How a hand is scored
Add up the hand points for what is on the rack, count the doubles the hand qualifies for, then double the points once for each.
Final Score = Hand Points × 2doubles
So 54 points with 5 doubles is 54 × 32 = 1,728. The doubles do the heavy lifting — each one you miss halves the score.
Willingdon scoring: a hand with fewer than 3 doubles pays nothing at all. Points on the rack count for nothing until you have three doubles — so a 14-point hand with no doubles and a 128-point hand with two are both worth 0.
Hand points
| Set | Exposed | Concealed |
|---|---|---|
| Pung of minor (2–8) | 2 | 4 |
| Pung of major (honours, 1s and 9s) | 4 | 8 |
| Kong of minor (2–8) | 8 | 16 |
| Kong of major (honours, 1s and 9s) | 16 | 32 |
| Also worth points | Points |
|---|---|
| Each flower or season | 4 |
| A pair of dragons | 2 |
| A pair of any wind | 2 |
| A pair of any 1s & 9s | 2 |
| Mahjong | 20 |
The doubles
Hand doubles
| A Pure Hand one suit, no honours | 3 |
| A Royal Honour Hand winds and dragons only | 3 |
| A Heads & Tails Hand 1s and 9s only | 3 |
| An All Major Hand honours plus 1s and 9s, all from one suit | 1 |
| A Clean Hand one suit plus honours | 0 |
One double each
| Pungs of 1s and 9s in one suit | 1 |
| A pung/kong of dragons | 1 |
| 3 pungs/kongs of all 3 dragons | 1 |
| 3 pungs/kongs of winds | 1 |
| A pung/kong of your own wind | 1 |
| A pung/kong of the wind of the round | 1 |
| Each of your own flower/season | 1 |
| Each flower/season of the round | 1 |
| 3 concealed pungs | 1 |
Two doubles each
| 4 concealed pungs | 2 |
| 3 exposed kongs | 2 |
| 4 pungs of winds | 2 |
Three doubles each
| 3 concealed kongs | 3 |
| Concealed mahjong last tile from the wall | 3 |
| 4 exposed kongs | 3 |
| A bouquet of flowers | 3 |
The big ones
| 4 concealed kongs | 4 |
| Earth's Blessing mahjong on the first tile discarded by East | 8 |
| Heaven's Blessing East is dealt a mahjong | 9 |
Playing Goulash
Goulash is an exposed game: you can take a tile another player has discarded to make a (pure) pung. You must already hold a pair to convert it into a pung of three identical tiles.
Only the last tile discarded can be claimed — every earlier discard is dead. Play continues from whoever claimed the discard, so anyone in between loses their turn. A pung formed from a discard is always exposed.
Penalties (optional)
- If a player has 3 exposed pungs/kongs and declares mahjong from a discard, whoever discarded that tile pays a penalty to the other players — unless they were fishing and had no other choice.
- A wrong mahjong declaration costs 500 points to each player. That player discards the last tile picked up and play continues.
- A player holding extra tiles must discard on their turn without picking up — one tile per turn.
- A player holding too few tiles must pick up from the flower wall on their turn without discarding — one tile per turn.
- A player can only go mahjong on the turn after a penalty.
Agree the optional rules with the table before you start, not halfway through.
The two winds that matter
Wind of the round — whichever round you are playing. Round 1 is the East round, so East is the wind of the round.
Your own wind — the seat you are sitting in for this hand.
Both earn a double for a pung or kong of that wind, and both earn a double on the matching flower or season (Flower 1 = East, 2 = South, 3 = West, 4 = North). A pung of your own wind when you are also sitting in the round's wind scores both doubles.
FAQ
Why is my hand worth 0 when it has plenty of points?
The Willingdon minimum: under 3 doubles a hand pays nothing, however many hand points are on the rack. Chasing points without doubles gets you a pile of tiles and no score.
The scorer still asks you for the real hand points and doubles, and still shows the paper total, so you can see exactly how close you were to the three.
What counts as “major”?
Honours (winds and dragons) and the 1s and 9s. Everything from 2 to 8 is minor.
Do my 1s and 9s have to be in the same suit?
For the doubles, yes. Pungs of 1s and 9s in one suit needs the 1 and the 9 from the same suit — a pung of 1 Dot and a pung of 9 Bam earns nothing. An All Major Hand is the same: the 1s and 9s must all come from one suit, though the honours in the hand can be anything, since honours have no suit.
A Heads & Tails Hand is the exception — 1s and 9s from any suits, so long as that is all the hand holds. It has to be, since one suit only has two terminals and a hand needs five different tiles.
Hand points are unaffected: a pung of 1 Bam is a major pung wherever the rest of the hand comes from.
My hand is two kinds of hand at once — do I get both?
No. The hand doubles describe what kind of hand you have, and you only get the best one that fits. A hand of nothing but winds and dragons is a Royal Honour Hand (3) and technically also an All Major Hand (1), but it scores 3, not 4.
Everything else on the list does stack — hand doubles, wind and dragon pungs, flowers and the way you went out all add together.
Why does A Clean Hand score nothing?
Because that is what the rule book prints — 0 doubles for one suit plus honours. Most other rule sets give it 1. It is flagged for checking against the book, and it is a one-line change if 0 turns out to be a misprint.
Do kongs count towards “3 concealed pungs”?
No. A concealed kong scores on the concealed-kong lines only. Three concealed pungs plus a concealed kong is 1 double, not 2.
Does four of something also score the three-of-something double?
No, the tiers replace each other. Four concealed pungs is 2 doubles, not 2 + 1 for also being three. Same for exposed kongs, concealed kongs, and wind pungs.
Can one flower earn two doubles?
Yes. If you sit East in the East round, Flower 1 is both your own flower and the round's, so it scores 1 + 1. It is still only 4 hand points.
What is a bouquet?
All four flowers, or all four seasons. Either is worth 3 doubles.
Why are some scores enormous?
Because doubles compound. Twelve doubles multiplies the hand points by 4,096 — so a 58-point hand lands at 237,568. Rare hands are supposed to hurt.
Are the practice hands real hands?
Every dealt hand is a legal Goulash shape: four pungs or kongs and a pair, with no two sets built on the same tile and no repeated flowers. The first six are hand-picked to ramp up; after that they are dealt at random, leaning towards hands that are interesting to score.
Where is my progress kept?
On your device only, in this browser's local storage — your name, the hands you have played, and your tally. Nothing is sent anywhere. Reset on the session card clears it.
Does “Show me” count against me?
Yes, revealing an answer counts as a miss. Only your first answer on a hand counts, so going back through the table to re-read a hand never changes your tally.