Singaporean Mahjong Scoring Rules - Point Translation Function

Point Translation Function

Points (台) are scored generally from the level of probabilistic difficulty in amassing the winning hand. If monetary rewards (and losses) are involved, it is common that playing parties will agree upon a monetary value awarded to a one point winning hand. Subsequently, for each additional point scored, this value is accordingly doubled.

There is a typical maximum scoring limit of five points, though this has to be agreed-upon collectively by the playing parties. This point limit is simply known as limit, and will be used to describe the points awarded by certain tile-combinations from now on. In other words, if we describe a certain tile combination to award the limit, it automatically scores the maximum number of points, as agreed upon before the game. For example, a commonly-employed payout system is described as follows.

All players must first agree that a base payout of S$1 be awarded to a one point winning hand. It then follows that a two point winning hand has a payout value of S$2, a three point hand with a payout value of $4, up to a limit of $16 for a five point winning hand. Furthermore, the party who is guilty of discarding the tile with which another party takes to complete a winning hand has to pay double of the agreed payout. Another situation where the winning player receives double of the agreed payout is when he draws the winning tile by himself (zì-mō 自摸).

The following table summarizes the payouts (based on an assumed base payout of S$1 for a one point winning hand).

In the event that the winning player draws the winning tile by himself (zì-mō, or 自摸), the payout is as follows:

Points are given out as follows: