Awesome video tutorial going over Hong Kong Mahjong scoring! I've been playing Mahjong with basic rules with gai wu as minimum faan with my parents and little sister just for fun and this video really helps to understand all the scoring mechanics!
Thank you! I'm so glad you found it useful and that it can help you the next time you play -- and so happy to hear you play with family -- that's usually who I play with and it's such a great family bonding activity. We have so many stories about past games and successful (and failed LOL) attempts to do high-scoring hands. It's so much fun! :)
The flower adds more versatility to hk mahjong in a sense that it allows u to do “ping wu” (all runs hand) . Consider this: the right flower (1 faan) + all concealed tiles (1 faan) + ping wu (1 faan) = 3 faan hand. if u start the game having all three different suits, with no honour tiles or maybe just one or two honour tiles, no pairs, u are much closer to win the game with ping wu then mixed pure hand.
That's the reason I think to play mahjong with flowers is more reasonable(?) if the minimum faan is three. Reaching 3 faan with no flowers is quite tough.
You can easily lose your shirt and owe Tons of money in a few rounds if you casually sit at a table without knowing the Faan rules. As a rule, Don't play with strangers. If you want to keep those friends. Keep the maximum faans limited and your starting point cost small. For me and my friends/beginners we start at 1 point = 10 cents. (unless if you are rich, then whatever). but keep the max faan small. example, at $1 with a faan of 8, it cost you get $96 ! that is A lot of money for just 1 hand! it can pile up very quickly and painfully. tempers will flair, people might get hurt later. if you keep it at 5 faan, that is 24. still hurts but not as much. Since everyone is just starting out, keep the amount low, otherwise players will get discouraged and not play anymore. we do 1 -> 5 max starting point 10 cents. but our faan is 1,2, 4, 8, 16. it may not cost a lot for the loser, but the pride of being the top loser still hurts. but pride don't cost the wallet much.
Also on the subject of getting higher than an 8 faan hand, starting with 8, self drawn and both your flowers would add 3 faan, then there are things such as winning off the last drawn tile or with a gong (4 of a kind) to add more
In order to score 13 if the maximum faan is 8 you'd have to use flowers and seasons. If you get all flowers and seasons (I've never seen it happen) you get 4 faan. Zi mou would bring you to 5. However, if you your winning tile is a replacement for a flower you get 2 faan. So you could easily get 14. But this might not be a standard set of rules. I'm not sure.
In Riichi, have the stick points: 10,000-point stick, 5,000-point stick, 1,000-point stick and 100-point stick. I have to learn how to calculate for HK style.
13 Faan is confused with 13 Han from the Japanese version. They have Dora and reverse Dora drawn from the dead wall after A Kong call. There's also other bonus Han given when like you have Dora for your wind.
Speaking of maximum faan，it is agreed by all players at the beginning of the game. I usually play with my family with the maximum of 10 faan， the number of faan of some legendary hands like 13 orphans or big 3 dragons, big 4 winds etc. will automatically deemed to bear maximum faan. Subject to the maximum faan, 10 faan is not as rare as we think and usually achieved by 清一式對對糊 Pure hand in all triplets, Pure hand is usually worth 7 faan and all triplets earn 3 faan adding up to 10 faan. If this is achieved by no flowers, concealed hand and/or self-draw, then 10-13 faan is achievable.
Ah! That makes perfect sense! Thank you for commenting and for mentioning the concealed hand (門前清) which is also something you can discuss before you start to play. I think only once did I win with the concealed hand - such a feeling of triumph! 🎉☺️🎉
On the question of 13 fan, (apologies in advance as I only know the english terminology 🙏😅) All one suit 6fan, all pungs 3fan, flower and season tiles of own wind +2, and self drawn winning tile +1. There are other options for coincidental fan such as out on supplemental tile or out on last draw/discard. I've only ever seen someone get 12 fan with these bonuses and I myself have only been lucky enough to get 11 fan with a standard hand arrangement. Happy playing!
