is only counted once, so it stays 10 fan.

How it relates to other hands

• Terminals and Honours: pungs of terminals plus honours, 1 fan, always with All Pungs.
• All Pungs: All Terminals is always All Pungs, but a limit hand scores only the limit.
• Thirteen Orphans: also terminals, but one of each of thirteen kinds plus a pair, and it needs all seven honours — the opposite of All Terminals.
• Four Concealed Pungs: all four pungs self-drawn, another limit hand.
• One-suit hands: four pungs and a pair need five different kinds, and each suit has only two terminals, so All Terminals always uses all three suits and can never be Pure or Mixed One Suit.

All Terminals odds

All Terminals can use only six kinds — 24 tiles, under a fifth of the 136 tiles (flowers excluded). Four pungs and a pair need five of those kinds, with at least three copies of each. All four players compete for the same 24 tiles, and discarded 1s and 9s are usually punged at once or thrown early.

In 100,000 hands of computer play on this site (81,026 wins), All Terminals came up 0 times. For comparison, Terminals and Honours — the same idea with honours allowed — came up 2 times.

When All Terminals is worth trying

• Three or more pairs of 1s and 9s in the opening hand, and few honours.
• Two terminal pungs already exposed: opponents usually read it as All Pungs or Terminals and Honours and may not hold your 1s and 9s.
• Your honour pair is a scoring tile: then don't break it — Terminals and Honours plus a scoring pung is the safer path.

If All Terminals doesn't come together, Terminals and Honours or plain All Pungs still clears the minimum. To try it, open a table of online Hong Kong mahjong and play the computers.

All Terminals in other mahjong styles

• Sichuan mahjong has no honours. It has "quan dai yao", where every set just has to contain a 1 or 9 and chows are allowed — not the same hand (Sichuan mahjong Terminals in Every Set)
• Japanese, Taiwanese and Chinese Official (Guobiao) mahjong score it differently — see their tables: Japanese mahjong yaku list, Taiwanese mahjong tai table, Guobiao fan table

FAQ

How many fan is All Terminals?

In Hong Kong mahjong All Terminals is a limit hand: Limit, the 10-fan cap, with nothing else added.

What's the difference between All Terminals and Terminals and Honours?

All Terminals is only 1s and 9s with no honours and is a limit hand; Terminals and Honours has honours and scores 1 fan, or 4 fan with the All Pungs it always has.

Can you pung in All Terminals?

Yes. It doesn't require a concealed hand, so pungs and exposed kongs are fine; you just can't chow, because 1s and 9s don't form runs on their own.

Related hands

Terminals & Honours 1 fan Pungs of only 1s, 9s and honours: 1 fan on its own, but it always comes with All Pungs and stacks to the limit fast. Thirteen Orphans Limit One of each of the thirteen terminals and honours plus a pair: a limit hand, no claims allowed, with up to a 13-sided wait. All Pungs 3 fan Four pungs and a pair, no chows — 3 fan, exactly enough to win. Examples, scoring combos and how many pairs you need to go for it.