American Mahjong Scoring, Without the Card

Every hand on the card has a value printed beside it, and those values change with every new card. What doesn't change is the machinery around them — who pays, who pays double, and what turns a decent hand into a very good one.

Learn the machinery and you'll never have to relearn scoring again. You'll just read new numbers off a new card.

The base number comes off the card

Find your hand's line. There's a value next to it. That's the base, and everything below is a multiplier applied to it.

We don't print those values here, for two reasons. They're specific to the current card, so anything written down goes stale within a year. And they're the League's copyrighted work — the card is what you're buying when you buy a card.

Who pays what

Read it as two questions. Did the winning tile come off the wall or out of somebody's hand? And were there jokers in the hand?

Won on a discard

The player who threw the tile pays double. The other two pay single. This is why a careless discard late in a hand is expensive in a way that has nothing to do with your own cards.

Won on a tile you picked yourself

Everyone pays double. Say "I picked it" when you declare — it's not a boast, it's information the table needs to settle up correctly.

Won via a joker exchange

Counts as self-picked. Everyone pays double. If you can complete your hand by taking a joker off somebody's rack instead of waiting for a discard, that's worth real money.

Won with no jokers at all

One more doubling on top of whatever applied above. A jokerless hand won on your own pick pays the maximum the game allows.

A wrinkle worth knowing

The bonus is judged on what's exposed at the moment you declare. If you had a joker earlier and somebody exchanged it away before you won, you still count as jokerless. You were robbed and rewarded in the same motion.

Getting the number wrong when you declare

You announce what everyone owes. Two rules govern that announcement, and they aren't symmetrical:

• Understate it and somebody corrects you — you still only receive the lower amount you said.
• Overstate it and any player may challenge — the correct value applies.

The lesson is obvious: check the line before you announce anything. Guessing high costs you nothing but credibility, and guessing low costs you actual chips.

When nobody wins

If all four walls run out and no one has declared, it's a wall game. Nobody pays anybody. East rotates and a new game starts.

This happens more than beginners expect. It isn't a failure — sometimes the tiles simply don't come, and four players quietly deciding to defend rather than chase is a perfectly normal way for a hand to end.

Dead hands still pay

If your hand has gone dead, you can't win, but you still pay the winner at the end. This is the mechanical reason behind a piece of etiquette that confuses every new player: you don't announce your own dead hand, and you keep playing.

Since you're paying regardless, the only value you have left is not feeding anybody else. Play defensively, hold dangerous tiles, and say nothing.

Chips, and how much this costs

Values aren't standardised. The host sets them and tells the table before play starts — a common arrangement is four denominations with everyone starting on the same total.

Pen and paper works just as well. What matters is that everyone agrees before the first tile moves, not after somebody wins big.

What to actually take away

Three things, and they'll carry you through every card you ever buy:

• Self-picked beats won-on-a-discard, for you and against everyone.
• Jokerless is worth chasing when you're close, because the bonus is a full doubling.
• The discarder pays extra, which is why what you throw matters as much as what you keep.