How to Keep Score in Mahjong
Every mahjong group ends up asking the same two questions: who owes whom, and who is actually the best player at this table? This guide shows three simple ways to keep score (paper, spreadsheet, app), what changes between Hong Kong, HK-Taiwanese, American and Riichi mahjong, and the one check that catches nearly every mistake. There is a free printable score sheet at the bottom.
Keep score in a free room →No sign-up. Open a room, share the link, and anyone at the table can log the game.
Why groups keep score
Mahjong scoring has two layers. The first is working out what a winning hand is worth: faan in Hong Kong mahjong, tai in Taiwanese, the card value in American Mah Jongg, han and fu in Riichi. The second is keeping score: writing down who won and lost what, hand after hand and night after night. This guide is about the second layer.
- Settling up. At the end of the night everyone wants one number: what they won or lost. A running total gets you there without anyone rebuilding the evening from memory.
- Standings. Groups that play every week soon want to know who is top this month, this term or this year. That needs the nights to add up into one record.
- Fewer arguments. A written score settles "I paid you for that hand already" in seconds, and it makes mistakes visible while the tiles are still on the table.
Whatever method you use, the layout is the same: one column per player, one row per hand, and a running total.
Method 1: a paper score sheet
Paper is the quickest way to start and needs no phone at the table. Draw a column for each player, write each hand's result as a plus or minus, and keep a running total beside it. Here is what four hands look like:
| Hand | Alex | Sam | Mia | Joe | Check |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (Alex wins off Sam's discard) | +16 | -16 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Running total | 16 | -16 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 (Sam self-draws) | -8 | +24 | -8 | -8 | 0 |
| Running total | 8 | 8 | -8 | -8 | 0 |
| 3 (Mia wins off Joe's discard) | 0 | 0 | +32 | -32 | 0 |
| Running total | 8 | 8 | 24 | -40 | 0 |
| 4 (Joe self-draws) | -12 | -12 | -12 | +36 | 0 |
| Final | -4 | -4 | 12 | -4 | 0 |
The amounts are only an example. Use whatever your table's payout rules give.
Tips that make paper work:
- One scorekeeper per table. Rotate the job each night if nobody wants it every week.
- Write the result before the tiles are shuffled. Once the wall is broken, nobody can check the hand again.
- Add the check column. If the four results do not add to zero, fix it now, not at midnight.
- Photograph the sheet before it leaves the table, so the record survives a lost bag.
Where paper struggles is the long run. Each sheet is one night. Working out who is top over a term means copying every sheet into something else, and that is usually where groups move on to a spreadsheet or an app.
Method 2: a spreadsheet
A shared spreadsheet (Google Sheets, Excel, Numbers) gives you automatic totals and a record that lasts. A simple layout:
- Column A: date. Columns B to E: one player each. Column F: check.
- One row per hand (or one row per night, if you only record final totals).
- Check column, row 2:
=SUM(B2:E2). It should always show 0 for Hong Kong or Taiwanese scoring. - A totals row at the top:
=SUM(B3:B1000)under each player.
Spreadsheets work well for one fixed table of four. They get awkward when the group grows: new players need new columns, people sit out some nights, two tables play at once, and someone has to be the person with edit access who types everything in. Rankings like average per game or win rate need extra formulas every time a player joins.
Method 3: a score tracker app
A score tracker does the spreadsheet's job without the upkeep. Mahjong Logbook is free and needs no sign-up. You create a room, share its link in the group chat, and anyone with the link can log a game from their phone. Here is what it does, and what it does not:
- Hand by hand or final totals. Score each hand at the table, or enter the night's final win or loss per player afterwards.
- Three styles in rooms. Hong Kong (Cantonese) and HK-Taiwanese, both with a zero-sum check, and American Mah Jongg, where each player's score stands on its own.
- Standings build themselves. The leaderboard, trends and each player's history update after every game. Head-to-head analysis is part of Pro.
- Sized for a club. A free room holds up to 10 active players. Pro is per room, USD 12.99 a month or USD 7.99 a month billed yearly, for unlimited players and head-to-head. See pricing.
For groups with more than one table a week, the mahjong club score tracker page shows how a club runs on one shared room.
Scoring notes by variant
The score sheet looks the same everywhere. What goes into each cell depends on the variant you play.
Hong Kong (Cantonese) mahjong
A winning hand is counted in faan, and the faan turns into a payout according to your stake and doubling rule. Most tables need 3 faan to win. Who pays depends on how the hand was won: off a discard, the discarder pays (in full, or half with the other two paying a quarter each, depending on your table); on a self-draw, all three pay. Every hand is zero-sum.
