Concealed Hand (門前清)

What is Concealed Hand?

Concealed Hand (門前清), pronounced mun chin ching, is a 1-faan bonus in Hong Kong Mahjong awarded when a player wins without having claimed any tile from another player during the round — no chows, no pungs, no kongs called from discards. It rewards discipline and patience over the speed of claim-built hands.

How to score Concealed Hand

Every meld in the winning hand must be self-drawn. A pung formed from three identical tiles drawn from the wall qualifies; a pung claimed from a discarded tile does not. Concealed kongs (declared from four self-drawn identical tiles) preserve concealment, but exposed kongs do not.

Concealed Hand permits a discard win on the final tile only — the winning tile itself can be claimed from another player. What disqualifies the bonus is any meld-forming claim during the hand’s construction, not the winning tile.

Example hand

Faan value: 1

Concealed Hand is worth 1 additive faan, stacking with the hand’s structural pattern (All Triplets, Mixed Flush, Full Flush, etc.). Because it adds 1 faan to nearly every viable hand it touches, it’s one of the most reliable ways to clear the 3-faan minimum.

Common combinations

Concealed Hand stacks with most patterns since its constraint is on claiming behavior, not tile composition:

• Concealed Hand + All Triplets (對對胡) — 1 + 3 = 4 faan, four self-drawn pungs plus a self-drawn pair.
• Concealed Hand + Mixed Flush (混一色) — 1 + 3 = 4 faan.
• Concealed Hand + Full Flush (清一色) — 1 + 7 = 8 faan.
• Concealed Hand + Self-Pick (自摸) — 1 + 1 = 2 faan, alternatively scored as Fully Concealed Hand (門前清自摸) at 2 faan in some rule sets.

Concealed Hand is the prerequisite for Three Concealed Pungs (三暗刻) and All Concealed Triplets (五暗刻), both of which require multiple unclaimed pungs.

Strategic note

Concealed Hand often pairs with defensive play. Since claiming a discard reveals tiles from a player’s hand to the table, refusing to claim keeps an opponent’s hand fully hidden — making it harder for others to deduce risky discards. The 1-faan bonus is a meaningful reward for what is otherwise often the optimal play anyway.