Mahjiku › Questions › How do you keep score in mahjong without paper?
For the table game: four players, real tiles, Hong Kong style — not the solitaire puzzle.
Use a scorekeeper app on one phone. One player records each hand, the app names the winning hand, works out the total and who pays whom, and everyone else follows the same board live from their own phone — no pencil, no running tally, no arguing about the arithmetic.
Paper works, and it fails in the same three ways every time:
A scorekeeper app fixes all three at once. The host taps the winning hand; the app names it, counts it against your table's values, checks it against the minimum of 3 (or whatever yours is), and settles the payments. Every other player and any number of onlookers can watch the same board update live from their own phone.
The part that matters more than the automation: every number stays editable. Mis-tap a hand, mis-hear a call, or agree afterwards that a hand was scored wrong — go back and fix that entry, and the standings recompute themselves. A tool that can count but cannot be corrected is worse than paper, because paper at least has an eraser.
That is what Mahjiku is. A live scoreboard for a real table of real tiles — your house rules, every hand named and explained as it is scored, and a recap of the night at the end. Free on iPhone and Android. Game points only — no betting, no money, nothing to cash out.
Unless another sheet is named, examples use the legacy additive reference sheet. Fresh installs select Half Spicy, whose hand values and payments differ. Check the sheet selected for your table.
The running total a pad would carry, worked by the engine instead. Three hands on the legacy additive reference sheet:
| Hand | Faan | East | South | West | North |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| South self-draws | 16 | -16 | 48 | -16 | -16 |
| South wins off West | 8 | -16 | 56 | -24 | -16 |
| South wins off West | 8 | -16 | 64 | -32 | -16 |
Each row is the standings after that hand, and every row sums to zero. Correct the second hand and the third row recomputes itself; on paper it would have to be redone by hand.
Last updated: 2026-10-24 · editorially reviewed 2026-10-10. Every Hong Kong number on this page is computed from Mahjiku's rule sheets when the page is built.
Game points only. Mahjiku records mahjong points for a friendly table — no betting, no money, nothing to cash out.
Mahjiku is a live scorekeeper with fully custom house rules — points only, no wagering.
App StoreGoogle Play© 2026 Steven Eka Halim · Mahjiku records game points only.