Winning Hands

Here are the main categories of winning hands! The majority (over 99%) of the winning hands fall into the categories below.





It is possible that your winning hand can be under more than one of the categories above. When that happens, the scoring points for all the categories involved add up! This is rare and it means more WINNINGS! =)

One point to note is that different groups of people playing Mahjong may accept some other kinds of winning hands as well. An example is winning the game with seven pairs of tiles. Hence, do remember to clarify with your Mahjong friends whether certain winning hands are acceptable before the match. This will avoid misunderstanding and conflict after the game started. However, the categories of the winning hands as shown above form the majority of all possible winning hands!

Refer to them when in doubt! =)

Summary: Majority of winning hand includes Chicken Hand, Common Hand, all Triplets (PONG) hand, Mixed One-Suit Hand, Pure One-Suit Hand and all Honour Tiles Hand 

Improve Your Chance of Winning Mahjong!

Here are a few tips to improve your chance of winning mahjong!

1. Exchange Tiles to increase the probability of winning.

For example, if your hand needs 5 to win, as shown below:

During your turn, you managed to draw a 7. Your hand is shown below:

Now, the question is, which tile to discard to maximise the chance of winning? Should you discard 7 and wait to 5 to game? In this case, drawing a 7 is a huge bonus as it can significantly increase your chance to win! This is provided that you discard the right tile. By discarding 4, you will have a much higher chance of winning!

After discarding 4, your will be left with the following hand,

It is now possible to win by having any of the three following tiles:

The possible winning scenarios are shown below:

 2) When you are waiting for the final tile, try to choose the tile that your opponents are more likely to discard! 1 and 9 tends to be discarded quite easily as they are less useful in forming a sequence group of three.

Summary: To improve your winning chance, discard the tile that will result in you waiting for the highest number of possible tiles and ideally these tiles should also what your opponent are likely to discard! 

Being Alert!

Keeping alert is important for winning the game and not discarding critical tiles that your opponents need for a win! It is not uncommon to play mahjong with your buddies and friends throughout the night! It’s a great way to socialise and have fun! =)

Studies have shown that humans are the least attentive between 3am and 6am in the morning. An interesting point to share is that military attack operations are often carried out during this time where the enemies are most likely to be caught off guard. =p

Will you be caught off guard? Whether or not you are playing overnight, do remember the following few tips and keep alert!    

• When a player discards Terminal tiles and Honor tiles at an early stage of the game, he or she is most likely trying to complete a low-scoring hand quickly. Do not waste your time assembling a high-scoring hand.
  
  
• If possible, do not discard tiles of the same suit that your Lower House is saving and claiming. 
  
  
• When a player has revealed two or more Triplets, he or she is probably trying to assemble an All Triplets (PONG) Hand.
  
  
• When a player has revealed two or more sets of the same suit (with or without Honour tiles), he or she is probably trying to assemble a Pure One-Suit or a Mixed One-Suit Hand.
  
  
• When a player discards Honour tiles late in the game, he or she is probably matching a high-scoring hand.
  
  
• When a player discards tiles of two suits only, he or she is saving the other non discarded suit and the Honour tiles.  

  

Exploiting the characteristics and secrets of suited Mahjong tiles!

Singapore mahjong consists of 148 tiles. Out of these, 108 tiles are suited. (3 different suit, 9 different number of each suit and 4 repetition of each tile). A majority of the tiles are suited and can be used for CHI.  Therefore, it is important for us to understand the characteristics of these suited tiles in order for us to exploit and WIN mahjong! =)

Here is sharing with you guys 2 secrets of suited Mahjong tiles. By inference and understanding the relationship among the suited tiles, we can bring the game to a higher level!

i. Symmetrical relationship

Note that for any suit, it is symmetric about the middle tile which is the number 5. This means that when we are discussing about 1,2, it is equivalent to discussing about 8,9 as the probability and characteristics  are the same.  Similarly, talking about the relationship between 1 and 3, is the same as the relationship between 7 and 9.

Traditionally, the suit can be split into the ‘Smaller’ half and ‘Larger’ half. When we are discussing about the smaller half from one to five, the same reasoning can be applied to the bigger half from five to nine!

 With the symmetrical relationship in mind, we can move on to the secrets in deducing what the opponent does not need. The following analyses are illustrated using the smaller half. The same analyses can be applied to the larger half as well.

1) Adjacent relationship

It is usually safer to throw adjacent tiles from the tile the opponent discard.

Similar logic can be applied to the bigger half. If opponent discards 8, 9 becomes more useless for him and hence, 9 becomes safer for discard.

2) Multiple of 3 relationship (Plus minus 3 rule)

 As a CHI consists of 3 tiles in sequence, there is a relationship between, 147, 258 and 369. From this relationship, we can infer what the opponent does not want. For 456 tiles, which are capable of adding and subtracting 3 from, this rule applies more strongly. For 123789 tiles, which are capable of only adding or subtracting 3 from, this deduction is less valid.

