How Faan Scoring Works in Hong Kong Mahjong

Hong Kong Mahjong scores winning hands using faan (番), a points system where each faan represents a doubling of the base payment. A hand's total faan determines the payout, and the doubling table converts faan to base units.

What is faan?

Faan is the Hong Kong Mahjong scoring unit. It is awarded for specific tile combinations (called hand patterns) and for certain win conditions (called win actions). The total faan of a winning hand is the sum of all applicable patterns.

Hong Kong Mahjong has no universal minimum faan threshold. House rules typically require 3 faan to declare a winning hand, though some tables play with 1 or 5 faan as the floor. The threshold is configurable per game.

The doubling table

Total faan converts to a payout in base units (the base unit is the table stake, e.g. $1 or $10). Each additional faan from 0–9 doubles or near-doubles the payout; from 10 onward the table caps at 384 units (the limit hand payment).

Faan Base units
0 1
1 2
2 4
3 8
4 16
5 24
6 32
7 48
8 64
9 96
10 128
11 192
12 256
13 384

Self-draw vs discard payments

Payment depends on how the winning tile was obtained:

  • Self-draw (自摸): the winner draws the winning tile from the wall. All three losing players pay the full payout.
  • Discard win (食糊): the winner claims a discarded tile. The discarder pays double; the other two players pay single.
  • Dealer (莊家): the dealer always pays or receives double the standard rate, regardless of self-draw or discard.

Worked example

A non-dealer wins on a self-draw with All Pungs (3 faan) plus Concealed Hand (1 faan) for a total of 4 faan. The doubling table maps 4 faan to 16 base units. Each of the three losing players pays 16 units to the winner. If one of those losers is the dealer, that player pays 32 units (double rate).

Common faan-earning patterns

The most frequently scored patterns in Hong Kong Mahjong:

Skip the math

TileBuddy calculates faan and payments automatically from a photo of your tiles.

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