Turn Action
Hong Kong Mahjong Turn Actions – Draw, Discard, Chow, Pung & Kong
On your turn
- 1Draw
Take a tile from the wall — or claim the previous discard to make a meld (see below).
- 2only if it's a Flower or SeasonSet aside & redraw
Bonus tiles go to your flower row; draw a replacement from the wall.
- 3Discard
Place one tile face-up in the centre. Your turn ends — unless someone claims it.
Claims beat the next draw. Priority:
Other players may claim your discard before the next player draws — and a Chow can only be claimed from the player to your left.
Melds
A meld is a set of tiles removed from your hand and placed face-up in front of you. There are four types:
Chow
33 consecutive tiles of the same suit
e.g. 4-5-6 Bamboo. Claimed only from the player to your left. Cannot be formed with honour tiles.
Pung
33 identical tiles
e.g. three East Wind tiles. Can be claimed from any player's discard.
Kong
44 identical tiles
Declaring a Kong earns a bonus draw. Three forms: Claimed (discard + 3 in hand), Added (4th drawn onto existing Pung), Concealed (4 in hand, placed face-down).
Eye
22 identical tiles
Every winning hand needs exactly one pair as the "eye". The pair stays concealed and is never declared during play.
Winning
You win when your hand of 13 tiles forms 4 melds + 1 pair, or matches a recognised special hand. You win by either:
Self-pick
Drawing the winning tile from the wall yourself.
Discard win
Claiming another player's discarded tile to complete your hand.
The 13-tile hand
Four melds plus a pair
The Hong Kong game deals thirteen concealed tiles, and a complete hand is four melds plus a pair — one meld fewer than the Taiwanese sixteen-tile hand. The flow of a turn is otherwise the same: draw, then discard, with Flowers and Seasons revealed and replaced the moment they are drawn.
The three-faan minimum
A hand below three faan cannot win
Below the floor the rules refuse the win, even when the tiles form a perfect four-melds-and-a-pair shape. Keep building until a scoring pattern — a Half Flush on its own, or a dragon Pung combined with others — lifts it over the line.
Scores cap at the limit
However big the hand, scoring stops at the thirteen-faan limit.
Robbing the Kong
The fourth tile can be robbed
When an opponent promotes an exposed Pung to a Kong by adding the fourth tile, it passes through a claim window: if it completes your hand you may rob the Kong and win on it.
The replacement draw pays more
If nobody robs, the Kong player keeps the turn and draws a replacement from the wall — winning on it is worth two faan, and winning on a second consecutive replacement draw is worth nine.
Self-pick vs discard payouts
Self-pick: all three pay the base
Self-pick is itself worth one extra faan, and every opponent pays the base amount for your faan total.
Discard: the thrower pays double
Only the player who threw the tile pays — at double the base; the other two pay nothing. The base doubles every two faan, from eight coins at three faan up to the thirteen-faan limit.