This is one of the simplest and furthest variants of the game as far as I know (contenders include the Shenzhen version for simplicity and Sichuan "bloody battles" for inventiveness) that focuses on banker-non banker rivalry and use of wildcards.
(25 September 2018)Corrected where to pick a fortune indicator from.
(27 September 2018)Reverted the way fortune indicator is selected based on several photographed evidences.
(7 October 2018)Added liability rules for claimed win.
(8 October 2018)Added some variations.
(10 October 2018)Added more variations and moved optional liability rules to the variation section.
(14 October 2018)Based on comparison of rules of a competition and online gaming, made the three open set liability only applicable for wins by tiles drawn from the wall, and its application for wins by claiming a variation.
Equipments
- 136 tiles of three suits (characters, circles, bamboos) and honors (four winds and three dragons). The eight flower tiles (four seasons and four flowers) are not used.
- Two dice.
- Poker chips or anything to keep score of each player.
Prior agreement
The players agree on when to finish, how much a point is worth, and maximum amount of loss. Since players do not take turns to become banker (dealer), when to finish playing has to be agreed upon in terms of time. If it is hours long, it is advisable to restart from the seating procedure every hour or so. Since there are no limits for scores of winning hands, it is vitally important to agree on maximum amount of loss, typically 40, 50 or 100, and each player has that amount of poker chips before starting. When a player loses all the chips, he/she does not have to pay anything, no debt is incurred, but he/she can still receive full amount when he/she wins.
Seating
It is taken seriously as a very influential element of players' luck and therefore done in a formal fashion. Its details may differ from one group to another.
One of the players, e.g. the youngest, picks four tiles of east, south, west and north, one tile for each direction, places them face down and shuffles them well.
Another player, e.g. the eldest, throws the two dice, counts himself/herself as one, the player to his/her right as two, and so on counter-clockwise, and who is sitting in the seat of the sum of the two dice draws a tile he/she likes, followed by each player counter-clockwise. Alternatively, the shuffled tile are placed face down in a row, flanked by an odd-numbered and an even numbered tile at each end to determine from which end the tiles are taken. Yet another way is to take a tile at will after the shuffling without throwing the dice. Who picks east remains seated, or moves to the seat chosen as east by any appropriate means. The south player moves to the right of the east, west opposite, and north left.
Building walls
All the tiles are turned face down and shuffled well by the four players. Each player builds a wall of 17 tile wide and two tile high with all tiles facing down. The four walls are placed around the center of the table to form a rectangle, or the right ends are pushed forward to make the shape slightly rotated counter-clockwise.
Banker (庄家)
The first banker is chosen by roll of two dice by the east player. The roll is counted just like when the seats are determined or any other occasions. Alternatively, each player throws two dice and who rolls the highest becomes the first banker. A winner of a hand becomes the banker of the next hand. The banker stays when he/she wins or when a hand ends in a draw.
Breaking a wall
The banker throws two dice and the player in the position of the sum counts the same (the sum) number of stacked pairs from the right end of his/her wall to left and breaks open a gap between the last counted pair and next one. The wall is used clockwise from the gap unlike everything else in the game, that is counter-clockwise. The top tile of the head pair is used before the bottom one, followed by the next pair. Tiles drawn after kong are taken from the tail of the wall, and in the Hangzhou variant, they are used in the real reverse order, i.e., the bottom tile of the tail pair is taken first before the top one.
Deal
Starting from the banker and counter-clockwise, each player takes four tiles at once from the head of the wall in turn, repeated three times to have twelve tiles in hand. The tiles are arranged in a row and placed face down. Then the banker takes first and fifth tile, i.e. top tiles of the first and third pairs from the head of the wall, and each of the remaining three players takes one tile in turn.
After the banker grabs fourteen tiles and the others thirteen, the players turns his/her tiles up for him/her to see and no one else.
