Mahjiku › Questions › Self-draw vs discard in Hong Kong mahjong: who pays, and how much
For the table game: four players, real tiles, Hong Kong style — not the solitaire puzzle.
Off a discard, only the player who threw the winning tile pays; self-drawn, all three opponents pay. On Mahjiku's default sheet a 3-faan hand therefore collects 3 off a discard and 9 self-drawn — 3 times as much for the same tiles. Tables change both halves: a doubled thrower, 半銃 half shot, everyone paying, or a self-draw multiplier.
Take one hand — four pungs and a pair, one pung of red dragons — and hold the count fixed:
| Line the engine found | 中文 | Faan |
|---|---|---|
| Dragon Pung | 箭刻 | 1 |
| All Triplets | 對對糊 | 6 |
| Base | 底 | 1 |
| Total | 8 |
South wins on West's discard. Here is what each seat pays under each convention a Hong Kong table might play, settled by Mahjiku's engine:
| Convention | West (threw it) | East | North | South collects |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thrower pays (出銃) — default sheet | 8 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| Thrower pays double (出銃加倍) | 16 | 0 | 0 | 16 |
| Half shot (半銃): thrower double, the other two a share each | 16 | 8 | 8 | 32 |
| All three opponents pay | 8 | 8 | 8 | 24 |
The first row is the default sheet's. A doubled thrower makes careless discards expensive; half shot keeps that and still charges the bystanders a share; all-pay treats a discard like a self-draw.
The default sheet prices the Self-draw line itself at 0: the all-pay is already the reward, and pricing it twice would count it twice. Sheets that do give it faan are a choice, not a mistake — and the reason the same hand gets three different answers at three tables. Background on the two win types: self-draw and discard.
Last updated: 2026-10-08 · editorially reviewed 2026-10-08. Every number on this page is computed from Mahjiku's rule sheets when the page is built.
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