Fuzhou mahjong rules

The set 牌

This game uses 128 tiles: three suits of 1 to 9, four of each, plus four of each wind and four 中. No flower or season tiles, and no green (發) or white (白) dragon: here the winds and 中 are the bonus tiles, the 花.

The gold 金

After the deal, one tile is flipped from the wall, the face-down stack the tiles are drawn from. That copy stays face up and out of play. Its other three copies are the golds: wild in any set or the pair, +1 each in a winning hand, and marked gold wherever they appear. A gold can never be discarded, called or used in a gang.

Hold all three at once, at the deal or later, and Hu is offered: take it for three golds, 三金, +30, or play on. While you hold all three, any win you make is 三金, and no other special counts.

If your dealt hand is one tile from a win, you can take the flipped tile as a wild before play starts: robbing the gold, 抢金, +30. The dealer, holding 17, swaps one tile out for it instead.

Bonus tiles 花

Winds and 中 never sit in a hand. Whenever you draw one it goes face up beside you and you draw again. Each one is +1 when you win. The table does this for you.

Calls 叫

Hu beats Gang, Gang beats Peng, Peng beats Chi. If two seats call Hu on the same discard, the one closest after the discarder takes it. After a Chi or Peng you can't discard a copy of the tile you just called. Golds in your hand never count toward a call. Called a Chi or Peng on a tile you could have won with? Hu stays open until you throw.

The last 16 tiles are set aside at the deal and never drawn. Of the rest, the discard that leaves four can still be called. After that, those last four are draw only: each seat in turn draws one, wins on it or the turn moves on. No discards, no gangs.

Winning 胡

Five sets and a pair. You hold 16 tiles between turns; the 17th, drawn or claimed, completes the hand. A gang is four tiles but counts as one set, so each gang adds a tile to the total. Golds fill any gap. Win by self-draw or on a discard. Winning is never forced: you can pass on a Hu and play on.

The dealer 庄

The dealer starts with 17 tiles and discards first. Play passes to the right: the seat after the dealer draws next, so the seat on your left plays just before you, and a Chi comes only from there. When the dealer wins, or the wall runs out, the dealer keeps the seat and the streak grows by one; otherwise the seat passes to the next player and the streak resets.

When the drawable wall is gone (the 16 set aside stay out), the hand is a draw: no points change hands.

Scoring 分

Add up the first four lines, double that if the win was self-drawn or has a special, then add the special's points on top. Special points are never doubled, and they never stack: when more than one applies, only the highest counts. The one exception is 三金: holding all three golds, the win pays 三金's points and nothing else. A self-drawn hand with one gold, no bonus tiles and no gang: (1 + 1) × 2 + 15 = 19.

The specials: 平胡 is a win with no bonus tiles and no gang; 金对 has two golds as the pair and no gold inside a set; 清一色 is every tile in one suit, and a gold of any face never breaks it.

Each of the other three players loses that many points, and the winner gains them. Points are not money. The hand-over screen shows the breakdown every time.