Hong Kong Old Style rules
144 tiles, flowers and seasons, a 3-faan minimum and a fixed half-laak payment table.
Mahjong Planet preset: hkos-3-v1
Rated and casual multiplayer, public/private tables, Quick Play and optional computers. Hong Kong ratings are separate from Riichi and Sichuan.
Tiles, setup and turns
Four players use 144 tiles: 136 regular suited and honor tiles, plus four flowers and four seasons. No jokers or red fives. Begin with thirteen regular tiles; East draws the fourteenth.
Win with four groups and a pair, or thirteen orphans, worth at least 3 faan including bonuses. Seven pairs is not a separate winning shape in this preset.
Flowers and seasons are exposed and automatically replaced from the end of the wall. Each kong also receives a replacement from the end. Ordinary draws use the front; there is no reserved dead wall. Draw, then discard, unless declaring a win or kong.
Recognising groups
A sequence uses three consecutive ranks in the same suit. A triplet uses three identical tiles, a kong four, and a pair two. Sequences cannot wrap from 9 to 1. Honors cannot form sequences. A kong counts as one group and gets a replacement tile.
Calls and winning
Chow only the preceding player’s discard. Pung, kong or win from any player. Wins outrank pung/kong, which outrank chow. If several players claim a win, only the closest player after the discarder wins. Passing a win does not prevent a later win; there is no furiten.
Concealed and added kongs are available after drawing. Any qualifying hand may rob an added kong; only thirteen orphans can rob a concealed kong. The kong is committed after robbery claims are resolved. Kong declarations have no separate payment.
Faan patterns
Minimum 3 faan, maximum 13. Compatible patterns stack unless a replacement is stated. Flower and draw bonuses count toward the minimum.
| Pattern | Faan | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| All chows | 1 | Four sequences and a pair. |
| Dragon pung | 1 | Each pung or kong of dragons. |
| Seat wind | 1 | A pung or kong matching your seat wind. |
| Prevailing wind | 1 | A pung or kong matching the round wind. Both wind bonuses can apply. |
| All pungs | 3 | Four triplets or kongs and a pair. |
| Half flush | 3 | One suit together with honours. |
| Little three dragons | 5 | Two dragon groups and a dragon pair; replaces individual dragon bonuses. |
| Pure flush | 7 | One suit, without honours. |
| Big three dragons | 8 | Three dragon groups; replaces individual dragon bonuses. |
| Little four winds | 10 | Three wind groups and a wind pair. Replaces component suit, wind and all-pung bonuses. |
| All honours / all terminals | 10 | Only honours, or only suited ones and nines. Replaces the component patterns. |
| Limit hands | 13 | Thirteen orphans, nine gates, big four winds, four kongs, heavenly hand or earthly hand. No further bonuses. |
| Self draw | 1 | Draw the winning tile yourself. |
| Kong replacement | 1 | Win on a kong replacement, in addition to self draw. |
| Robbing a kong | 1 | Win from a tile added to an exposed pung. A concealed kong can only be robbed for thirteen orphans. |
| Last tile | 1 | Win on the final draw or its discard. |
| No flowers or seasons | 1 | Your bonus-tile area is empty. |
| Own flower / season | 1 | Each bonus tile whose number matches your seat: East 1, South 2, West 3, North 4. |
| Complete flower / season set | 2 | All four of either category, replacing its own-seat bonus. |
| All eight bonus tiles | 8 | Replaces the other flower and season bonuses; a winning hand is still required. |
Special winning shapes
Thirteen orphans is a closed hand containing every suited 1 and 9 and all seven honors, plus a duplicate of one of those thirteen types. Nine gates is a closed hand with 1112345678999 in one suit plus any extra tile of that suit. Big four winds uses triplets or kongs of all four winds and a pair. Four kongs uses four declared kongs and a pair. These shapes score the 13-faan limit.
Flowers and pattern combinations
Flowers numbered 1–4 match East, South, West and North respectively; seasons use the same mapping. Complete sets replace their own-seat bonus, and all eight bonus tiles replace the other flower bonuses. They never produce an instant win without a qualifying hand.
Little/big three dragons replace individual dragon bonuses. Ten-faan patterns replace component suit, wind, dragon and all-pung bonuses, but may receive flower and draw bonuses. Thirteen-faan limit hands receive no extras.
Heavenly hand means East’s initial winning hand before any kong. Earthly hand wins on East’s first discard, before any kong. No concealed-hand bonus, liability payment, multiple winners, riichi, dora or other regional patterns apply.
Half-laak payments
On a discard win, only the discarder pays the hand value. On self-draw each opponent pays half that value. East has no payment multiplier. Points start at zero and can be negative; they are game points, not money or Riichi ratings.
| Faan | Discarder pays | Self-draw: each pays | Self-draw: total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 8 | 4 | 12 |
| 4 | 16 | 8 | 24 |
| 5 | 24 | 12 | 36 |
| 6 | 32 | 16 | 48 |
| 7 | 48 | 24 | 72 |
| 8 | 64 | 32 | 96 |
| 9 | 96 | 48 | 144 |
| 10 | 128 | 64 | 192 |
| 11 | 192 | 96 | 288 |
| 12 | 256 | 128 | 384 |
| 13+ | 384 | 192 | 576 |
Rated play and clocks
Rated Hong Kong and Sichuan tables play one hand with a 60-second decision clock, with no reserve. The clock keeps running after a disconnect. On timeout, an available win is claimed, optional calls pass, and a legal drawn tile (or the last legal discard) is discarded. Sichuan opening timeouts exchange the first legal same-suit triple and declare the least numerous suit missing. Final hand points decide placement. Each variant has its own rating, starting at 1,500, with 10 provisional games. Casual and local practice never change ratings.
Draws and continuing the table
If the wall is exhausted without a valid win, the hand ends without payment. There is no not-ready penalty. East retains after winning or a wall draw; otherwise the deal moves to the next seat. Four dealer changes advance the prevailing wind.
After each hand all four players ready up to continue, carrying their points forward. Ratings settle separately for each completed hand; there is no fixed match-ending round. Untimed tables wait for a disconnected player when their decision is needed; return with the same account to reclaim your seat. Tables expire after 24 hours without a game action.