Playing Mahjong for Points, Not Money: A Points System for Clubs

Lots of mahjong clubs, university societies and café meetups play without money, and plenty of venues would not let them do anything else. Playing for points keeps the game exactly as tense and the standings just as worth arguing about. This guide sets out a points system you can adopt as it is or adapt: Hong Kong faan turned into points, simpler flat scoring, points for American Mah Jongg, zero-sum or independent scores, and how to turn a run of club nights into a season with prizes that are not cash.

No sign-up. Scores show as plain numbers, so they read as points.

Why clubs play for points

Can you play mahjong without money? Of course. The game is the same game; only the thing being counted changes. Clubs choose points for a few practical reasons.

• Beginners can join in. Nobody wants to pay to learn. With points, a new player can lose every hand on their first night and still come back next week.
• Students and mixed groups. Societies have members on very different budgets, and many students' unions do not allow gambling at society events. Points put everyone on the same footing.
• The competitive edge stays. A visible leaderboard gives every hand something to play for. Players care about being top of the table at least as much as about small stakes.
• It suits venues. Cafés, libraries, community centres and students' union rooms are far happier hosting a points-only club.
• Everyone can see the scores. Points can be shared in the group chat and kept for a whole season without anyone feeling awkward about it.

Hong Kong mahjong points system (chart)

Hong Kong (Cantonese) mahjong already has a scoring system: you count the faan in a winning hand, and faan turn into a payout that grows as the hand gets bigger. To play for points, keep the system and drop the dollar sign. The chart below uses the same steps as the most common Hong Kong table, 二五雞 with half-doubling (半辣上), a 3-faan minimum and a 10-faan cap, from our payout table.

• Discard win. The player who threw the winning tile pays the whole amount. This is "discarder pays all" (全銃), the most common rule. Some traditional tables play "discarder pays half" (半銃): the discarder pays half and the other two pay a quarter each, so on a 5-faan hand the discarder pays 12 and the others 6 each.
• Self-drawn win (自摸). Nobody threw the tile, so each of the other three pays half, and the winner collects one and a half times the value.
• Limit hands such as Thirteen Orphans (十三么) pay the cap as soon as you win: 128 points at a 10-faan cap.
• Want bigger swings? Full doubling (辣辣上) doubles every faan from 4 up, so 10 faan is 1,024 instead of 128. Most clubs find half-doubling keeps a season closer.

To work out how many faan a hand is worth, see the Hong Kong mahjong scoring table, or print the Hong Kong mahjong cheat sheet, which has this ladder on side two.

A worked example

Ann, Ben, Cat and Dev play three hands:

1. Ann wins a 5-faan hand off Ben's discard. Ben pays Ann 24.
2. Cat self-draws a 4-faan hand. Ann, Ben and Dev each pay Cat 8, so Cat collects 24.
3. Dev wins a 3-faan hand off Ann's discard. Ann pays Dev 8.

Every point one player wins, another player loses, so each column adds up to zero. That makes mistakes easy to spot: if a game's totals do not sum to zero, something was written down wrong.

Flat scoring: a simpler points system

Faan and doubling take a few weeks to learn. A beginners' table, or a club that mixes styles, can use flat scoring instead: every win is worth the same, with a little extra for a self-draw. For example:

• Win off a discard: the discarder gives the winner 2 points.
• Self-drawn win: each of the other three gives the winner 1 point, so the winner collects 3.
• Optional big-hand bonus: double it for a hand your group agrees is special, such as a Full Flush.

That version is still zero-sum. If you would rather nobody goes below zero, score only the winner: 1 point for each win and 1 more for a self-draw, and the player with the most points at the end of the night or season comes top. The numbers are yours to choose. What matters is that the whole club uses the same ones, written down in your house rules.

American Mah Jongg points

American Mah Jongg players build hands from the current year's card, and the card lists a value for each hand. Many groups that play for points simply use those values as points, and the group decides the rest: what a discarder pays, what happens on a self-pick and any extras you play. Agree it once, write it in your house rules and keep it for the whole season.

American scores can be kept as transfers between players, or as each player's own running score. In Mahjong Logbook, American games are entered per player, positive, negative or zero, with no zero-sum check, so either approach fits. Mahjong Logbook keeps the record and the standings; it does not score or check card hands. More on the American Mahjong score tracker page.

Zero-sum or independent scores?

Pick one per variant and keep it for the season. Changing halfway makes old and new games impossible to compare.

Turning club nights into a season

A single night's points are fun. A season's points give people a reason to come back every week.

• Cumulative standings. Add each player's points across every game in the season. This is the simplest ranking, and it rewards turning up.
• Average per game. If attendance is uneven, rank by average points per game instead, so a player who comes every other week is not punished for it.
• Minimum-games rule. With averages, set a minimum number of games to qualify, or one lucky night can top the table. Our guide to running a mahjong ladder or season league covers how to set the minimum, absences and finals nights.
• Season length. A term or a quarter works well: long enough for luck to even out, short enough that a newcomer can still catch up next time.
• Reset, do not delete. Start each season from zero, but keep the old results. All-time records are part of a club's history.

Prizes that are not cash

A season needs something at the end of it. It does not have to be money.

• A trophy that passes from champion to champion, with names added each season.
• A title: club champion, most improved, best newcomer, biggest hand of the season.
• Choosing the next venue, the snacks, or the theme for the end-of-term social.
• Bragging rights: a "top of the table" post in the group chat, or the winner's name on the club's noticeboard.

Prizes can be regulated too in some places, especially when players pay an entry fee that goes towards them. If you plan to charge for entry or give prizes of real value, check the rules where you are first.

Chips, paper or an app

• Chips or tallies. Satisfying to pass across the table, and they settle each hand on the spot. But they reset every night, so someone still has to write down the totals to build a season.
• Paper. A score sheet per table works anywhere. Someone has to add it up afterwards and copy it into the season record. Our guide on how to keep score in mahjong has a printable sheet.
• An app. Each table logs its own game on a phone and the season standings update straight away, with no adding up at the end.

How Mahjong Logbook handles points

• Plain numbers. Scores show without a currency symbol, so a club's figures read as points.
• Zero-sum where it belongs. Cantonese and HK-Taiwanese games must sum to zero before they save. American Mah Jongg scores are entered per player with no zero-sum check.
• One leaderboard for the club. It ranks players by net total, and you can sort it by games played, win rate or average per game.
• Seasons built in. Filter the leaderboard to a year or a quarter to see one season on its own, while the all-time record keeps building underneath.
• One link for everyone. No accounts: post the room link in the group chat and any table logs its game. A free room holds up to 10 active players; Pro removes the limit for that room.

The mahjong club score tracker page walks through a club night in more detail.

FAQ

More guides: Hong Kong mahjong cheat sheet, Hong Kong mahjong payout table, how to run a ladder or season league and how to keep score in mahjong.