Mahjiku › Pattern library › Big Three Dragons
大三元 · Dai Saam Yuen
Big Three Dragons (大三元 · Dai Saam Yuen) is a Hong Kong mahjong hand: A triplet of all three dragons — red, green and white together. A dream hand. The legacy additive reference sheet prices it at 18 faan, and every win also carries the 1 faan base, so a hand whose only named line is Big Three Dragons totals 19 faan. Under the legacy additive payout that 19 faan is the payment itself: the winner collects 57 points on a self-draw (自摸), when all three opponents pay 19 each, or 19 from the single player who discarded the winning tile (點炮). These are legacy additive reference values; tables choose their own sheet.
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.
patterns block of the legacy additive reference sheet. House rules vary from table to table — this is one common setting, not the only "correct" one. Your table can price it differently; the engine reads whatever your rule set says.Three dragon triplets, one of each colour.
The bright sets are the ones that make it Big Three Dragons; the faded sets are ordinary filler that any hand needs.
These are not illustrative numbers: the tiles above were passed to Mahjiku's scoring engine on the Legacy additive reference sheet (won on a discard, with sets claimed from the table, seat wind North, round wind North) and this is the breakdown it returned.
| Line the engine emitted | Faan |
|---|---|
| Big Three Dragons大三元 | +18 |
| Base底 | +1 |
| Total | 19 |
Faan is not the score by itself — it is the number the table turns into points, and Hong Kong tables do that two different ways. The table below keeps the legacy additive reference sheet's hand values and changes only its payout model. The half/full rows are illustrative payout overrides, not the Half Spicy or Full Spicy presets, which also change hand values and settlement.
| Payout model | One payer owes | Self-draw 自摸 | Discard 點炮 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Additivefaan is the payout | 19 | +57 | +19 |
| 半辣上half spicy | 384 | +1152 | +384 |
| 辣辣上full spicy | 8192 | +24576 | +8192 |
Self-draw: all three opponents pay. Discard: only the player who threw the tile pays. Both columns are the winner's gain, straight out of the app's settlement function.
Worth knowing. Both doubling tables stop at 13 faan, so this 19-faan hand is paid at the 13-faan row — 384 points under 半辣上 and 8192 under 辣辣上. Everything above 13 faan pays the same. The additive model has no ceiling, so there the extra faan still count.
The free faan calculator opens with this hand already selected — add whatever else your hand had and watch the points move.
Open the calculator with Big Three Dragons already ticked All 53 patternsMore context: the pattern library lists every hand by family, the scoring guide explains how faan becomes points, and the FAQ answers the questions people ask before their first game night.
Last updated: 2026-10-24. This page is generated from Mahjiku's shipped scoring engine — the date moves only when its content does.
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