Fortune tiles (财神)
A fortune tile is a wildcard and can be substituted for any tile in a winning hand. After the deal, right neighbour of who broke the wall counts as many pairs backward from the tail of his/her wall as the number rolled to break the wall, and flips the top tile of the last counted pair. The face up tile and the one beneath it will not be used in the hand; they are skipped. The face up tile is the "fortune" indicator, the other three identical ones "fortune" tiles, and white dragons face value of the fortune indicator. For example, if the face up tile is 4 Bams, the other three tiles of 4 Bams are "fortune" and white dragons 4 Bams.
Play of tiles
Starting from the banker and counter-clockwise, the players repeat the following in turn until one of the players wins or the hand ends in a draw.
- Unless it is the first turn of the banker who already has one extra tile in his/her hand, the current player draws the first tile of the wall from its head.
- If the player cannot win or does not want to do so, he/she discards a tile in front of him/her. In Hangzhou, unlike many other places in China, discarded tiles are not mixed together and kept separate for each player, arranged neatly in rows, with newer tiles placed after older ones.
Winning hand
A winning hand is either
- an eye and four sets, or
- seven pairs.
An eye or a pair is two identical tiles.
A set is a run, a pung or a kong.
A run is three tiles of a suit in numerical order.
A pung is three identical tiles.
A kong is four identical tiles melded with a kong call.
A player can substitute fortune tiles for any tiles in a winning hand so long as they are not part of open sets or kong.
Chow (吃)
If two tiles in player's hand and a tile just discarded by his/her left side neighbour would be a run when put together, he/she can make an open (or exposed, as opposed to closed or concealed) run from these tiles by saying 'chow', discarding a tile, laying down the two tiles face up to the left of his/her hand, and putting the claimed tile to their left end rotated 90 degrees for easy identification of the three set liability. A player cannot add or remove tiles to or from open runs. An open run cannot contain fortune tiles. An open run can contain a white dragon because it is not a wildcard but is always seen as a tile of the fortune indicator. After a chow, turn moves to the right side neighbour of who has done the chow.
Pung (碰)
If a player has two identical tiles in his/her hand and the same tile is just discarded by any other player, he/she can make an open pung by saying 'pung', discarding a tile, laying down the two tiles face up to the left of his/her hand, and putting the claimed tile to their left or right end rotated 90 degrees if the tile is claimed from the left or right side neighbour, respectively, or the three tiles put together without any tiles rotated when the tile comes from the player sitting across the table.
A player cannot remove tiles from open pung. An open pung cannot contain fortune tiles. An open pung can contain white dragons.
If two players say pung and chow simultaneously, the pung wins over the chow. After a pung, turn moves to the right side neighbour of who has done the pung.
Some play that a player cannot pung an identical tile as he/she missed before his/her turn comes if he/she missed a tile he/she could have pung'ed. A turn is regarded to have come if it is passed by a pung or a kong.
Kong (杠)
A kong requires a 'kong' declaration, melding and drawing a supplementary tile. A set of four identical tiles is not a kong without these actions. There are three different ways to do a kong.
a) closed kong. If a player has four identical tiles in his/her hand and it is his/her turn, he/she can make a kong by saying 'kong' and laying down the four tiles face down to the left of his/her hand.
b) filling (open) kong. If a player has a tile identical to those of his/her open pung and it is his/her turn, he/she can make a kong by saying 'kong' and adding the tile to the pung.
c) direct (open) kong. If a player has three identical tiles in his/her hand and the same tile is just discarded by any other player, he/she can make a kong by saying 'kong', laying down the three tiles face up and adding the discarded tile to them just like an open pung.
After laying down the tiles, the player who is doing a kong draws a supplementary tile from the tail of the wall and discards a tile. Note that, in Hangzhou, the bottom tile is drawn before the top one when one takes a kong supplement tile. A player cannot add or remove tiles to or from a kong, open or closed. A kong cannot contain fortune tiles. One can make a kong of white dragon. If two players say kong and chow simultaneously, the kong wins over the chow. After a kong, turn moves to the right side neighbour of who has done the kong.
