Local Hangzhou Mahjong Rules

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Note about this ruleset:

Hangzhou Mahjong (杭州麻将) has many optional rules and local variations. The rules presented in this document represent just one specific configuration among many possible ones. Feel free to adapt them to your group’s preferences.

1. Setup

  • Tiles: 136 tiles (without flowers).
  • Walls: 4 walls of 17 stacks (like in riichi).
  • First dealer: All players roll two dice. The highest roller takes the dealer seat (East); the second-highest takes the seat to the dealer’s right (South), the third-highest takes the seat opposite (West), and the lowest roller takes the seat to the dealer’s left (North). In case of a tie, the tied players re-roll until the tie is broken.
  • Breaking the wall: The dealer rolls the dice.
    • The sum of the dice determines which player’s wall is cut (2 = to the right, 3 = opposite, 4 = to the left, etc.).
    • The smallest die determines the number of tiles to skip before cutting.
    • Example: with a roll of 2+5 = 7, you cut at the player opposite (because 7), and skip 2 tiles (because the smallest die is 2).
  • Dead wall: 20 tiles (i.e. 10 stacks).
  • Discards: they are aligned from left to right, in lines of 6 tiles (like in MCR and riichi).

2. Objective and Valid Hands

To win, you must complete your hand on a self-draw (no ron / win on a discard). The win is announced with hú (和).

A hand is valid if it corresponds to one of the following:

  • Four groups of 3 tiles + one pair (sequences or triplets).
  • Seven pairs.

Thirteen Orphans does not exist in Hangzhou Mahjong.

No notion of yaku/fan: simply having a valid hand is enough to win.

3. Calls

  • chī (吃): maximum 2 exposed calls in front of you.
  • pèng (碰): no limit.
  • gāng (杠): no limit.
    • After a gāng (whether exposed or concealed), the replacement draw works as follows: remove the top tile at the far end of the dead wall from play (e.g., discard it face down in the middle of the table), then draw the tile directly beneath it as your replacement. After this draw, if possible, 2 tiles (one stack) are added to the dead wall to keep it at 20 tiles.
    • A concealed gāng is kept fully hidden in the hand and is only revealed at the end of the hand (like in MCR).
  • Priority: pèng / gāng > chī.
  • Local peculiarity: after making a call (chī, pèng or gāng), it is possible to immediately declare a gāng (concealed or promotion) before discarding. This is a major difference from riichi and MCR, where you must discard immediately.
  • Placement: called tiles are generally placed either behind your hand (closer to you) or in front of your hand (as in MCR). The tile taken from the opponent is turned to indicate its source.

Note: When 20 or fewer tiles remain in the wall, the current player is still allowed to declare a gāng until they either discard a tile or declare a win. The tile they ultimately discard cannot be called by any other player (no chī, pèng, or open gāng).

4. The White Dragon (白) – Joker

The white dragon 白 is no longer an ordinary tile: it becomes a joker that can replace any tile.

  • Example of a valid hand (14 tiles): 123m 5白7m 444p 中中中 東東 → here, the 白 replaces the 6m to form 567m. The hand is valid.

  • Example of a ready hand (13 tiles): 45m 56p 777s 南南南 中中 + 白 → Waiting on 3m, 6m, 4p and 7p.

  • Example of a ready hand with two jokers (13 tiles): 45m 56p 77s 南南南 中中 + 白白 → Waiting on 3m, 6m, 4p, 7p, 7s and 中.

Note: You cannot expose a 白 in a call.

For example, if an opponent discards 北, you cannot expose 北 and 白 from your hand to make a triplet 北北白.

5. Hand Value

Base value

  • If a non-dealer wins:
    • The dealer pays 8.
    • The other two players pay 1 each.
  • If the dealer wins:
    • The other three players pay 8 each.

Multipliers Overview

The following table summarizes all hand multipliers:

Name Value Description of Effect
Three White Dragons ×2 The winning hand contains exactly three 白 tiles. This bonus also applies if you discard one of the three 白 in your hand and win on the next draw.
Four White Dragons ×4 The winning hand contains exactly four 白 tiles (you may declare a concealed gāng of 白). This bonus also applies if you discard one of the four 白 in your hand and win on the next draw.
After a gāng ×2 The win is completed on a replacement tile drawn after a gāng.
White Dragon Pair Wait ×2 The player is waiting on the white dragon pair (i.e., any drawn tile completes the hand, e.g., 123 456 789 中中中 白).
After a White Dragon Discard ×2 The player discards a 白 and wins on their very next draw.
Seven Pairs Pure ×4 A Seven Pairs winning hand that contains no 白 at all (e.g., 11 22 33 44 55 66 7, drawing 7).
Seven Pairs with Joker ×2 A Seven Pairs winning hand that uses a 白 to form one of its pairs (e.g., 11 22 33 44 55 6白 7, drawing 7 to complete the last pair).
Tile Hog ×2 each In a Seven Pairs hand, each set of four identical tiles adds ×2 (e.g., 4477中中中中東東東東 contains two Tile Hogs, so its value is ×4 (base) ×2 (Tile Hog) ×2 (Tile Hog) = ×16).

