Mahjong Scoring Cheat Sheet

A free one-page reference for how American Mahjong scoring actually works: where a hand's value comes from, who pays what on a discard versus a self-pick, and the two doubles that trip people up. It does not list any hands or point values, since those live on the current NMJL card and change every April.

Where the Value Comes From

Each winning hand has one point value printed beside it on the card. Harder hands pay more, common hands less. You do not tally individual tiles the way some other mahjong variants do; the card number is the base, and the payment rules decide what each of the other three players hands you. Values change every April with the new card.

Winning off a Discard vs. Self-Pick

When you win off a tile someone threw, that player pays double the hand value as the price of feeding the winner, and the other two each pay the single value. When you self-pick the winning tile from the wall, no single player fed it to you, so all three players pay double. The same hand is worth more self-picked than won by discard.

The Jokerless Bonus

Win a hand using no jokers at all and the value doubles, with every player paying at the doubled rate. Apply the doubling first, then settle by the discard or self-pick rule. One joker anywhere in the hand cancels it. The exception is Singles and Pairs hands, which are jokerless by definition and earn no extra double.

Concealed Hands and Dead Hands

There is no separate automatic double for staying concealed; the reward is already baked into the higher printed value concealed hands carry. You can still stack the jokerless double on top. A dead hand cannot win but still pays the winner, and a wall game (no winner) means nobody pays.

Going deeper

• Scoring and payment guide: the deeper walkthrough with examples for each tier
• American Mahjong cheat sheet: the 2-page master reference for every rule
• Charleston cheat sheet: the tile-passing ritual on one page
• Joker rules cheat sheet: where jokers are allowed and why they cost the jokerless double
• Beginner cheat sheet: the whole game boiled down for a first sitting