Singapore style
A practical guide to
Singapore mahjong.
A complete, playable ruleset for one common style of Singapore mahjong — setting up, playing and scoring, with every hand illustrated and the payouts worked out for you.
A completed Sequence Hand (Ping Hu): four sequences and a pair. Worth 4 Doubles here because the pair scores nothing on its own, the hand held no flowers or animals, and it was calling on more than one tile — the shape on its own is not enough.
This site presents the author’s own opinions and style of Singapore mahjong play.
It does not claim to be a definitive or representative guide as to how mahjong is/should be played in Singapore.
- 148
- tiles in the set
- 28
- scoring hands
- 16+
- hands to a round
Tools
Practise here
Practise against three opponents
A full round, scored by the rules on this site — with as much coaching as you want, or none at all. The same app either way.
Game log
Keep score for a whole round
Four players, every hand, and who owes what at the end of the night. Set the stakes once and it carries the running balance.
Your own tally
Track what you are up or down
Tap what just happened and it settles itself, hand by hand, so you always know where your own night stands.
Work through it
- 01Setting up the gameWhat is in the set, who sits where, what to agree on, and how stakes are counted.5 sections
- 02Playing the gameBuilding and breaking the wall, dealing, the moves available to you, and how a hand and a round end.11 sections
- 03Scoring the gameWhere doubles come from, every scoring hand, the extra doubles, and what happens when it goes wrong.7 sections
- 04Every scoring handAll the scoring hands in one place, filterable by value and by whether they must be concealed.
- 05ToolsA table to practise on, a log for the table’s round, a calculator for what a hand is worth, and a tracker for your own night.
- 06Useful online referencesWhere the rules on this site came from, and what is worth reading next.3 sections
What makes it Singapore mahjong
Singapore mahjong, also called SG mahjong or Singaporean mahjong, is played with 148 tiles and scored in Doubles, or tai. Four of those tiles are animals, which the other common styles do not use.
| Singapore | Hong Kong | Taiwanese | Japanese riichi | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tiles | 148, including 4 animals | 144, with flowers but no animals | 144, with flowers but no animals | 136, with no flowers |
| Tiles in hand | 13 | 13 | 16 | 13 |
| Scored in | Doubles (tai), up to a limit, usually 5 | Faan, up to a limit, often 8, 10 or 13 | A base amount plus tai | Han and fu, turned into points |
| To win, you need | At least 1 Double, usually | At least 3 faan, usually | Nothing: a hand with no tai wins the base | At least one yaku, a scoring pattern |
| Win on a discard | All three pay, the thrower double | Often the thrower alone | The thrower alone | The thrower alone |
These are common defaults, and every style has house rules. Taiwanese scoring also adds tai for the dealer, and more for each repeat deal. Riichi adds a declaration, riichi, made when a concealed hand is one tile from winning. For guides to these styles, see played elsewhere.