Hi and sorry for late reply! I've only ever played with 3 faan for one suit and 3 faan for all pungs, so that's a new one for me to have 6 faan for all one suit. Good job getting to 11 faan -- we usually cap it at 8, but it's fun to count beyond even if we don't count it when playing for money. :)
the sixth thing to be pre-decided I guess is whether playing 辣辣上or半辣上(I don't know the term in English, sorry)，this is extremely important when playing high-stakes games with high maximum faan.
Interesting! My father-in-law was talking about the "laat laat seung" 辣辣上 and "bun laat seung" 半辣上 when we were discussing the money in relation to the faan, but as I rarely play high-stakes games, it kind of went in one ear out the other. :) Thanks for sharing that .... I'll keep an ear out for it in future!
Curious about the player seating and the winds (North/East/South/West tiles), does it matter at all in HK Mahjong? I know in Japanese Riichi Mahjong, if you gather a triplet set of the wind you are sitting on, you get 1 additional faan. (i.e. Sitting on the west wind and gathering 3 west tiles.) Not sure if this is a thing in the HK rule set?
Hi there! It most definitely is a thing! Plus, you will get an extra faan (so a total of two faan) if it is the west round: Basically: 1 extra faan for seat wind 1 faan for round wind Example 1: West Round and you're in the West Seat You get 3 west tiles. You get 1 extra faan for the round You get 1 extra faan for the seat So that's 2 extra faan for just those 3 tiles, which is a nice double. Example 2: West Round and you're in the North Seat: You get three North tiles. You get 1 faan for the seat. That's it! Unless you also get three West tiles and then you can get the extra faan for the round. Hope that helps! 🙌🏻
@@CantoneseCorner Gotcha! The rules are exactly the same as Japanese Riichi Mahjong in this regard then! Which makes sense, as it was originated and adapted from the Chinese rulesets. Thanks for the clarification!
Sue, I like your Cantonese language explanations, clear and very well illustrated. Not so much for your Mah Jong explanations, way too convoluted and making it more confusing than it needs to be.
Can I ask a simple question regarding picking seat? I know the start play is from is east to north. My question is when it is time to pick next round seat, what happens if the seating happens to the same does it mean we have to pick again?
How many points would you give me if I had each of the 4 winds, 1 and 9 of each tiles, wins on a double of 1 or 9. ( not sure if understand what I am saying)
Do you give 1 faan if you win without any exposed cards? When we play max 8 faan, winning discard player pays double or if player pick their own winner everyone plays double
We usually play that if you win without exposing anything it's automatically the highest hand possible, so if max faan is 8, then it would be 8 faan. And same -- winning discard player pays double and everyone pays double on the Ji Mo. And if playing "chùyhn chong" then the winning discard player pays for all players.
No, AFAIK riichi is the only variant that has furiten officially. There might be house rules that include it, though (and of course, you can do whatever you want as long as all players agree).
They are the standard-sized tiles, so I guess that means "middle"? (Sorry, I can't remember if I used middle to describe them in the video. :) My large-sized tiles are a lighter shade of teal.
@CantoneseCorner I make few investigation and China standard high is 32 mm, medium 34 mm. That Sea Foam colors look very nice, is they also call it Opal or what? How it might looks on Red mat 🤔. Riichi set (Large 30 mm high) is coming from France, but i might be buy other China set, without arabic and english. Thank you
so if it's anything like Riichi mahjong fan is like the multiplier. after a certain amount of fan it will just be a baseline points. Chii - x points, pon = x points, "eyes" = x points. Faan x whatever the makeup of your hand (chii, chii, pon, pon) In Riichi after a certain amount of "Faan" it's just a set amount of points. eg starting from 5 Faan 4000/12000 to Yakuman (max value) would be 13 "faan", and is just 16000 (tsumo) /48000 (ron).
Nice when you can get the 清一色加對對糊 .... but I do like saving and trying to get the "specials" to mix in there too ... even if it's not as high-scoring. :)
hi Sue, just saw your interview with Apple and I'm blown away by your understanding of Cantonese and Hong Kong culture, liked and subscribed, 加油!
