How Mahjong Scoring Works: Faan and Points Explained

Mahjong scoring has a reputation for being complicated, and the reason is simple: there are many versions. Japanese Riichi, Hong Kong, Chinese Official and American Mahjong all score differently. This guide explains the most widely played family, Hong Kong style faan scoring, which is also how the Hong Kong and Chinese Classic tables on this site count points. A short section at the end compares the other systems.

The basic idea

When a player completes a winning hand, you look at the hand’s features. Each feature is worth a number of faan (often written fan). Add them up, look the total up in a table, and the losers pay the winner.

Three things to remember:

1. Only the winner’s hand is scored. Losers do not score their own tiles.
2. Faan add up, then convert to points that grow quickly.
3. Many tables set a minimum, often 3 faan, below which you cannot declare a win.

Common scoring patterns

These are the features you will meet most often. Values follow the scoring table used on this site; house rules elsewhere vary a little.

Feature	Faan
Self-drawn win (you draw the winning tile yourself)	1
Concealed hand (no exposed sets)	1
All chows (four runs and a pair)	1
Pung of any dragon (each)	1
Pung of your seat wind	1
Pung of the round wind	1
Win on a kong replacement tile	1
Win on the last tile of the wall	1
No flowers, or your own flower (each)	1
All pungs	3
Half flush (one suit plus honours)	3
Seven pairs	4
Small three dragons	5
Small four winds	6
Full flush (one suit only)	7
Big three dragons	8
All honours	10
Big four winds, thirteen orphans	13 (limit)

Features combine. A concealed, self-drawn half flush with a dragon pung is 1 + 1 + 3 + 1 = 6 faan.

The minimum: why 3 faan matters

With a 3-faan minimum, a fast hand of mixed chows with nothing special does not count. You must plan for value from the start. The easiest routes to 3 faan are:

• a half flush: collect one suit and any honours (3 faan on its own);
• all pungs (3 faan on its own);
• dragon and wind pungs combined with a concealed or self-drawn win.

When your opening tiles lean heavily toward one suit, the half flush is usually the most reliable target.

From faan to points

Faan convert to points through a table in which values roughly double at first and then climb more slowly. This is the table used on this site:

Faan	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13
Points	1	2	4	8	16	24	32	48	64	96	128	192	256	384

Scores are capped at 13 faan, the limit: however many features a hand has, it cannot be worth more.

Who pays

Payment depends on how the hand was won:

• Won on a discard: the player who discarded the winning tile pays double the points; the other two players pay the points once.
• Self-drawn: all three players pay double.

So a 3-faan hand (8 points) won on a discard collects 16 from the discarder and 8 from each of the others, a total of 32. The same hand self-drawn collects 16 from each player, 48 in total. This is why careful players avoid discarding tiles that might complete an opponent’s valuable hand.

How scoring changes strategy

• Build value early. With a minimum, you need features from your opening tiles. Count your honours and suits before your first discard.
• Keep the hand concealed when you can. Concealed hands earn an extra faan, and so does a self-drawn win.
• Defend against big hands. If an opponent has exposed two pungs of dragons, the third dragon is a dangerous discard.
• Do not chase limit hands blindly. A realistic 4-faan hand that wins beats a 13-faan dream that never finishes.

How other styles score

Style	How hands are valued
Hong Kong / Chinese Classic	Faan for features; minimum and limit vary by table
Japanese Riichi	Han (from scoring patterns called yaku, plus bonus tiles) and fu (from sets and waits), looked up in a table
Chinese Official	A long list of fixed patterns with set point values and an 8-point minimum
American	Each hand on the yearly card has a fixed value, usually 25 to 50; self-drawn and jokerless wins earn bonuses

If you play American Mahjong, see our American Mahjong guide and printable scorecard for card notation and point values.

Practise the scoring

The 4-player tables on this site do the arithmetic for you and show every faan item when someone wins. Play a few hands of Hong Kong Mahjong with its 3-faan minimum, then try Chinese Classic, which has no minimum, and you will quickly see how the scoring rule changes the way everyone plays.