| Hand size | 13 tiles |
|---|---|
| Winning shape | Four sets and a pair |
| Scoring | Faan, doubling into the limit |
| Minimum | Three faan to declare a win |
| Signature | The three-faan minimum, and 連莊 |
Hong Kong mahjong is the fast, sharp, widely-played 13-tile game — four sets and a pair — and it is scored in faan. Faan are counted from the patterns in your hand, and then they double: each faan roughly doubles the base points, up to a ceiling called the limit at thirteen faan.
That doubling is what gives Hong Kong its character. The gap between a cheap hand and a good one is not incremental — it is exponential.
The three-faan minimum
This is the rule that surprises people, and it is the one most mahjong apps get wrong. A structurally complete hand is not necessarily a winning hand. If your hand is worth fewer than three faan, you cannot go out with it. You sit there, complete and unable to declare, and keep building.
It is called 三番起糊 — three faan to start a win — and it forces real ambition. You cannot grind out cheap hands in Hong Kong mahjong; you have to chase a flush, or pungs, or a dragon.
Most apps either ignore this rule or, worse, silently refuse your win without telling you why. More Mahjong tells you: when your hand is complete but short, it says so in plain language, names your current faan count, and suggests what would get you over the line.
Honours, flowers and 連莊
Winds and dragons build ordinary triplets and kongs here. Only flowers and seasons are set aside, and they score at the win rather than paying immediately. A winning dealer keeps the deal — 連莊, the same continuation as the Taiwanese game.
Settlement is the simplest in the family: a self-drawn win collects from all three seats, a win on a discard is paid by the discarder alone. No dealer surcharge, no per-streak bonus.
What the app enforces
- Faan from a documented table, every value verified against the standard reading
- The three-faan minimum, at every single point a win could be offered or claimed — so the computer opponents are held to it too
- A plain-English explanation whenever a complete hand is short of the minimum
- Faan doubling into base points, capped at the limit
- Thirteen Orphans (十三么) as a special hand
- 連莊 dealer continuation and the rotating round wind
The in-hand counter shows an honest floor — what your hand is worth right now from exposed honours and flowers — never a projection of what it might become.