Thank you! ☺️ And thank you for liking and subscribing! 🙏🤗😁
I was directed by Apple too.
Awesome video tutorial going over Hong Kong Mahjong scoring! I've been playing Mahjong with basic rules with gai wu as minimum faan with my parents and little sister just for fun and this video really helps to understand all the scoring mechanics!
Thank you! I'm so glad you found it useful and that it can help you the next time you play -- and so happy to hear you play with family -- that's usually who I play with and it's such a great family bonding activity. We have so many stories about past games and successful (and failed LOL) attempts to do high-scoring hands. It's so much fun! :)
The flower adds more versatility to hk mahjong in a sense that it allows u to do “ping wu” (all runs hand) . Consider this: the right flower (1 faan) + all concealed tiles (1 faan) + ping wu (1 faan) = 3 faan hand. if u start the game having all three different suits, with no honour tiles or maybe just one or two honour tiles, no pairs, u are much closer to win the game with ping wu then mixed pure hand.
That's the reason I think to play mahjong with flowers is more reasonable(?) if the minimum faan is three. Reaching 3 faan with no flowers is quite tough.
You can easily lose your shirt and owe Tons of money in a few rounds if you casually sit at a table without knowing the Faan rules. As a rule, Don't play with strangers. If you want to keep those friends. Keep the maximum faans limited and your starting point cost small. For me and my friends/beginners we start at 1 point = 10 cents. (unless if you are rich, then whatever). but keep the max faan small. example, at $1 with a faan of 8, it cost you get $96 ! that is A lot of money for just 1 hand! it can pile up very quickly and painfully. tempers will flair, people might get hurt later. if you keep it at 5 faan, that is 24. still hurts but not as much. Since everyone is just starting out, keep the amount low, otherwise players will get discouraged and not play anymore. we do 1 -> 5 max starting point 10 cents. but our faan is 1,2, 4, 8, 16. it may not cost a lot for the loser, but the pride of being the top loser still hurts. but pride don't cost the wallet much.
Thank you for your video. I haven't played for 20 years or more, but starting again now I have retired. So your video is like revision to me.
You can win with heavenly hand, get same flower set with additional both 正確花, and get 自摸 on flower side. Can be any high special like 十三么.
Also on the subject of getting higher than an 8 faan hand, starting with 8, self drawn and both your flowers would add 3 faan, then there are things such as winning off the last drawn tile or with a gong (4 of a kind) to add more
Another great example ... thanks for sharing! :)
In order to score 13 if the maximum faan is 8 you'd have to use flowers and seasons. If you get all flowers and seasons (I've never seen it happen) you get 4 faan. Zi mou would bring you to 5. However, if you your winning tile is a replacement for a flower you get 2 faan. So you could easily get 14. But this might not be a standard set of rules. I'm not sure.
In Riichi, have the stick points: 10,000-point stick, 5,000-point stick, 1,000-point stick and 100-point stick. I have to learn how to calculate for HK style.
11:40 The reason to play with "the discarder pays all" rule.
Thanks for linking to this! My mother-in-law talks about it in the next video (coming soon!), but I wanted to add it in this video, too. :)
kudos to you for this video. you mom-in-law must be proud of you!
Thank you! I love her so much 😍 She's the best.
13 Faan is confused with 13 Han from the Japanese version. They have Dora and reverse Dora drawn from the dead wall after A Kong call. There's also other bonus Han given when like you have Dora for your wind.
Speaking of maximum faan，it is agreed by all players at the beginning of the game. I usually play with my family with the maximum of 10 faan， the number of faan of some legendary hands like 13 orphans or big 3 dragons, big 4 winds etc. will automatically deemed to bear maximum faan.
Subject to the maximum faan, 10 faan is not as rare as we think and usually achieved by 清一式對對糊 Pure hand in all triplets, Pure hand is usually worth 7 faan and all triplets earn 3 faan adding up to 10 faan. If this is achieved by no flowers, concealed hand and/or self-draw, then 10-13 faan is achievable.
