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Who pays, and how much, when someone wins at American Mahjong?

The winner collects from all three other players, starting from the value printed beside the winning line on the card. On a win from a discard, the player who threw the winning tile pays double and the other two pay the printed value. On a win from the wall, all three pay double, and a hand with no Jokers that could have used them doubles again before any of that is worked out.

Answered by Prim. Last reviewed 2026-09-20.

The number on the card is the starting point

Every line on the card carries a value, and that value is what the hand is worth before anything else is applied. Most home tables pay in cents and tournaments in points, but the arithmetic is the same. The winner does not simply score the number on the card. The winner collects it from the other three players, according to how the hand was won.

The winner announces the hand and its value, including that it is jokerless if it is, and everyone else checks the hand against the card before a single coin moves. The announced value stands, even if someone notices afterward that the hand was worth more. Say it properly the first time.

Won on a discard

When the winning tile is someone else's discard, the player who threw it pays double the value. The other two pay the value as printed. Take a hand worth 25: that is 50 from the discarder and 25 from each of the others, 100 in all.

This is the only place in ordinary play where one player pays more than the rest, and it is why a careless discard late in the hand costs real money. Every judgement about which tile is safe to throw rests on that double.

Won from the wall

When the winner draws the winning tile, which the game calls self-picked, all three players pay double. The same hand worth 25 now brings in 50 from each, 150 in all. A win that comes from a Joker exchange as the very last move counts as self-picked too, and so do the two rare hands that belong to East: a hand dealt complete, and a hand completed during the Charleston. Those are paid as a self-pick, not as a further double on top.

Jokerless doubles the value first

A hand that allows Jokers and is completed without any doubles its printed value, and then the usual schedule applies to the doubled figure. A jokerless hand worth 25, won on a discard, costs the discarder 100 and the other two 50 each. Won from the wall, it costs everyone 100.

The Singles and Pairs lines are the exception. Jokers can never be used in them, so they are jokerless by nature, and the values printed for that section already account for it. They take no jokerless double, though a self-picked win still doubles as usual. There is no separate bonus for a concealed hand either: the higher value printed beside a concealed line is the whole reward. East pays and collects like every other seat.

Two smaller payments worth knowing

A player whose hand has been declared dead still pays the winner the full value of the winning hand, at the ordinary rate. And when the wall runs out with no winner, nobody pays anybody. Some tables play fewer doubles than these, so agree the schedule before the first deal and nobody argues at the end.

New to the words? Self-pick · No Jokers · Discard · Mah Jongg