Hu Mahjong 4-2 Player Rules

Used with kind permission of China Online Museum.

Hu Mahjong is a simple, fast-paced 4 player mahjong variant designed to scale to 3 and 2 player settings while remaining competitive. It emphasizes value creation and impeccable defense.

Key Points

• No set dead wall length; game draws the moment any player's discard pond reaches a certain length, notwithstanding calls made (18 in 4 player, 20 in 3 player, 22 in 2 player).
• Hands are valued by the patterns they exhibit. A hand with no observable pattern is not eligible for a win.
• Other players pay equally in the event of a self-draw win, regardless of their seat wind.
• Discarder pays entirely.
• Sacred discard (furiten) observed. Discards are arranged neatly in players' individual ponds. If they've discarded any tile that can complete their hand (obtaining their desired pattern or otherwise), a player is barred from winning by discard and can only win by self-draw.
• Flowers need not be declared immediately.

Setup

• All tiles in a standard set are used. Flowers are optional, but recommended.
• Starting points are 30000 in 4 player, 35000 in 3 player, and 40000 in 2 player.
• North seat omitted in 3 player. North and West seat omitted in 2 player.
• Chow call is always available towards the player to your left (or your only opponent in 2 player).

Payout Scheme

• Win by self-draw: ×1 base points from other player(s)
• Win by discard (4/3/2 player): base points ×3/×2.5/×2
• Ready hand at exhaustive draw: 1000 from player(s) with no ready hand(s)
• Heavy penalty (for game-ruining errors): 4000 to other player(s)
• The dealer's winning hand is awarded bonus 100 base points for each repeat in their dealership (this bonus does not carry over to the next round).
• Upon reaching a dealer's eighth repeat, everyone's winning hands are awarded 4000 more base points. The seat winds rotate regardless of the hand's outcome.
• Patterns can stack freely across categories. However, patterns supersede those in the same category that they already imply (e.g. Two Pure Sequences Twice stacks with All Sequences despite always going hand-in-hand, but Two Pure Sequences Twice supersedes Two Pure Sequences and are never scored together).
• Hand scores are limited to 8000 base points. That said, there exist rare double to quadruple limit hands. Only the most valuable one is scored in the unlikely event of multiple limit hands occurring together.

List of Patterns

Basic Patterns

All Sequences (平和; píng hú): 500
🀋🀌🀍 🀙🀚🀛 🀒🀓🀔 🀖🀗🀘 🀂🀂

All Simples (断么; duàn yāo): 500
🀈🀉🀊 🀠🀠🀠 🀛🀜🀝 🀕🀖🀗 🀚🀚

Fully Concealed Hand (门清; mén qīng): 500
Only scored when won by self-draw. Concealed quads are allowed.

Sequences

Two Pure Sequences (一般高; yī bān gāo): 500
🀇🀈🀉 🀇🀈🀉

Three Pure Sequences (一色三同顺; yī sè sān tóng shùn): 4000
🀇🀈🀉 🀇🀈🀉 🀇🀈🀉

Four Pure Sequences (一色四同顺; yī sè sì tóng shùn): 20000 (quadruple limit)
🀇🀈🀉 🀇🀈🀉 🀇🀈🀉 🀇🀈🀉

Pure Straight (一气通贯; yī qì tōng guàn): 2000
🀇🀈🀉 🀊🀋🀌 🀍🀎🀏

Two Pure Sequences Twice (两般高; liǎng bān gāo): 3000
🀇🀈🀉 🀇🀈🀉 🀝🀞🀟 🀝🀞🀟

Triplets

All Triplets (对对和; duì duì hú): 2000
🀈🀈🀈 🀕🀕🀕 🀁🀁🀁 🀆🀆🀆 🀒🀒

Three Concealed Triplets (三暗刻; sān àn kè): 2000

Four Concealed Triplets (四暗刻; sì àn kè): 8000 (limit)

Quads

One Quad (一杠; yī gàng): 500
🀑🀑🀑🀑
Not a valid winning pattern on its own.

