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Mahjong Rules for Scoring

Mahjong originates from China and uses 144 game pieces or tiles, according to the Mahjong website. The basic kinds of tiles are the Characters, the Balls, the Sticks, the Dragons, the Winds, the Flowers and the Seasons. Assembling sets of these tiles is the objective to the game. There are a number of different types of Mahjong with varying scoring rules.

Sets
- There are three types of sets a Mahjong player can acquire. A “chow” is three tiles of the same suit, such as the 1 – 2 - 3 of Sticks or the 7 – 8 - 9 of Balls. A “pong” is three tiles of the same numerical value in different suits such as the 4 of balls, sticks and characters. A “kong” is four tiles of the same numerical value of different suits.
Additional Points
- Named for the four basic directions, the winds can add points to a player's hand. If a player has a pong or kong that includes the wind tile that corresponds to the direction of their seat at the table they earn one extra point. Dragon tiles add points to the hand when included in a pong or kong.
Winning Hand
- According to the website mahjonged.com a player must announce when he has a “winning hand.” A winning hand is made up of four kongs, chows or pongs along with an additional matching pair of tiles. Play stops when a winning hand is announced. Players determine their points based on the numbers of kongs, chows or pongs in their hand.
Points
- While scoring does vary, according to the mahjonged website four chows earn the holder two points while four pongs or kongs earn six points. A pong or kong including a dragon tile is two points while two pongs containing dragons earns six points. Each flower or season tile is worth one point. Play can continue for 16 hands with the total number of points for each player from all hands determining the overall winner.

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