The basics
Winning hands
Four sets and a pair, Thirteen Orphans, and the most important rule: 3 fan to win.
Four sets and a pair
The basic winning hand is four sets plus a pair — 14 tiles (one more for each kong).
- Run (chow): three in a row in one suit, such as . Honours can’t form runs.
- Pung: three alike, such as .
- Kong: four alike. It counts as one set; draw a replacement after declaring it.
- Pair: two alike, such as .
Thirteen Orphans
The only win that isn’t four sets and a pair: one each of the 1 and 9 of every suit and all seven honours, plus a second copy of any one of them.
Thirteen Orphans must be concealed — no chow or pung.
Three fan to win
The most important rule of Hong Kong mahjong: a complete hand also needs 3 fan to win. A hand without enough fan is a “chicken hand” and cannot win.
Common ways to reach three fan:
- Stay concealed (1) with no flowers (1), then self-draw (1) or make all runs (1).
- Pung a dragon, or your seat or round wind — 1 fan each.
- Go for mixed one suit (3) or all pungs (3) — enough on its own.
See Fan table for every fan.
Waiting to win
One tile away from winning is called being “ready”. You may be waiting on more than one tile:
The game’s wait hint shows the fan for each tile you are waiting on. If every wait is short of fan, rework your hand.
Read nextFan table →