New Three-Player Mahjong of Northwestern Hubei

It is a young regional variant, called 卡五星 or 卡五心, meaning gap call of a 5, created in late 2000’s and spread rapidly to the northwestern quadrant of the Hubei province. It combines simple classical gameplay with speed of three player variations.

Preliminaries

Number of (active) players: 3. Winner of previous hand is taken over by resting player when four play.
Equipments: 84 tiles of two suits (remove one of Characters, Bams or Dots) and Red, Green and White dragons; two dice
Prior agreement: Players have to agree on how much a unit is worth, number of hands to play or duration of game, and any optional rules.

Seating

Seats are determined by any appropriate means (i.e. random). It is generally considered to deeply influence elements of luck and done in more or less formal way. It is advisable to change seats after agreed upon number of hands are played.

Deal

The tiles are turned face down and shuffled well by all the players. Each player, then, builds a wall of fourteen tile wide and two tile high in front of him/her. Who ranked first in the seating rolls two dice, count the sum of the pips starting from him/herself as one and counter-clockwise, and who sits in the position of the sum becomes the first banker. In subsequent hands, winner of previous hand is the banker, or the loser when there are two winners. The banker stays if a hand ends in a draw.

The banker rolls two dice and a wall is chosen just like the first banker. The player behind the wall counts number of stacked pairs from the right end as one and until the rolled sum clockwise, and opens a gap between the last counted pair and the next one. The wall is, unlike everything else in the game, used clockwise from the gap during a deal and a game. Kong supplement tiles are taken from the other end the gap. Either on the head or the tail, a top tile of a pair is used before a bottom one. Starting from the banker and counter-clockwise, each player grabs two stacked pairs of four tiles from the head of the walls in turn, repeated three times to have twelve tiles in hand. Then each player picks a tile in turn, and the banker takes one extra tile to finish the deal.

Each player turns his/her tiles up for him/herself to see and not anyone else, and (optionally) arranges them in suits.

Objective

The objective of the game is to win some money by winning hands and making kong’s. In order to win a hand, a player has to make

• one pair and four sets, or
• seven pairs

with his/her tiles in hand, pung's and kong's, and

• a tile draw from the wall, either as his/her first action of his/her turn, or as a kong (explained later) supplement,
• a tile just discarded by another player, or
• robbing a tile from a kong.

A pair is two identical tiles.
A set is

• a run of three tiles of the same suit (e.g. 1-2-3, 6-7-8),
• a three identical tiles, or
• a kong (four identical tiles melded with a kong declaration).

Normal turns

Unless it is first turn of the banker who already has one extra tile, a player draws a tile from the head of the walls, and if his/her hand does not meet winning condition, or he/she does not want to win yet, discards a tile face up in the center area of the table. Discarded tiles are placed rather haphazardly so that one has to remember who discarded what and when. Turn moves to right player (i.e. counter-clockwise) after discarding.

Pung

If a player has two identical tiles and a same tile is just discarded, he/she can make a set by

• saying 'pung' for the other players to hear,
• turning the two tiles face up, taking the discarded tile, and putting them together in front of his/her hand, or to its left or right, and
• discarding a tile from his/her hand.

The pung call must be the first action, and the rest can be done in any order. It is a good manner to do the discarding first so that the other players can continue playing as soon as possible. A turn of player (if any) between the discarding player and who called the pung is skipped. Turn moves to right player of who called the pung after the discarding. Tiles cannot be taken away from a pung.

Kong

There are three different ways to do a kong: direct, growing and closed.
a) direct kong
If a player has three identical tiles and a same tile is just discarded, he/she can make a set by

• saying 'kong' for the other players to hear,
• turning the three tiles face up, taking the discarded tile, and putting them together in front of his/her hand, or to its left or right,
• drawing a supplement tile from the tail of the walls, and
• discarding a tile from his/her hand.

b) growing kong
If a player has a pung and draws a same tile from the wall (either from the head or the tail), he/she can make a set by

• saying 'kong' for the other players to hear,
• placing the tile just drawn face up together with the other three,
• drawing a supplement tile from the tail of the walls, and
• discarding a tile from his/her hand.

c) closed kong
If a player has four identical tiles in his/her hand and it is his/her turn, he/she can make a set by

• saying 'kong' for the other players to hear,
• laying the four tiles face down in front of his/her hand, or to its left or right,
• drawing a supplement tile from the tail of the walls, and
• discarding a tile from his/her hand.

Four tiles of a closed kong are shown to the other players when current hand ends.