Ah! That makes perfect sense! Thank you for commenting and for mentioning the concealed hand (門前清) which is also something you can discuss before you start to play. I think only once did I win with the concealed hand - such a feeling of triumph! 🎉☺️🎉
On the question of 13 fan, (apologies in advance as I only know the english terminology 🙏😅)
All one suit 6fan, all pungs 3fan, flower and season tiles of own wind +2, and self drawn winning tile +1. There are other options for coincidental fan such as out on supplemental tile or out on last draw/discard. I've only ever seen someone get 12 fan with these bonuses and I myself have only been lucky enough to get 11 fan with a standard hand arrangement. Happy playing!
Hi and sorry for late reply! I've only ever played with 3 faan for one suit and 3 faan for all pungs, so that's a new one for me to have 6 faan for all one suit. Good job getting to 11 faan -- we usually cap it at 8, but it's fun to count beyond even if we don't count it when playing for money. :)
Hi there.. nice to meet u today… this is jack from the test centre today. Have a great trip 🙏🏻👍🏻
Hello Jack, you were so helpful today. I was with Sue when she came! 👋🏻
Hi Jack! I'm sorry I missed seeing you later that afternoon. Thanks for all your help and hope you're enjoying the videos on my channel! :)
the sixth thing to be pre-decided I guess is whether playing 辣辣上or半辣上(I don't know the term in English, sorry)，this is extremely important when playing high-stakes games with high maximum faan.
Interesting! My father-in-law was talking about the "laat laat seung" 辣辣上 and "bun laat seung" 半辣上 when we were discussing the money in relation to the faan, but as I rarely play high-stakes games, it kind of went in one ear out the other. :) Thanks for sharing that .... I'll keep an ear out for it in future!
Hello new to mahjong 🀄 i was wondering where did you purchase your set it would be highly appreciated for the info thanks and Merry Christmas
I always score 雞糊and my friends don't play with me anymore :)
it is really abuse the game
Tell me your secret, or you are just lucky!
You are good of the mahjong game. I don’t even know how to calculate the 番！😉😃
I owe it all to my mother-in-law! 💖
Curious about the player seating and the winds (North/East/South/West tiles), does it matter at all in HK Mahjong? I know in Japanese Riichi Mahjong, if you gather a triplet set of the wind you are sitting on, you get 1 additional faan. (i.e. Sitting on the west wind and gathering 3 west tiles.) Not sure if this is a thing in the HK rule set?
Hi there!
It most definitely is a thing!
Plus, you will get an extra faan (so a total of two faan) if it is the west round:
Basically:
1 extra faan for seat wind
1 faan for round wind
Example 1:
West Round and you're in the West Seat
You get 3 west tiles.
You get 1 extra faan for the round
You get 1 extra faan for the seat
So that's 2 extra faan for just those 3 tiles, which is a nice double.
Example 2:
West Round and you're in the North Seat:
You get three North tiles.
You get 1 faan for the seat.
That's it!
Unless you also get three West tiles and then you can get the extra faan for the round.
Hope that helps! 🙌🏻
@@CantoneseCorner Gotcha! The rules are exactly the same as Japanese Riichi Mahjong in this regard then! Which makes sense, as it was originated and adapted from the Chinese rulesets. Thanks for the clarification!
Love all of your video!💛💛💛
Thanks so much! I'm going to be making more soon! :)
@@CantoneseCorner 😛 can’t wait
Sue, I like your Cantonese language explanations, clear and very well illustrated. Not so much for your Mah Jong explanations, way too convoluted and making it more confusing than it needs to be.
Thanks! I'm going to try and do a shortened version with just the basics and see if I can't make it clearer. :)
Can I ask a simple question regarding picking seat? I know the start play is from is east to north. My question is when it is time to pick next round seat, what happens if the seating happens to the same does it mean we have to pick again?
prob do a chicken hand to prevent someone else who may have some ridiculous hand and you just got scraps to work with.
