Mahjong scoring for American hands
American scoring at this table starts with the number printed on the winning line. Who threw or drew the last tile changes what each player pays, and a hand with no joker can double before anyone counts chips.
The number on the line
Every winning line on the Light Mahjong Card 2025 prints its own value. Garden steps is 25. Dragon lights and Four winds garden are 30. Twin pillars is 40. Quiet path, a concealed run of seven pairs in one suit, is 50. You do not add fan, doubles for lucky suits, or a point per flower. If it is not in that printed value, and it is not the payment rule below, it is not scored.
When several lines fit the same tiles, the table uses the one that pays you the most after the jokerless rule. You do not choose a cheaper reading of the hand.
Discard and self-pick
First decide the value in use. Start with the printed value. Double it if the finished hand, rack and exposures together, contains no joker and the line has at least one group of three or larger. Otherwise leave the printed value alone.
Then the other players pay that value in use:
- Win on a discard: the discarder pays twice, and each of the other two players pays once. You receive four times the value in use.
- Self-pick: each of the other three players pays twice. You receive six times the value in use.
East does not pay a surcharge for being East, and East does not receive a bonus merely for dealing. The next hand still moves East to the right, and the points already on the score sheet stay there.
A 25-point line, both ways
Garden steps is printed at 25 and it contains pungs, so a jokerless Garden steps doubles to 50 before payment. The same hand with a joker anywhere in it stays at 25.
| How it was won | Value in use | Discarder pays | Each other player pays | Winner receives |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Discard, hand uses a joker | 25 | 50 | 25 | 100 |
| Self-pick, hand uses a joker | 25 | — | 50 | 150 |
| Discard, no joker | 50 | 100 | 50 | 200 |
| Self-pick, no joker | 50 | — | 100 | 300 |
Pairs do not double a second time
Quiet path, Three-suit pairs, and Quiet crossroads are built only from pairs. A joker cannot sit in a pair, so these hands are always jokerless, and the card already prints them at 50 to include that. The table does not double them again. A self-picked Quiet path is paid at 50: each other player pays 100, and the winner receives 300. A discard win on the same line pays 100 from the discarder and 50 from each of the others, 200 in all.
Dragon thread is the line that looks similar and is not. It is concealed, it contains three single tiles, and it also contains a pung of each dragon. Those pungs are groups of three, so a jokerless Dragon thread does get the extra double, from 40 to 80, before the discard or self-pick payments. A Dragon thread that uses a joker in a dragon pung stays at 40 and does not receive that double.
A joker brought back from someone else
Exchanging a natural tile for a joker in another player’s exposure can be what completes your line. That win is a self-pick: the three opponents each pay double. Doing the same exchange against a joker in your own exposure is only a rearrangement. If the hand was already completed by a discard you called, the discarder still owes the discard payment. The table will not let that exchange turn a four-times win into a six-times win.
A wall with nothing left
When the next player would draw and the wall is empty, the hand stops. There is no winner and every payment is zero. Points from earlier hands are not touched.
The groups those values are made of are defined in the rules, and the tiles inside them are named in tiles explained. For which 25-point hand is worth chasing in the first place, see strategy tips.
Questions
Who pays when I win on a discard?
The player who discarded the winning tile pays double the value in use. Each of the other two players pays that value once. You receive the total, which is four times the value in use.
What is a self-pick?
A self-pick is a win on a tile you drew, or a win completed by exchanging a joker out of another player’s exposure. Each of the other three players pays double the value in use, so you receive six times that value.
Does every jokerless hand double?
No. The printed value doubles only when the winning line uses no joker and contains at least one group of three or more. Lines made only of singles and pairs are not doubled again. On this card those are Quiet path, Three-suit pairs, and Quiet crossroads, and their printed values already include that premium.