A complete reference for Hong Kong / Cantonese Mahjong — tiles, gameplay, winning conditions, and faan scoring.
Know the rules? Put them to use in a live game — no download needed.
▶ Play Hong Kong Mahjong Free Start with the animated tutorialHong Kong Mahjong (also called Cantonese Mahjong) is the most common form of the game in Hong Kong, Guangdong, and overseas Cantonese communities. It is a four-player game using a 144-tile set. Players take turns drawing and discarding tiles, trying to complete a valid winning hand before anyone else.
Scoring uses a system called faan (番). The more valuable your winning hand, the more faan it is worth, and losing players pay more points accordingly.
Players sit at compass positions: East, South, West, North. East deals and plays first. Seat winds rotate when the dealer passes; players keep their physical seats. Each player draws 13 tiles to start. East draws 14 tiles and discards one to begin.
Before the next player draws, any player may claim the discard to complete a set:
A standard winning hand (一般胡牌) requires:
Total: 14 tiles (13 in hand + the final drawn or claimed tile).
Table Mahjong house rules v2: Quick Hand is the default. Our casual preset has no minimum faan; the optional HK preset requires 3 faan. These are explicit house rules, not a claim that every Hong Kong table uses the same scoring.
Faan is the Hong Kong scoring unit. More faan = higher value. Our default values (the host can customize these before a match):
| Hand / Condition | Faan |
|---|---|
| Seat Wind triplet (own wind) | 1 |
| Prevailing Wind triplet | 1 |
| Dragon triplet | 1 per dragon |
| Each Flower / Season bonus tile | 1 |
| Concealed hand | 1 |
| Chicken hand fallback | 1 |
| Self-draw win (自摸) | 1 |
| All Pong (對對胡) | 3 |
| Mixed One-Suit (混一色) | 3 |
| Pure One-Suit (清一色) | 7 |
New sessions start at 0 net points, not 25,000. Points are not money, account XP, or a rating. One share is 8 × 2faan points (capped at 13 faan). The winner receives three shares. On self-draw each opponent pays one share; on a discard win the discarder alone pays all three. There is no dealer payment multiplier or repeat-hand surcharge.
Example: 3 faan means 64 points per share and a 192-point win. Scores may be negative. A drawn hand exchanges no points. Historical results keep their original values.
A hand is one deal. A wind round completes when the deal has passed four times. Choose Quick Hand, an East-only match, or a full East–South–West–North match. Dealer wins and draws keep the same dealer; other wins pass the deal counterclockwise. Seat winds rotate with the dealer while the players keep their physical seats. Full matches require at least 16 hands and can take longer with repeats.
Solo matches retain the same AI players and save after each hand on this device. Resume continues from the last completed hand; an interrupted hand is replayed. Multiplayer keeps one room, server-owned scores and reconnectable seats. Between hands everyone readies up and the host starts the next hand. Ending early saves completed hands but does not award a completed match.