Mahjong is so fun,but must spend a little bit more time to learn it~
Learn it AND play it! Best way to learn is to play :D
@@CantoneseCorner 😆👍Exactly~
Where did you get your tiles? I can’t find a set with that same light green color.
Maybe it is an old set, I had one in the 80s/early 90s. I don't know where it is now.
Well explained
How many points would you give me if I had each of the 4 winds, 1 and 9 of each tiles, wins on a double of 1 or 9. ( not sure if understand what I am saying)
Thank u .. ❤😊
Do you give 1 faan if you win without any exposed cards? When we play max 8 faan, winning discard player pays double or if player pick their own winner everyone plays double
We usually play that if you win without exposing anything it's automatically the highest hand possible, so if max faan is 8, then it would be 8 faan. And same -- winning discard player pays double and everyone pays double on the Ji Mo. And if playing "chùyhn chong" then the winning discard player pays for all players.
Does the “furiten” rule also apply in Hong Kong mahjong like in Riichi?
No, AFAIK riichi is the only variant that has furiten officially. There might be house rules that include it, though (and of course, you can do whatever you want as long as all players agree).
What size those tiles are in video? Middle or Large? Thank you.
They are the standard-sized tiles, so I guess that means "middle"? (Sorry, I can't remember if I used middle to describe them in the video. :) My large-sized tiles are a lighter shade of teal.
@CantoneseCorner I make few investigation and China standard high is 32 mm, medium 34 mm. That Sea Foam colors look very nice, is they also call it Opal or what? How it might looks on Red mat 🤔.
Riichi set (Large 30 mm high) is coming from France, but i might be buy other China set, without arabic and english. Thank you
there's flowers and seasons
Hihi, you are very keen on Cantonese Mahjor🀄🎲.
Yes I am! Gotta keep my mind active and dementia away (plus it's just so much fun :) !
The 6th thing is side bet 🤣 to guess who win in order to relief the degree of lose 😂
🤣🤣🤣
Great Vid ! From your Friend at Simply Mac
Hey there! Thanks for watching and commenting! And for all the help the other day! :) Hope you can make it to Hong Kong someday! 🙏🇭🇰🤞
Faan. Meaning. Points. Is tht right?
so if it's anything like Riichi mahjong fan is like the multiplier. after a certain amount of fan it will just be a baseline points.
Chii - x points, pon = x points, "eyes" = x points.
Faan x whatever the makeup of your hand (chii, chii, pon, pon)
In Riichi after a certain amount of "Faan" it's just a set amount of points. eg starting from 5 Faan 4000/12000 to Yakuman (max value) would be 13 "faan", and is just 16000 (tsumo) /48000 (ron).
according to wikipedia sap sam yiu is 13 fans
清一色加對對糊，混對最常做
Nice when you can get the 清一色加對對糊 .... but I do like saving and trying to get the "specials" to mix in there too ... even if it's not as high-scoring. :)
@@CantoneseCorner 可選擇混腰九，例如1，9萬/筒/索加翻子，幾好玩，又多變化
Hi Sue long long time no see
Hi there! I know 😅 .... I'll be trying to post more often ... and play more often! :)
👍👍👍
Thank you! 🙏🙏🙏
三番起糊十番爆，羅jackpot 以前成日玩
I hope watching these videos will inspire you to play again! (if in fact you mean you don't play anymore).
@@CantoneseCorner play mahjong need to more times, at least play 8 round above. Ha Ha , now I haven’t to play 2years
You play MJ !! MJ is mah Jong
Hi nice to meet you 😉
Hi! Nice to meet you too! :)
@@CantoneseCorner
Queen of Canton Mahjong LOLs
If everyone speaks Mandarin, that's not HK! 請繼續支持香港語🙏💪
I will! 🤗🙌🏻💞💪
I’m Cantonese and I’ve never played mah Jong before lol
Don't wait any longer!! It's so much fun. :)
I got to let my English-speaking kids watch it. :)
I hope it helps! :)
我從來都無玩!😁
It's never too late to start! :)
I not one sey