How to play
The whole game on one page: the shape you are building, how turns and claims work, and how a win turns into a score. Ten minutes to read; the fastest way to actually learn is to let the game deal you a hand.
Lesson 1 / 12
run · run · triplet · run · the eyes
A winning hand is fourteen tiles arranged as four sets and one pair. A set is either a run of three consecutive tiles in one suit, or a triplet of the same tile. The pair is called the eyes.
That is the whole shape. Everything else in the game is about reaching it one tile sooner than the other three players.
Lesson 2 / 12
A set holds 144 tiles. Three numbered suits run one to nine with four copies each: Characters, Bamboo and Dots. Four winds and three dragons never form runs, only pairs and triplets. Eight flower and season tiles never enter your hand. They sit face up, and your seat’s flower and season score at the end.
Every tile is drawn with a small corner number or letter, so you never need to read the Chinese faces. The full glossary, with every tile explained, is on the tiles page.
Lesson 3 / 12
discards stay face up, open to everyone
Everyone starts with thirteen tiles; the dealer starts with fourteen and makes the first discard. Play moves counterclockwise. On your turn you draw one tile from the wall and discard one face up in front of you. That is the entire rhythm: draw one, throw one, always holding thirteen.
Discards stay face up and visible to everyone. Reading what the table has thrown is half the game.
Lesson 4 / 12
a run you could claim as a chow
When the player on your left discards a tile that completes a run for you, you can claim it as a chow. Only from the left: a run tile thrown by anyone else is gone.
The claimed run is placed face up beside your hand and locks. Chows look cheap and are the most expensive habit in the game: every claim opens your hand, which costs the Concealed Hand faan, and a chow into a second suit can end a one-suit plan on the spot. Passing is often the stronger play.
Lesson 5 / 12
a triplet you could claim from anyone
Holding a pair, you can claim the third copy from ANY player as a pung. Holding a triplet, you can claim the fourth copy as a kong, which also draws you a replacement tile.
When two players want the same discard there is a strict priority: a win beats everything, then pung or kong, then chow. If two players could win on the same tile, the seat nearest the discarder counterclockwise takes it alone.
Lesson 6 / 12
four of a kind: a kong
There are three ways to a kong: all four copies from your own draws (a concealed kong), three in hand claiming the fourth from a discard, or adding the fourth tile to a pung you already claimed. A kong is a set of four that counts as a triplet, and declaring one always earns you a replacement tile from the back of the wall.
Adding a tile to a claimed pung has a catch: another player who needs exactly that tile to win may rob it out of the promotion. A concealed kong is safe from robbery, with one legendary exception: a Thirteen Orphans hand may rob even a concealed kong.
One trap worth knowing: declaring any kong, even a concealed one, opens your hand in Hong Kong rules. The Japanese game keeps a concealed kong concealed; here it costs you the Concealed Hand faan.
Lesson 7 / 12
tenpai: one tile from winning, waiting on the eyes
When you are one tile from the winning shape you are tenpai, waiting. You can win on your own draw, called self draw and worth an extra faan, or on someone else’s discard. If nobody wins before the wall runs out, the hand is a draw: nobody pays and the dealer deals again.
Casual tables let any complete hand win, even one worth zero faan, called a chicken hand. Serious tables set a floor: a hand must score a minimum number of faan before it may be declared. Our Bamboo room takes any complete hand; Jade, Phoenix and Dragon ask for three faan, the classic Hong Kong minimum.
Lesson 8 / 12
an East pung: one faan, or two when East is both winds
Two winds matter to you every hand. Your seat wind is where you sit, and it rotates as the deal passes. The round wind names the round and moves slower. A triplet of either is worth a faan; a triplet of a wind that is both at once is worth two.
The trap is holding wind tiles that are neither: a pair of somebody else’s wind is nearly dead weight, and beginners hold them far too long. Throw lone off-winds early.
Lesson 9 / 12
a dragon pung: one faan on its own
Wins are measured in faan, difficulty points. Every pattern your hand matches adds its faan, and rarer patterns pay more. The named big hands already include the sets they are built from, so those sets do not count twice.
The complete table, every pattern shown in tiles with what it stacks with, is the scoring reference. Where published charts disagree with each other, the sources page shows the disagreement instead of hiding it.
Lesson 10 / 12
The base payment doubles with every faan. In Bamboo, practice and friend rooms, a discarder pays double the base and each bystander pays half. In Jade, Phoenix and Dragon, the discarder pays all three shares alone. On a self draw, all three opponents pay the base. Discarding into a win never costs less than a bystander pays, which makes late discards dangerous.
Every room here caps each payment at 50 points. Payments stop doubling between three and five faan, so one lucky hand cannot empty a wallet.
Lesson 11 / 12
the rounds, in wind order
Rounds are named for winds, East first. The dealer is East; when the dealer wins, the deal repeats, and when anyone else wins it passes to the right. When the deal has gone all the way around, the round wind advances. A short social game is a single East round; a full one goes East, South, West, North.
Lesson 12 / 12
Learn it by playing
The tutorial deals you a real hand and coaches every step, in Turkish and English.