Look up the faan in the Hong Kong mahjong scoring table, then the amount in the Hong Kong mahjong payout table. In a Mahjong Logbook room you can pick the winner and the faan, and the payout is worked out from your table's settings.
HK-Taiwanese (16-tile) mahjong
A hand pays a base amount (底) plus a fixed amount per tai (番值) for each tai scored, with extra for the dealer and for dealer repeats. Many tables also play a carry-over settlement (拉) between hands. Like Cantonese, every hand is zero-sum. The full rules and the tai table are in our HK-Taiwanese mahjong guide (in Chinese).
American Mah Jongg
Each hand on the year's card has a value, and your group decides how wins are paid and what extras apply: self-drawn wins, jokerless hands, wall games, penalties for a wrong call. Some groups track money, others just add up points. Because house rules differ so much, American scores often do not balance to zero, and that is fine.
Mahjong Logbook records the score your group awards. It does not include card content, does not validate hands and is not affiliated with the National Mah Jongg League. More on the American mahjong score tracker page.
Riichi (Japanese) mahjong
Riichi is scored with point sticks. Everyone starts with the same stack, commonly 25,000 points, and hands pass points between players. At the end of a game, final scores are adjusted with uma (a bonus for placing high and a penalty for placing low) and often oka. Track the final adjusted scores per game and add those up over a season.
To be plain about it: Mahjong Logbook rooms do not support Riichi. Only tournament mode takes Riichi, where you enter each table's final scores after the round.
The zero-sum check
In Hong Kong and HK-Taiwanese mahjong, the money or points never leave the table. Whatever the winner gains, the others lose. So the four results of every hand, and the four totals of every night, must add up to exactly zero. Riichi works the same way in a different form: the four raw scores always add up to the starting total, and the final results after uma and oka add up to zero.
That gives you a free error check. If a row adds to anything other than zero, someone wrote down the wrong amount, paid the wrong player, or forgot a hand. In the example above, every hand and the final row sum to 0, so the night balances.
- Check each hand, not just the night. A mistake is much easier to find while everyone still remembers the hand.
- Mahjong Logbook enforces it for Cantonese and HK-Taiwanese games: a game that does not sum to zero will not save.
- American Mah Jongg is the exception. Scores there can be positive, negative or zero for every player, so there is no zero-sum check.
Printable mahjong score sheet
A free sheet for 4 players and 16 hands. Write each hand's result in the +/- column and the running total beside it; the check column should read 0 on every row. It prints on one landscape page, with the rest of this page left out.
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mahjonglogbook.com · free mahjong score tracker
Running a tournament instead? Use the printable tournament score sheet (in Chinese), with one sheet per table per round.
Skip the totting up
Paper is fine for one night. For a group that plays every week, Mahjong Logbook keeps the whole record in one shared room: anyone logs the game from their phone, the zero-sum check runs for you, and the leaderboard and each player's history stay up to date. Free for up to 10 active players.
Start a free room →No sign-up. Running a club? See the club score tracker.
FAQ
What is the easiest way to keep score in mahjong?
Write each player's win or loss for every hand in one column per player, keep a running total under it, and check that every hand adds up to zero. That works on paper, in a spreadsheet or in an app. The hard part is not the maths but keeping one record the whole group trusts, so pick one person or one shared link and stick to it.
Do mahjong scores have to add up to zero?
In Hong Kong (Cantonese) and HK-Taiwanese mahjong, yes: every dollar or point one player wins, someone else loses, so each hand and each night should sum to zero. American Mah Jongg groups often score each player independently, so their totals do not have to balance. In Riichi the four raw scores always add up to the starting total (100,000 when everyone starts on 25,000), and the final results after uma and oka add up to zero.
Can I play mahjong for points instead of money?
Yes. Many clubs play for points only and use the same payout tables, just without settling up at the end. Write the points down exactly as you would the money and the standings work the same way.
Is there a printable mahjong score sheet?
Yes. This page has a free printable score sheet for 4 players and 16 hands with running totals and a zero-sum check column. Use your browser's print button or the Print this sheet button. For tournaments there is a separate printable tournament score sheet (in Chinese).
Does Mahjong Logbook work for Riichi mahjong?
Not in the regular rooms. Rooms record Hong Kong (Cantonese), HK-Taiwanese and American Mah Jongg. Riichi is only supported in tournament mode, where you enter each table's final scores after the round.
Does Mahjong Logbook score American Mah Jongg hands for me?
No. It does not read the card, validate hands or work out what a hand is worth. Your group decides the score and enters it; Mahjong Logbook keeps the totals, history and leaderboard. It is not affiliated with the National Mah Jongg League.
More guides: how to start a mahjong club, how to run a ladder or season league, and the Cantonese mahjong glossary for unfamiliar terms.