Win (胡牌)
If tiles in a hand of a player and those laid down for chow, pung or kong form a winning hand together with another tile, the player can declare win by saying 'hu' (胡), or whatever all the players can understand as such, and revealing his/her hand. A hand ends when a player wins. It is a custom that not only the winner but all the other players reveal their hands.
There are three ways to win:
- an own tile (自摸): a tile to complete the hand is drawn from the wall either from its head or tail, which is not brought into his/her hand but placed beside face up on the table;
- claiming a discarded tile (放冲,点炮): a tile to complete the hand has just been discarded by other player; or
- robbing a kong (拉杠): a tile to complete the hand is about to be added to an open pung in a (failed) attempt at a kong.
A player can always win by his/her own tile.
Win by claiming or robbing a kong is only possible when the banker is staying for three or more hands, and only between the banker and a non-banker. A non-banker can never win by claiming discarded tile or robbing a kong of another non-banker.
There can only be one winner in a hand; when more than one non-bankers declare win by claiming a tile discarded by banker, the one whose turn is closest to the banker is the winner.
A discarded fortune tile can never be claimed for winning.
A player can win by completing a run or a pung containing a fortune tile with a discarded tile or a robbed kong.
A win takes precedence over kong, pung or chow calls.
Some play that a player cannot win by claiming an identical tile as he/she missed before his/her turn comes if he/she missed a winning tile. A turn is regarded to have come if it is passed by a pung or a kong.
Draw
The 10 pairs or 20 tiles will always be left unused in any cases, including the two tiles of the fortune indicator pair. If no one wins when the wall becomes 10 pair/20 tiles long, the hand is a draw and no payments are made for that hand.
Scoring
The winner is paid according to this payout scheme:
- Each non-winner pays a unit to the winner in case of a win by own tile.
- Who discarded the winning tile pays a unit to the winner in case of a win by claiming.
- Payment to or from the banker is doubled when he/she is not staying (平庄,1牢),
multiplied by four when he/she is staying for two hands (2牢), and
multiplied by eight when he/she is staying for three or more hands (3牢).
The score is doubled for any of these conditions. These doubles apply to payments between non-bankers as well as those between banker and non-banker.
- wild eye (暴头) (x2): when the winning hand is an eye calling hand with a fortune tile. Although one can win by any tile, this type of hands can only be won by an own tile and never by claiming or robbing a kong, even when the banker is staying for three or more hands.
- fortune float (财飘) (x2, i.e. x4 including wild eye): when a player has two fortune tiles and four completed sets (or six pairs), declines to win immediately, discards a fortune tile instead, and wins by wild eye in his/her next turn. The other players cannot chow, pung, do open kong, or win by claiming, but they can do closed kong or win by an own tile in their turns right after a forture tile is discarded. The rules is back to the normal when, for whatever reasons, the floating player does not win in his/her next turn. Some plays that the 'floating' player has to wait his/her next turn to win, while some plays that he/she can kong, pung or chow before his/her turn comes provided that he/she can win by kong-bloom or can do another round of fortune float by acquiring a substituted tile by that pung/chow.
- double float (双飘) (x4, i.e. x8 including wild eye): when a floating player obtains a substituted tile or a fortune tile itself from the wall, either by his/her turn or kong supplement, discards it to do another round of fortune float and wins by wild eye. One can mix kong bloom or kong streak before, during or after double float. If floating player is allowed to chow, pung or do an open kong, he/she can keep double float going by discarding another fortune right after that.
- kong bloom (杠开) (x2 for each kong in streak): when a hand is won by a kong supplement tile. This is always deemed as an own tile win. A kong streak is a series of kong without interrupted by other players' turns, i.e. kong by kong supplement. The only exception is fortune float. A kong streak is not broken by fortune float.
