Turn Action
Taiwanese 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 16 tiles forms 5 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.
Flowers and replacement draws
A flower counts as your draw
Reveal it, place it in your flower row, and draw again from the wall — repeating if the replacement is another flower. Any flowers in your opening hand are exposed and replaced before play begins, seat by seat.
Flowers score at the end of the hand
One tai each, two for your own seat's flower — and thirty for collecting all eight (four Flowers and four Seasons, one of each).
The 16-tile hand
Any complete hand may declare a win
You play with sixteen concealed tiles — three more than in the Hong Kong game — and a complete hand is five melds plus a pair, six blocks in all. There is no minimum score: any structurally complete hand, or a recognised special hand, wins the moment it comes together.
The Kong replacement draw
A Kong does not end your turn
Declaring a Kong of any form — claimed, added, or concealed — keeps you the active player: draw a replacement from the wall before discarding. The replacement doesn't advance the turn count, and a flower on it triggers the flower rule again. You can't declare one once the wall is empty — there is no replacement to draw.
The dealer keeps the deal
When the dealer wins, the winds do not rotate
The East seat is the dealer and scores one extra tai on any winning hand. With the dealer-streak option on, a dealer win keeps the deal and the extra game doesn't count toward the round's four. From the second consecutive win a growing streak bonus — three tai, then five, then seven — is added, each loser docked the same amount, until anyone else wins.