Two Quads (二杠; èr gàng): 2000
🀑🀑🀑🀑 🀔🀔🀔🀔

Three Quads (三杠; sān gàng): 4000
🀑🀑🀑🀑 🀔🀔🀔🀔 🀍🀍🀍🀍

Four Quads (四杠; sì gàng): 20000 (quadruple limit)
🀑🀑🀑🀑 🀔🀔🀔🀔 🀍🀍🀍🀍 🀅🀅🀅🀅

Honors

Value Triplet (箭刻; jiàn kè/圈风刻; quān fēng kè/门风刻; mén fēng kè): 500 each
🀀🀀🀀
A triplet of dragons/prevalent wind/seat wind. Stacks with itself when prevalent wind and seat wind coincide.

Little Three Dragons (小三元; xiǎo sān yuán): 3000
🀄︎🀄︎🀄︎ 🀆🀆🀆 🀅🀅
Stacks with the two instances of Value Triplet.

Big Three Dragons (大三元; dà sān yuán): 8000 (limit)
🀄︎🀄︎🀄︎ 🀅🀅🀅 🀆🀆🀆

Little Four Winds (小四喜; xiǎo sì xǐ): 12000 (double limit)
🀀🀀🀀 🀁🀁🀁 🀂🀂🀂 🀃🀃

Big Four Winds (大四喜; dà sì xǐ): 16000 (triple limit)
🀀🀀🀀 🀁🀁🀁 🀂🀂🀂 🀃🀃🀃

All Honors (字一色; zì yī sè): 12000 (double limit)
🀀🀀🀀 🀂🀂🀂 🀃🀃🀃 🀅🀅🀅 🀄︎🀄︎

Terminals

Half Outside Hand (全带么; quán dài yāo): 3000
🀐🀑🀒 🀍🀎🀏 🀀🀀🀀 🀅🀅🀅 🀇🀇
Every tile group contains either a terminal or honor.

Fully Outside Hand (純全带么; chún quán dài yāo): 4000
🀐🀑🀒 🀍🀎🀏 🀙🀚🀛 🀡🀡🀡 🀇🀇
Every tile group contains a terminal.

All Terminals and Honors (混老头; hún lǎo tou): 4000
🀇🀇🀇 🀏🀏🀏 🀘🀘🀘 🀃🀃🀃 🀄︎🀄︎

All Terminals (清老头; qīng lǎo tou): 12000 (double limit)
🀇🀇🀇 🀏🀏🀏 🀐🀐🀐 🀘🀘🀘 🀙🀙

Suit-based

All Types (五门齐; wǔ mén qí): 500
🀛🀜🀝 🀍🀍🀍 🀔🀕🀖 🀀🀀🀀 🀅🀅

Half Flush (混一色; hún yī sè): 3000
🀐🀐🀐 🀒🀓🀔 🀓🀔🀕 🀃🀃🀃 🀄︎🀄︎

Full Flush (清一色; qīng yī sè): 4000
🀐🀐🀐 🀒🀓🀔 🀓🀔🀕 🀖🀖🀖 🀗🀗

All Green (绿一色; lǜ yī sè): 12000 (double limit)
🀑🀒🀓 🀓🀓🀓 🀕🀕🀕 🀗🀗🀗 🀅🀅
Hand consists only of green tiles.

Nine Gates (九莲宝灯; jiǔ lián bǎo dēng): 16000 (triple limit)
🀇🀇🀇🀈🀉🀊🀋🀌🀍🀎🀏🀏🀏 + any in the same suit
Concealed only.

