Home / Answers

How does scoring work at an American Mahjong tournament?

At a tournament the winner scores the value printed on the card, plus 10 for a self-pick and 20 for a jokerless hand, added rather than doubled. A wall game gives every live hand 10 points. The player who throws the winning tile loses 10, 20 or 25 points, depending on how many exposures the winner had on the rack.

Answered by Prim. Last reviewed 2026-10-05.

Points, not payments

At home, a win is settled in money: the discarder pays double, the others pay the value, and a self-pick or a jokerless hand doubles things again. A tournament keeps a running score instead, and it treats the bonuses as flat additions. The winning hand scores its card value. Drawing your own winning tile adds 10. Winning with no Jokers adds 20, except in the Singles and Pairs section, where the value already accounts for it. The bonuses stack, so a hand printed at 25 that is self-picked and jokerless scores 55.

Everyone else at the table scores nothing for that game, with one important exception.

The discard that costs you

The player who throws the winning tile is penalized, and the size of the penalty depends on what the winner had showing. If the winner had no exposures or one, the discarder loses 10. Two exposures, 20. Three or more, 25.

Notice that the winner gains nothing from that penalty. It is not a payment, it is a price. The design is deliberate: a tournament wants players to defend, so it charges for the careless discard. A seat with three exposures face up is telling the whole table what it needs, and the scoring expects you to have read it.

Wall games, dead hands and false calls

When the wall runs out with no winner, every player scores 10. A hand that went dead, or was called dead, scores zero for that game: no wall points, and no penalty either. Declaring Mahjong in error with tiles exposed is dead on the spot, with none of the forgiveness a friendly home table might offer.

Misnaming a discard that gives an opponent Mahjong costs the misnamer 25, and looking at a blind pass tile costs 10. A game still unfinished when time is called scores zero for everyone.

The clock is part of the score

A round is usually four games in about fifty minutes, and then the tables rotate. That is roughly twelve minutes a game. A game you never get to play is worth nothing, and your table is being compared with tables that finished all four. So several ordinary wins outscore one long hunt for a spectacular hand, and a slow table has a real reason to keep the Charleston short.

The rules of play do not change at an event. The card is the same, the Jokers behave the same, a call works the same. What changes is the arithmetic, and the arithmetic changes how much defence a sensible player plays.

New to the words? Self-pick · No Jokers · Wall game · Dead hand