The short answer
Mahjong is one game with many rule sets, and each one values a winning hand its own way. This page covers four of the best known: American, Japanese Riichi, Hong Kong (Cantonese) and Chinese Official.
Find your style below and learn how it prices a hand. Then write down what each player wins or pays, hand by hand. The running total shows who is ahead.
We have full scoring pages, each with a worked hand and a free printable sheet, for American Mahjong and Riichi Mahjong. We don't have a sheet for Hong Kong or Chinese Official yet, so for those we point you to the best free rules we found.
Which mahjong is yours
| What you'll notice | A hand is valued in | The least that wins | Go next | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| American | A card of hands, bought new each year, plus jokers and the Charleston | The value printed on the card | Any hand on this year's card | How to score American Mahjong |
| Japanese Riichi | Point sticks, riichi bets, no flowers or jokers | Han and fu | One yaku | How to score Riichi Mahjong |
| Hong Kong | Flowers and seasons, no card, hands counted in faan | Faan, which double into points | Usually 3 faan | Wikipedia's Hong Kong scoring rules |
| Chinese Official | Tournament rules with a list of 81 named scoring patterns | Fan, worth 1 to 88 points each | 8 points, not counting flowers | The Mahjong Competition Rules |
American Mahjong
How to tell. Someone at your table buys a new card from the National Mah Jongg League every year, and a hand can only win if it matches one of the hands printed on it. Only American mahjong uses a card. The set has eight jokers, and before play everyone swaps tiles in the Charleston.
How it scores. The card gives each hand its value, from 25 to 50 in Tom Sloper's guide. The other three pay the winner. On a discard, the player who threw the winning tile pays double and the other two pay the value once. On a tile the winner drew, all three pay double. A hand made with no jokers, and announced as jokerless, doubles every payment again, except on Singles and Pairs or Quints hands.
Where next. How to score American Mahjong settles a hand step by step and has a free printable score sheet.
Japanese Riichi
How to tell. Each player starts with the same stack of point sticks: 30,000 under the European Mahjong Association's rules (Wikipedia gives 20,000 to 30,000 as the usual range). A player waiting on one last tile can call riichi and bet a 1,000-point stick. The set has 136 tiles, with no flowers or jokers, and you'll hear words like yaku, dora, ron and tsumo.
How it scores. A hand needs at least one yaku, a named scoring pattern, to win. Its han and fu set its price from a table, and from 5 han up a limit takes over: a mangan pays 8,000, or 12,000 when the dealer wins. On a ron (a win on a discard), the discarder pays it all. On a tsumo (a win on a tile you drew), all three pay a share. Under EMA rules, at the end of the game you take the 30,000 start off every score and add a bonus by place, the uma.
Where next. How to score Riichi Mahjong has the limit hands, a hand added up, the uma and a free printable sheet.
Hong Kong (Cantonese)
How to tell. The set is the common one of 144 tiles: three suits, winds, dragons, and four flowers and four seasons that score as bonus tiles. There is no card and there are no jokers. Players count a hand in faan, and most tables won't let a hand win with fewer than 3.
How it scores. Add up the hand's faan. Points double with each faan, so 3 faan is 8 points, 4 is 16 and 5 is 32 (some tables slow the doubling after 4 faan). The limit is 13 faan, and many tables cap it lower, at 8 or 10. Who pays is a table rule. In one version, the player who threw the winning tile pays it all. In another, that player pays half and the other two split the rest. On a tile the winner drew, all three pay. Agree on yours before the first hand.
Where next. We don't have a Hong Kong score sheet yet. Wikipedia's Hong Kong mahjong scoring rules lists what each pattern is worth and sets out the payment tables, and Tom Sloper's Hong Kong mahjong FAQ explains how hands are counted. Both are free.
Chinese Official (MCR)
How to tell. Also called the Mahjong Competition Rules, or MCR, these are tournament rules first published in China in 1998. A hand is scored from a list of 81 named patterns, called fan, and it must be worth at least 8 points to win. The set has 144 tiles, flowers included.
How it scores. Each fan is worth from 1 to 88 points. Add up every fan in the winning hand. Flowers add 1 point each, but they don't count toward the 8. Everyone else then pays the winner 8 points, and the hand's points come on top: from the discarder alone on a discard, or from all three on a tile the winner drew. A full game is four rounds (East, South, West and North), and everyone deals once in each.
Where next. We don't have a Chinese Official score sheet yet. The World Mahjong Organization's Mahjong Competition Rules (the 2006 English edition) describe all 81 fan and are free to read online, and Tom Sloper's Chinese Official scoring FAQ shows how they add up.
Still not sure
- There's a card on the table: American.
- Players keep score with point sticks and call riichi: Japanese Riichi.
- Someone says a hand needs 8 points: Chinese Official.
- Hands are counted in faan, usually 3 to win: Hong Kong.
- None of these: there are many more regional styles, among them Taiwanese, Singaporean and Shanghai, each scored its own way. Wikipedia's Scoring in Mahjong covers several.
Keeping the score, in any style
The sheet looks the same in every style: a column for each player, a row for each hand, and in each box what that player won (plus) or paid (minus). Add the rows as you go, and the running total shows who is ahead. Our American and Riichi pages each have one ready to print.
In Tabletales, the Scorepad keeps the same running total. Leave it on Highest wins, switch to By hand, and type what each player won or paid in each hand. You work out each hand's value at the table, and the Scorepad adds up the payments. Then save the night with who played and a photo of the table.
Sources
All checked on 30 October 2026.
- The National Mah Jongg League: the current card, sold by the League
- Tom Sloper's FAQ 19, American Mah-Jongg: hand values, who pays double, the jokerless bonus, where jokers can't go
- Wikipedia: American mahjong: eight jokers, the Charleston, payments
- The European Mahjong Association's 2025 riichi rules: 136 tiles with no flowers or jokers, the 30,000 start, riichi bets
- Wikipedia: Japanese mahjong scoring rules: yaku, han and fu, mangan, starting points
- Wikipedia: Hong Kong mahjong scoring rules: the 3 faan minimum, doubling, the 13 faan limit, who pays
- Tom Sloper's FAQ 17, Hong Kong Mahjong: faan and limit hands
- Wikipedia: Mahjong: the 144-tile set, the Chinese Official rules of 1998
- Mahjong Competition Rules, World Mahjong Organization, 2006 English edition: 81 fan, the 8-point minimum, flowers, payments, four rounds
- Tom Sloper's FAQ 22, Chinese Official Scoring Explained: payments and the 8-point minimum
- Wikipedia: Scoring in Mahjong: other regional styles
If something here is wrong, tell us at admin@tabletales.gg and we will fix it.