Consecutiveness

Three Consecutive Triplets (三节高; sān jié gāo): 4000
🀝🀝🀝 🀞🀞🀞 🀟🀟🀟

Four Consecutive Triplets (四节高; sì jié gāo): 8000 (limit)
🀝🀝🀝 🀞🀞🀞 🀟🀟🀟 🀠🀠🀠

Parallelity or Two Colors

Parallel Sequences Twice (双喜临门; shuāng xǐ xiāng féng): 2000
🀇🀈🀉 🀐🀑🀒 🀋🀌🀍 🀔🀕🀖

Parallel Triplets Twice (两双同刻; liǎng shuāng tóng kè): 4000
🀚🀚🀚 🀈🀈🀈 🀝🀝🀝 🀋🀋🀋

Three Colors

Three-color Sequences (三色三同顺; sān sè sān tóng shùn): 2000
🀋🀌🀍 🀔🀕🀖 🀝🀞🀟

Three-color Triplets (三同刻; sān tóng kè): 4000
🀍🀍🀍 🀖🀖🀖 🀟🀟🀟

Irregular Hands

Seven Pairs (七对; qī duì): 2000
🀕🀕 🀘🀘 🀈🀈 🀝🀝 🀟🀟 🀅🀅 🀆🀆
Concealed only. Must be seven unique pairs.

Seven Consecutive Pairs (连七对; lián qī duì): 8000 (limit)
🀙🀙 🀚🀚 🀛🀛 🀜🀜 🀝🀝 🀞🀞 🀟🀟
Concealed only.

Thirteen Orphans (十三么; shí sān yāo): 8000 (limit)
🀇🀇🀏🀐🀘🀙🀡🀀🀁🀂🀃🀄︎🀅🀆
Concealed only.

Eight Immortals (八仙过海; bā xiān guò hǎi): 8000 (limit)
🀢🀣🀤🀥 🀦🀧🀨🀩
Either:

• Declare 8 flowers.
• Declare 7 flowers and reach exhaustive draw with the last one being in the dead wall. (Note: Since not immediately declaring flowers is legal, should the last one be in the possession of another player, Eight Immortals is not scored and the game is drawn.)
• Declare 7 flowers and have someone declare the last one. Considered as winning by discard.
• Declare 6 flowers, have someone declare the 7th, and explicitly draw the last one from the wall within the next go-around. Considered as winning by discard.

All Terminal and Honor Discards (么九池; yāo jiǔ chí): 4000
Reach exhaustive draw having only discarded terminal and honor tiles, none of which were called by other players.

Luck-based bonuses

The following bonuses associated with lucky events qualify any hand for a win, even paternless ones.

After a Kong (杠上开花; gàng shàng kāi huā): 1000, 500 after a flower
Completing the hand with the replacement tile after declaring kong or a flower. The bonus stacks with each consecutive instance.

Robbing the Kong (抢杠; qiǎng gàng): 1000
Completing the hand with a tile an opponent used to extend a called triplet into a quad.

Winning on the Last Draw/Discard (海底捞月; hái dǐ lāo yuè): 1000

Blessing of Heaven (天胡; tiān hú): 8000 (limit)
Available to the dealer; forming a complete hand with their initial 14 draws.

Blessing of Earth (地胡; dì hú): 8000 (limit)
Available to non-dealers; forming a ready hand with their initial 13 draws, and completing it with their first draw. Blessing of Earth is denied when a call is made by a preceding player.

Non-winning Bonuses

Flower Tile (花牌; huā pái): 100
🀢

Flower Set (花杠; huā gàng): 1000
🀢🀣🀤🀥
Must either be a set of flowers or a set of seasons.

Scoring Example

🀇🀈🀉 🀐🀑🀒 🀙🀚🀛 🀟🀠🀡 🀡🀡 🀦 (opened)

Fully Outside Hand (4000) + Three-color Sequences (2000) + All Sequences (500) + Flower (100) = 6100 basic points

• Win by self-draw (4/3/2 player): 18300/12200/6100
• Win by discard (4/3/2 player): 18300/15250/12200

Wind Rotation and Winning the Game

The seat winds rotate whenever:

• A non-dealer wins a hand.
• The dealer does not have a ready hand at exhaustive draw.
• The dealer's eighth repeat concludes.

Otherwise, everyone retains their current seat wind and a repeat is played.

After each player has had a chance to be the dealer, a new round begins with the next prevailing wind.

The player with most points by the end of the South round wins. In 2 player, the last dealer can win the game outright if they are in the lead and win one hand.