Turns, claims and precedence 行牌

The turn cycle

Turn order runs counter-clockwise, E→S→W→N. Each normal turn: draw 1 from the wall head → optionally declare a self-draw win or a kong → discard 1 face-up into the river 牌河, the discard area inside the wall. One go-around (一巡) means every player has acted once; a 144-tile hand runs about 24 go-arounds if nobody melds.

Claims 鳴牌 — taking another player's discard

Only the newest discard may be claimed, and only before the next player has drawn and mixed the tile into their hand. All claims must be spoken — 上 / 碰 / 槓 / 食糊 — vague words like "wait" can be ignored.

A chow or pung skips your draw step: claim → expose the meld → discard. And a tactical note from the tournament rulebook: callers should wait a beat before exposing, so a higher-priority claim can still intercede.

Claim precedence

Win > Kong/Pung > Chow. If two players want the same tile, only the highest-priority claim stands, and an illegal claim has no priority at all. A player who called chow and then hears a pung or kong call may still convert to a win on that tile without penalty.

The three kongs

All kongs are declared 槓, expose 4 tiles (locked — they can never return to your hand), and require a replacement draw from the wall tail. Expose first, draw after — drawing first is a foul.

1. Concealed kong 暗槓 (am3 gong3): four identical tiles in hand, declared on your own turn, tiles face-down. Not allowed in the same breath as having just claimed a chow/pung — you're mid-discard.
2. Big (melded) kong 大明槓: someone discards a tile matching your concealed triplet.
3. Added kong 加槓 (gaa1 gong3): on your turn, add the 4th tile to your own exposed pung. Place it unambiguously in the meld area, not the river — an ambiguous motion can legitimately be robbed (see below).

After the replacement draw you re-enter your turn at the decision step — you may even declare another kong, or win. Forgetting the replacement and discarding anyway is a foul (先切牌): uncorrected, you play the hand a tile short (小相公) and cannot win.

Replacement draws 補槓

A kong "consumes" one extra tile, which is why it earns a draw from the tail. Winning on that replacement tile is 槓上開花 — a scoring bonus in its own right. Flower replacements come from the same tail.

Robbing a kong 搶槓

When a player declares an added kong of a tile you're waiting on, you may immediately claim it to win — 搶槓, +1 faan. The tournament rules:

• Only added kongs can be robbed — with one exception: a 十三幺 hand may rob a concealed kong.
• A big kong can never be robbed: a simultaneous win call simply outranks it (win > kong), so the kong fails.
• The declarer must pause a beat after calling 槓 before drawing the replacement — that pause is the robbing window.

Interrupted flow

After any claim, the claimer discards and play resumes with the player to the claimer's right.

The "passed on it" rule 過水

If a discard would complete your hand and you pass, you cannot claim the same tile from another player in the same go-around — until your next draw you may only win by self-draw or on a different winning tile.

The draw 流局

The hand is drawn when the last wall tile has been drawn and the final discard goes unclaimed. No payment on a draw — sourced HK rules have no tenpai-payment system. What happens to the dealer is a table choice: tradition repeats the dealer (連莊), faster games and HKMA tournaments pass.

False wins and miscounted hands

Declaring a win you don't have — wrong shape, below the faan minimum, or a win barred by the 過水 rule — is a false win 詐糊 (zaa3 wu2). The standard custom: the false winner pays everyone the limit price, as if each had self-drawn (an 8-faan cap → 3 × the 8-faan self-draw price). HKMA instead deducts the 例牌 score (512 points) and restarts the hand with the same dealer. Exposing half your hand so others can memorise it is also 詐糊.

A miscounted hand 相公 (soeng1 gung1) — too few (小相公) or too many (大相公) tiles — can no longer win once confirmed, even if the count later corrects itself. Tournament play adds card penalties for drawing out of turn, discarding before drawing, kong replacement-order violations and talking or electronics at the table.

Etiquette and table rules

• Agree the table rules first — minimum faan, cap, flowers on/off, payment system, pao on/off, draw-dealer rule. As the saying goes: the day after mahjong was created, it was played at a second table, with a second set of rules.
• Harmony over winning: accept penalties gracefully, don't gloat or grouse, help beginners.
• Play crisply — claims are spoken and immediate; never make the table wait long.
• Don't touch the wall before it's your draw; don't block sight-lines into the river; keep discards tidy and readable.
• Keep your hand to yourself; don't reveal what you drew; signalling between partners is cheating.