Regional Mahjong Variants

Beyond the six big rule sets

The styles with published, stable rules are a small part of mahjong. Most players in China play a local game with a name of its own, and those games differ from the tournament rules in ways that matter from the first hand. This page covers the variants you are most likely to meet, with the one rule that defines each.

Treat every entry as a starting point rather than a specification. Local rules drift, and the table you sit at is the authority.

Guangdong: chicken hand and horse betting

The Guangdong family, often called chicken-and-peace mahjong, is the most permissive of the southern games. It has three defining features:

• Chicken hand allowed. A hand with no pattern at all still counts, which makes the game friendly to beginners and faster to finish.
• A low cap. Most tables cap a hand at three to five fan rather than chasing large patterns.
• Horse betting. Each player may buy one or more "horses" before the hand; they are revealed at the end and pay one, two or three times depending on seat position.

The horse mechanic is the distinctive part. It turns a small win into a large payment depending on seat order, which is why Guangdong games feel more volatile than their low fan cap suggests.

Guiyang: catch the chicken

Guiyang mahjong is built on the Sichuan base: no honours, a dropped-suit requirement, and continuous play after a win. Its addition is the king tile, flipped at the end of the round to decide which tile counts as the chicken and therefore what the hand is worth.

Kongs are called beans here and are settled immediately rather than at the end. Three points are worth confirming before play: whether the king tile is flipped before or after the final win, whether a first-kong bonus doubles, and how a drawn round is settled.

Changsha: the fixed pair

Changsha mahjong requires the pair to be a 2, a 5 or an 8. That single constraint reorganises the whole hand: a pair of any other number cannot serve as the head, so players hold pairs well past the point where other styles would discard them.

Two local special hands follow from the rule: all-pairs (every set and the pair built from 2s, 5s and 8s) and a related pattern where the hand is built entirely from those three numbers. Neither is worth chasing as a beginner; both are worth recognising, because they explain the discards you will see.

Vietnamese: graded wild tiles

Vietnamese mahjong uses a hierarchy of wild tiles rather than a single Joker. The levels run from king down through queen, yuan, xi and zong, and a wild tile may only substitute at its own level or below. A king can stand in for anything; a zong can stand in for very little.

The second rule to know is claim priority: pung beats chow. Vietnamese tables enforce that order strictly — if two players want the same discard, the pung claim wins regardless of who called first.

Filipino: sixteen tiles and open Jokers

Filipino mahjong uses sixteen tiles, five sets and a pair, and allows Jokers to substitute for any tile — the opposite of the American restriction. A Joker may complete a pair, fill a single slot, or stand inside a run.

The local vocabulary centres on payment. A win is a bahay; an all-pay settlement is todas. If you are invited to a Filipino table, ask which payment applies before the first hand, because todas can cost several times a normal win.

Korean three-player: fewer tiles, faster hands

The Korean three-player game removes the north wind and also removes the 2 to 8 bamboo tiles, leaving 104 tiles. The effect is a much shorter wall and a much faster hand: fewer draws, fewer waits available, and a game that resolves quickly.

Korean three-player is the clearest example of a variant that changes the tile set rather than the scoring. If you know the four-player game, the only new information you need is which tiles are missing.

Two more you may meet

Singapore and Malaysian mahjong uses 144 tiles but treats flowers as wild, each substituting only for tiles of its own suit. It also uses a five-fan minimum, which puts it between Hong Kong and Chinese Official in strictness.

Hong Kong small-table variants are common in expatriate clubs: the same 136 tiles and the same chow rules, but with the minimum lowered to three fan and several scoring patterns dropped. Most English-language beginner groups play one of these.

What to ask before you sit down

1. Which tiles are removed or added? This decides what hands are possible.
2. What is the minimum? Chicken hand allowed, or a fan threshold?
3. How are wild tiles limited? Unrestricted, graded by how many may be used, or allowed only inside triplets.
4. Who pays on a shared tile? Nearest winner, or everyone.
5. Is there any side betting? Horses, doubling, or a settlement rule that changes the totals.

Quick answers

What is a chicken hand?

A hand with no scoring pattern at all. It scores nothing in strict Chinese Official play, but at most Guangdong tables it is a legal, if minimal, win.

Why does Changsha require a 2, 5 or 8 pair?

It is the defining local rule. Only those numbers can serve as the pair, which changes which tiles players keep and which hands are possible.

Are Vietnamese wild tiles interchangeable?

No. They are graded, and a tile may only substitute at its own level or below. A king can replace anything; a zong cannot.

How many tiles does Korean three-player use?

104. It removes the north wind and every bamboo tile from 2 to 8, which shortens the wall and speeds up the hand considerably.