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How Does Scoring Work in American Mahjong? Who Pays What

· 6 min read

Every hand on the card has a value printed next to it. If you win on someone's discard, she pays you double that value and the other two players pay it once. If you draw your winning tile yourself, all three pay double. A hand with no jokers doubles everything again.

All of it fits on an index card. It just doesn't feel that way the first time three women turn to you, chips in hand, and ask what they owe.

Where does the value of a hand come from?

From the card. Every line has its own number, and that number is your starting point for everything else. Read the value of the exact hand you completed, not the one you were aiming for an hour ago.

For the examples below we'll use a hand worth 30. Round numbers make the math friendlier, and you have enough going on.

Who pays what when you win off a discard?

The player who threw your winning tile pays double. The other two pay the printed value.

With a 30 hand:

It can feel a little rough on the discarder, especially if she threw the tile early and innocently. That's just the rule, and it rotates. Next time it'll be you, and she'll be very gracious about collecting.

What if you draw the winning tile yourself?

Everyone pays double. The rulebooks call this self-picked.

With a 30 hand:

It's the most satisfying way to win, partly for the money and partly for the little moment of turning over a tile you pulled yourself. Don't let it tempt you into passing up a perfectly good discard, though. The payout chart tells you what a win is worth. It can't promise the tile you need is still in the wall.

Does a joker exchange count as self-picked?

Yes. If the last thing you do before declaring is redeem a joker from an exposure, yours or anyone else's, the win counts as self-picked and everybody pays double. The player whose joker you took doesn't pay extra. Our guide to how a joker exchange works covers the timing so you pull it off legally.

How does the jokerless bonus work?

If your finished hand has no jokers in it, the payments double again. That's how the math gets to four times the printed value.

Jokerless, won off a discard, with a 30 hand:

Jokerless and self-picked, with a 30 hand:

Two details worth knowing. First, it's the finished hand that counts. If one of your exposures held a joker earlier and someone swapped it out with a real tile, you can still end up jokerless at mahjong, and the bonus applies. Second, hands from the Singles and Pairs section don't get the jokerless bonus. Jokers aren't allowed in those hands at all, so the card already builds that into their value. They still get the self-pick double, though. There's more on those hands in our guide to playing a singles and pairs hand.

Do concealed hands pay double?

No. There's no separate bonus for playing concealed. The card already prices the difficulty into the printed value, which is why concealed lines tend to carry bigger numbers. Take that value and apply the same self-pick and jokerless rules as everyone else. If you're weighing whether a concealed hand is worth it, our concealed hand guide goes through the tradeoff.

Does a player with a dead hand still pay?

Yes. A dead hand stops playing, but it doesn't stop owing. If someone wins, a player whose hand was declared dead pays the same as everyone else. Our dead hand guide explains how hands end up there.

What happens if nobody wins?

Nothing changes hands. When the wall runs out without a winner, it's a wall game, and nobody pays anybody. Some groups keep a kitty or their own running tally, so ask how yours does it. The wall game guide has the rest.

When does someone pay for the whole table?

Occasionally a mistake makes one player responsible for paying four times the hand's value. The rulebooks call this paying for the table. It comes up in a few specific error situations, and our post on misnamed tiles walks through the most common one. You won't need it often. It's still nice to know the phrase when someone says it.

If your table plays with a fifth person betting from the sidelines, the bettor guide covers how she's paid.

Do you have to play for money?

No. Chips and a pen and paper work exactly the same way. Everyone starts with the same number of chips or points, and the winner collects using the same math. Plenty of tables play for pride and a dish of M&Ms. The payouts still matter, because they tell you which hands are worth chasing.

When you win, you're the one who announces the total. The others check your hand against the card, you say the number, and everyone pays. If math under pressure isn't your favorite thing, keep a little cheat sheet in your card holder. Nobody will think twice about it.

American mahjong scoring, in one list

The number that actually matters

You don't have to be fast at scoring. You have to be right about it once per win, and the table will happily wait while you count.

The part that sticks with you over time is how the bonuses nudge your choices. A jokerless line starts looking tempting. A joker exchange starts looking like a win you can plan. That's when the game gets a little deeper, and a lot more fun. When you're ready for more, our how-to-play guide is a good next stop.