Note: Tile Hog sets must consist exclusively of natural tiles; the 白 joker cannot be used to form or complete a Tile Hog.

Restrictive rule on discarding 白:

As soon as a 白 is discarded, normal calling is suspended for the rest of that turn: the other players cannot call (no chī, no pèng, no open gāng, and no promoting an already called triplet to a gāng). They must draw a tile and immediately discard it, unless they use it to declare a concealed gāng or a win. They cannot insert the drawn tile into their hand.

Note : If, because of this rule, a player draws and discards a 白, the restriction carries over to the next three players (who must also draw and discard immediately, unless they declare a concealed gāng or a win).

Cumulative effects

All multipliers described in the previous section stack multiplicatively.

You may call multiple gāng in succession during your turn. The multiplier for each replacement draw is applied cumulatively.

The “After a White Dragon Discard” bonus can stack multiple times across consecutive turns. If you discard a 白 and do not win on your next draw, you may discard another 白 on that following turn. This adds another ×2 multiplier to your eventual win.

Note : Declaring any kind of gāng does not interrupt the “After a White Dragon Discard” bonus, nor does discarding a 白 interrupt a gāng chain. Both effects stack freely.

Some examples:

  • Example 1: Valid hand 123 456 789 中中中 白白 (14 tiles). You have two options:

    • declare an immediate win for the base value; or
    • discard one 白, then win automatically on your next turn. → By doing so, you would stack After a White Dragon Discard (×2) and White Dragon Pair Wait (×2). Total: ×2 × 2 = ×4.

  • Example 2: Ready hand 123 456 7白白 中中中 白 (13 tiles). An opponent discards the fourth copy of 中. You call gāng on it, and draw 7 as the replacement tile. Your hand is now 123 456 77白 白白 + 中中中中. You can discard a 白, and win on your next draw (as any tile will complete your hand). → This hand triggers four multipliers: After a White Dragon Discard (×2), White Dragon Pair Wait (×2), Three White Dragons (×2), and After a gāng (×2). Total: ×2 × 2 × 2 × 2 = ×16.

  • Example 3: Ready Hand 11 22 33 44 55 66 白 (13 tiles). You are waiting on any tile, because the lone 白 will pair with whatever you draw to complete a Seven Pairs hand. → This hand stacks White Dragon Pair Wait (×2) and Seven Pairs with Joker (×2). Total: ×2 × 2 = ×4.

6. Payments and Dealer Rotation

Points

Each player starts with a fixed number of points (e.g., 100 points).

  • Example: With a deck of 52 cards, each player takes the 13 cards of the same suit. Cards 1 through 10 are worth their numeric value, and Jacks, Queens, and Kings are worth 15 points each.

Dealer accounting

As long as the current dealer keeps winning, they keep a running tally of the other players’ debts. For each hand won, they put one token aside for each base unit won.

  • Example: if they win a hand worth ×2, they put 2 tokens aside.

For instance, a single token can be represented simply by a card turned face down on the side of the table.

Payment timing

Payments do not happen immediately after each hand, but only when the dealership rotates (i.e. when another player wins). At that moment, before shuffling the tiles, the players must, in order:

  1. Pay the player who just won the hand (for their win).
  2. Pay the outgoing dealer (for the debts accumulated during their winning streak).

If a non-dealer has only very few points left (e.g., 5 points) and the current dealer wins, they know they will go into the negative at the next payment. However, because of the payment order above, they get a reprieve: they can still try to win a hand before the dealership rotates, in order to win back some points, and be able to pay the previous dealer.

Dealer change

The dealer for the next hand is the player who won the previous hand.

If the previous hand ended in an exhaustive draw (no one won), the dealership does not change and the current dealer stays in place.

7. Special events during play

First-Turn Matching Discard Penalty

If, on the very first turn of the game, all four players discard the exact same tile, the dealer must roll both dice and pay the total sum of the two dice to each of the other three players.

However, if the first three players discard the same tile, and the fourth player discards a white dragon 白 instead, then the dealer must pay double that total (i.e. 2× the sum of the two dice) to each of the other three players.

Ten Honors Explosive Head

If a player, from the very start of a hand, consecutively discards 10 unclaimed Honor tiles (i.e. no opponent calls pèng or gāng on any of them), then that player enters a special winning state. Honor tiles include all Winds, Dragons, and the white dragon 白.

While in this winning state, on their next draw, the player may choose to:

  • Declare an immediate win worth ×4 of the base value (regardless of their current hand composition); or
  • Continue discarding Honor tiles. Each additional Honor tile discarded this way adds a ×2 multiplier to their eventual win (e.g., 11 Honors gives ×8, 12 Honors gives ×16, and so on).

The winning state is immediately lost if the player ever discards a non-Honor tile.

8. End of the Game

The game stops as soon as a player goes into the negative (or when you get bored of playing lol).

Last update: 2026-08-13