Push-Down Mahjong Rules: Winning Hands, Fan Table and Scoring
Push-Down Mahjong (推倒胡, tui dao hu) is the most widely played mahjong style in mainland China: no flowers, 13 tiles each, and as soon as you complete four sets and a pair you “push your tiles down” and win. This guide covers the winning hands, calling tiles, the full fan table and how fan turn into points, with three worked examples.
The basics: 136 tiles, 13 each
- Tiles: characters, dots and bamboo 1–9 plus the four winds and three dragons, four of each: 136 tiles, no flowers.
- Players: four. Everyone holds 13 tiles; the dealer starts with one extra and discards first.
- Winning hand: four sets (chows, pungs or kongs) + one pair, or seven pairs (four identical tiles count as two pairs).
- Drawn hand: if the wall runs out and nobody has won, the hand is a draw.
There is no minimum fan to win: any complete hand can be declared, and more fan means more points.
Chow, pung, kong and robbing a kong
- Chow: only from the player on your left, and only with suited tiles to make a run. Honours cannot be chowed.
- Pung: claim anyone's discard when you hold two of the same tile.
- Exposed kong: claim a discard when you hold three of the same tile.
- Concealed kong: draw all four yourself. Added kong: add the fourth tile to a pung you already showed.
- Robbing a kong: if someone adds a tile to a pung and that tile completes your hand, you can win on it.
When several players want the same discard, the priority is win > pung / kong > chow. If more than one player can win on the same discard, only the first one in turn order after the discarder wins.
In MacePlay you can chow from the player on your left. Some regional versions of Push-Down Mahjong do not allow chows, so check the table rules wherever you play.
Full fan table
Add up every pattern your winning hand meets. These are the patterns and values MacePlay's Push-Down Mahjong actually uses.
| Pattern | Fan | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| How you win | ||
| Win | 1 | Every win starts with 1 fan. |
| Self-draw | +1 | You draw the winning tile yourself. |
| Concealed hand | +1 | No chows, pungs or exposed kongs (a concealed kong is fine), whether you self-draw or win on a discard. |
| Win after a kong | +1 | The replacement tile after a kong completes your hand. |
| Last tile | +1 | You self-draw the very last tile of the wall. |
| Robbing a kong | +1 | You win on the tile someone adds to a pung. |
| Hand patterns | ||
| All pungs | 2 | All four sets are pungs or kongs. |
| Seven pairs | 3 | Seven pairs, with no calls or kongs at all (not even a concealed kong). |
| Luxury seven pairs | 5 | Seven pairs that include four identical tiles (replaces the 3; still 5 however many such groups). |
| Half flush | 3 | One suit plus honours. |
| Full flush | 6 | One suit only, no honours. |
| All honours | 10 | Nothing but winds and dragons. |
| Big hands | ||
| Big three dragons | 8 | Pungs of all three dragons. |
| Little four winds | 8 | Pungs of three winds, with the fourth wind as the pair. |
| Big four winds | 10 | Pungs of all four winds. |
| Heavenly / earthly hand | 8 | Nobody has called a tile and you self-draw on your very first draw: heavenly for the dealer, earthly for anyone else. Scored as 8 fan on its own. |
If a hand can be read more than one way (for example also as seven pairs), the game takes the reading worth the most fan.
Scoring: fan double the points
Fan are not multiplied directly. Every extra fan doubles the payment:
| Total fan | Multiplier | Payment |
|---|---|---|
| 1 fan | × 1 | 1 × base |
| 2 fan | × 2 | 2 × base |
| 3 fan | × 4 | 4 × base |
| 4 fan | × 8 | 8 × base |
| 5 fan | × 16 | 16 × base |
| 6 fan or more | × 32 | Capped: anything above 6 fan counts as 6 |
- Self-draw: all three other players pay. Win on a discard: only the discarder pays.
- No dealer bonus: the dealer keeps the deal after winning or a drawn hand, but pays and collects the same fan as everyone else.
- Kong payments: an exposed kong is paid by the discarder (3 × base); an added kong by each other player (1 × base); a concealed kong by each other player (2 × base). Kongs are paid whoever wins and even in a drawn hand; a kong that gets robbed is not paid.
Three worked examples
All examples use a base of 100.
Example 1: concealed full flush, self-drawn (hits the cap)
Your hand is 1-2-3, 4-5-6, 7-8-9 and 2-3-4 of characters plus a pair of 5 characters. You never called a tile and you draw the winning tile yourself.
- Win 1 + self-draw 1 + concealed 1 + full flush 6 = 9 fan
- Above the 6-fan cap, so it counts as 6: 100 × 25 = 3,200
Self-drawn, so each of the other three pays 3,200. The result screen shows “9 fan (capped at 6)”.
Example 2: all pungs plus half flush, with an exposed kong
You punged the East wind and made an exposed kong of 9 dots from South's discard. In hand you still have pungs of 1 dots and 3 dots and a single White dragon. West discards a White dragon and you win.
- Win 1 + all pungs 2 (all four sets are pungs or kongs) + half flush 3 (dots plus honours) = 6 fan
- You called tiles, so the hand is not concealed.
West, the discarder, pays 100 × 25 = 3,200. South separately pays 3 × 100 = 300 for the exposed kong.
Example 3: concealed seven pairs
Without calling anything you hold six pairs (1 and 3 characters, 5 and 7 dots, 9 bamboo, White dragons) and a single East wind. North discards an East wind and you win.
- Win 1 + concealed 1 + seven pairs 3 = 5 fan
- The hand uses all three suits, so there is no flush.
North pays 100 × 24 = 1,600. Had you self-drawn the East, the extra fan would make it 6 fan, and each of the three others would pay 3,200.
Common questions
Is there a minimum fan to win?
No. In MacePlay any complete hand can win, and every win is worth at least 1 fan.
Are Thirteen Orphans allowed?
Not in MacePlay's Push-Down Mahjong. There is also no little three dragons, pure straight or wind-pung fan. A winning hand is either four sets and a pair, or seven pairs.
Does a concealed kong break a concealed hand?
No, the hand still counts as concealed. But once you have any kong, including a concealed one, you can no longer win with seven pairs.
Does the dealer score extra?
No. The dealer keeps the deal after a win or a drawn hand, but scores the same as everyone else.
Play Push-Down Mahjong in MacePlay
MacePlay's Push-Down Mahjong is a four-player table where dice decide the first dealer. The result screen lists every fan pattern, the total and any kong payments, so a few hands are all it takes to learn the table. Tables start any time, with AI players filling empty seats. Taiwan Mahjong (16 tiles), Mahjong Duel and Mahjong Rush are there when you want a change.
MacePlay is for adults 18+ and for entertainment only. Virtual coins have no cash value and cannot be exchanged for cash or goods.
Ready? Open a table in MacePlay
Four-player Push-Down Mahjong. The result screen lists every fan pattern and kong payment.