A turn of player (if any) between the discarding player and who called the kong is skipped. Turn moves to right player of who called the kong after the discarding. Tiles cannot be taken away from a kong.

An attempt at growing a kong can be robbed by another player calling for the same tile to win. This form of winning is called 'robbing a kong' and the attempted kong is deemed unsuccessful.

There are some additional rules for kong:

• when a player has three identical tiles, he/she must do a direct kong; he/she cannot do a pung and save the other tile to do a growing kong later;
• a player cannot do a closed kong during a turn started by his/her own pung; and
• a player cannot do a kong when there is no supplement tiles left in the walls.

Kong payment

A player who has made a successful kong is paid immediately.

• a direct kong: 2 units from the discarding player
• a growing kong: 1 unit from each of the other players
• a closed kong: 2 units from each of the other players

The amount is doubled by number of uninterrupted sequence of preceding kong's if a kong is made from a supplement tile or discarded tile of another kong. The payment will not be cancelled by any events, be it a win by another player, a draw, or irregularity like long or short hands.

Winning a Hand

A player can win a hand if his/her hand forms a pair and four sets or seven pairs, and either it contains at least one of doubling patterns or it is won by a tile drawn from the wall. A player must tell the others that he/she wins (any words understood as such by all players do), laying his/her hand face up to be examined by all.
A win takes precedence over a pung or a kong. Two players can claim a discarded tile or rob a kong to win at the same time. If a player missed a winning tile, he/she must wait until his/her own turn or it is passed by a pung or a kong, unless his/her hand scores higher than win by the missed tile. If there is no winner when all the tiles in the walls are used, it is a draw.

Pay out scheme

If it is a valid win, number of doubles are counted and the unit is doubled by that times to calculate the score of the hand. When different set of patterns can be counted in a hand, highest scoring one should be used. Maximum number of doubles is usually set to 3 (x8) and any higher doubles are ignored. Some make an exception for Double Dragon Seven Pairs and score it as four doubles (x16).
If a hand is won by claiming a discarded tile or robbing a kong, the player who discarded the tile or whose (attemped) kong is robbed pays the amount to the winner. If it is won by a tile from the walls either from the head or the tail, each of the other two players pays the amount.

One Double (x2)

• All Pung (碰碰胡): all sets are three or four identical tiles.
• Fit Five (卡五星): game’s namesake, a win by 5 with 4 and 6 in hand to complete a run of 4-5-6.
• Open Four in One (明四归一): a win by the same tile as three tiles in a pung. The fourth tile can be something other than the winning tile if the winning hand contains Pure One Suit or higher doubling pattern.
• Bloom on Kong (杠上开花): a win by a kong supplement tile. It can be combined with another bloom on Kong when the kong is made from a kong supplement tile (kong on kong).
• Claimed on Kong (杠上炮): a win by a discarded tile of a kong. It does not combine with Bloom on Kong even when the claimed tile is discarded after a kong on kong.
• Robbing a Kong (抢杠胡)
• Disclosure (亮倒): when winning player has played with his/her hand laid open for others to see after he/she was ready (one turn away from winning). Some players disclose all of his/her tiles, while some do only calling part. A player cannot discard tiles from his/her hand after disclosing it. First disclosing player has to pay each of the others a unit when a hand ends in a draw. It is scored as if it is won by a tile drawn from the walls even when it is won by claiming, and claimed player pays on behalf of all.
• Fishing the Bottom (海底捞): a win by drawing the last tile in the walls. It does not apply to the last discarded tile.

Two Doubles (x4)

• Pure One Suit (清一色): a winning hand made solely from tiles of one suit.
• Seven Pairs (七对)
• Lone Tile (手抓一): a winning hand with four pung's and calling for a pair with only one tile in hand.
• Lesser Three Elements (小三元): two sets of dragons and a pair of the remaining one.
• Closed Four in One (暗四归一): three identical tiles in hand (in any ways but a pung; for example, a set, a pair plus another in a run, etc) and winning by the remaining one. The fourth tile can be something other than the winning tile if the hand contains Pure one suit or higher doubling pattern.

Three Doubles (x8)

• Greater Three Elements (大三元): three sets of dragons.
• Dragon Seven Pairs (龙七对): seven pairs where two pairs are four identical tiles. It does not combine with Closed Four in One.

Four Doubles (x16)

• Double Dragon Seven Pairs (双龙七对): seven pairs where four pairs are two sets of four identical tiles. It does not combine with Closed Four in One.