Similar deduction can be made when opponent throws 3789.

Rule of the thumb is that it is safer to discard a tile 3 number away from the tile the opponent discards!!

Summary

1) It is safer to throw adjacent tiles from the tile the opponent discard. The only exclusion is when 5 is thrown

2)    It is safer to throw tiles 3 numbers away from the tile the opponent discard

Note that these are general rules of thumb that might not apply when in certain rare situation, where the opponent still needs the tile that was deemed safe to discard. These cases are rare and by following these general rules of thumb, you can be confident to delay and disrupt your opponents from winning and build your own VICTORY! =)

This saves you money from discarding tiles for opponents to win too! Haha ^^

How to WIN and PLAY Mahjong!

The idea behind mah-jong is simple. It involves just forming groups of three and one pair to win! IT IS THAT SIMPLE. =) (It gets more challenging when you want to play well!  =p)


So, how go about forming groups of three and a pair??

PAIR (2 of a kind)

To win, a pair of the same tiles is needed. This is commonly known as the ‘eye’. (Maybe it is due to a person having a pair of eyes?)

Moving on, a group of three can be formed by either PONG or CHI.

PONG (3 of a kind)

The concept of PONG is easy to understand as well. PONG is having 3 of the same tiles! You can take the PONG from any player who discards! By taking the extra tile from any player, you will have to reveal the completed PONG. (So that others will know that you indeed have a PONG!) Remember to shout out “PONG” happily to disturb the flow of the game as now it becomes your turn. Discard one tile as usual after your turn.

 However, if you draw all the 3 tiles, they can remain hidden.  

Examples of PONG

GANG/KUNG (4 of a kind)

GANG/KUNG is an extended and slightly more ‘powerful’ version of the PONG, where the player has 4 of the same tiles! In this illustration, GANG/KUNG is considered a group of “three” tiles needed for forming the groups of three and a pair for winning. It is slightly more ‘powerful’ as people will have to pay you a small token when u GANG/KUNG. (Obviously, It is a more rare event than PONG!)

Examples of GANG/KUNG

CHI

Another way of forming the group of three is to have a CHI. A CHI is to have 3 suited tiles of the same suit in running order. From example,

Examples of 3 suited tiles of the same suit in running order

How to get the 3 tiles in sequence?  First, you could draw all 3 tiles yourself! These tiles do not need to be revealed =) Second, you can get ‘help’ from the player before you turn. If you have 2 out of the 3 tiles in sequence and the player before you throws out the tile that will complete your sequence, you can take his discarded tile. Reveal your 2 tiles and take his discarded tile and confidently shout out “CHI”! =) Some examples are shown below

 Examples of taking “CHI” from the previous player

Winning the game!

After each turn, each player will be keeping 13 tiles. To win, 14 tiles are needed which consist of the 4 groups of three and a pair!  Where does the extra tile come from? This extra tile comes from (1) any player discarding one tile after every turn (2) drawing of a new tile during your turn.   

When you have gathered the 4 groups of three and a pair, u can WIN! Shout out “HU” and give an ‘evil’ grin to other players. Haha.

Examples of a winning hand

*Note that to win/ “HU” usually a minimum of 1 TAI/FAN is needed. For more information on how to get TAIs/FANs, please refer to  http://en.wikipedia.org./wiki/Scoring_in_Mahjong, which is a decent guide to understand the concept of TAI/FAN and scoring.

Summary: Form 4 groups of three and a pair to WIN! =)

Winning Mahjong Video

Great video on the basics on Mahjong

Mahjong Travel Set. Travel on the go!

Mahjong Travel Set. Travel on the go!

Tiles needed for Mahjong!

Generally, the rules of playing Mahjong in Singapore is similar to that played in other countries such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, US, Japan, China. However, the 2 main differences are in the scoring method and the extra animals tiles. The extra animal tiles of Cat, Rat, Rooster, and Centipede add to the local flavour of the game and provide extra opportunities for a bigger win.

There are three main subgroup of tiles; Suited tiles, Honour tiles and Flower tiles.

Suited Tiles

Suited tiles can be arranged in running order from 1 to 9. This is similar to normal playing cards, where there is ace to ten. However, there are only three suits in Mahjong: circle, bamboo, and character. While in normal playing cards, there four suits: clubs, diamonds, hearts and spaces. There are 4 repetition of each tiles, similar to the normal playing cards.

Honour Tiles

Unlike the suited tiles, the honour tiles cannot be arranged in running order. They consist of wind and dragon tiles.

Flower Tiles

Flower tiles can enhance the winnings collected when the player successfully gamed (HU or calling mah-jong!)