- robbing a kong (拉杠) (x2): some allows it when the banker is staying for *two* or more hands instead of the standard of three. It is scored as an own tile win but the player whose kong was robbed is liable for all the payments.
- seven pairs (七对) (x2, x4 without fortune): when the winning hand has seven pairs. Some (many?) play that the extra double for seven pairs without fortune is not awarded in case of win by claiming or robbing.
- deluxe (豪华) (x2 for each): when there are four identical tiles as two pairs in seven pairs. Fortune cannot be used in the four tiles. Kong is not allowed.
Theoretically maximal win is a streak of four kong (x16) and double float (x8) when the banker stays for three hands or more (x8) (三牢四杠双飘), that is 1024 times a unit.
Exceptions to the payout scheme
Three set liability and counter-liability (3摊承包、反承包). When player A does chow/pung/open kong three times from player B, B is liable for all the payments made to A (a three set liability), and A is doubly liable for all the payments to B (a three set counter-liability) if A or B has won by a tile drawn from the wall. Since open sets show who gave discarded tiles, when a player has three open sets of the same shape, it is clear for everyone that the player and another pointed by these sets have liability and counter-liability relationships. When A wins, B pays for himself as well as the other two players. When B wins, A pays his/her due as well as the other two players, everything doubled. When a winner has more than one liability or counter-liability relationships, he/she can receive full amount from each of such relationships. In particular, when A and B do chow/pung/open kong three times each other and one of them wins, the other party is liable and counter-liable, so has to pay three times the total amount.
Robbing a kong (拉杠). If a player wins by robbing a kong, the winning hand is scored as if it were a win by a tile drawn from the wall, but the player whose kong was robbed pays for the other two losers as well as him/herself.
Irregularities
False win. A player declaring a false win has to pay amount he/she intended to receive.
Long/short hand. A player who has too many or too few tiles in his/her hand, e.g. 11, 12, 15 etc, has to keep playing but he/she cannot win.
Variations
Restriction on the three open set liability. Some play that the three
open set liability should only occur between banker and a non-banker,
and prohibit chow/pung/kong between non-bankers that would result in
a liability relationship. Some only prohibit three chows between non-bankers
and allow liability to be estabilished if there is at least one pung/kong
in three open sets. Some apply one of these restrictions only when banker stays
three or more hands. Some do so whenever banker stays. Some disallow more than two chow/pung/kong from same player all the time to avoid complications resulting from different liability practices among different player groups.
Liability for win by a discarded tile. Some apply the three open set liability to win by a discarded tile as well as win by a tile from the wall, so that a player who gave (or received) three open sets to (or from) the winner has to pay the full (or twice the full) amount in addition to the payment by discarding player, who has to pay double or triple if he/she happens to be liable or counter-liable too.
Second half liability of float (财飘后半场承包). If a floating player is allowed to do chow, pung or open kong in a fortune float round, some play that a player who discards chow, pung or open kong tile to keep the float/kong streak going is solely liable for any doubles made after the discarding, while three players have to pay for score made before that.
Permanent fortune (白板财神). Some, on automatic dealing table, do not flip an indicator but make White dragons
permanent fortune tiles. This is done to increase number of fortune tiles
that are main source of higher scoring hands in the game.
Wall-only. Some, mostly in combination with the permanent fortune option,
play that the only eligible form of winning is by drawing a tile from
the wall, either from its head or tail, even when the banker is staying
for three or more hands.
Ten honours (十风). Some play that continuously discarding 10 or more honour tiles
from the start of a hand is a winning condition. Some score 10 tiles as
win by an own tile, 11 wild eye, and so on, while some score 10 tiles as
wild eye. This appears to be used only in online gaming as some say they
have never seen it in real games. There are no consensus on what
happens if a discarded tile is punged or if a player attempting it does
fortune float.
Immediate third time banker. Some play that, mostly in online games,
the banker staying count is immediately brought up to three when
a roll of dice to break the walls meets certain conditions, like
a double or high number.
