| Hand size | 16 tiles |
|---|---|
| Winning shape | Five sets and a pair |
| Deal | Four rounds of two stacks each |
| Scoring | Additive tai, read from a table |
| Signature | 連莊 — a winning dealer keeps the deal |
Taiwanese mahjong is the other great 16-tile game, and it is the clearest scoring system in the family. Where Hong Kong doubles and Japanese multiplies, Taiwanese simply adds. Each scoring pattern is worth a number of tai, you total them, and that total drives the settlement. You can learn to count it in an evening.
The hand is five sets and a pair, same shape as Filipino, but dealt in four rounds of two stacks rather than two rounds of four. Nothing pays until somebody wins — there are no instant pays here.
Tai, and how it settles
Points come out as tai + 2C + 1, where C is a base agreed at the table. A self-drawn win collects from all three opponents; a win on a discard is paid by the discarder alone. The dealer's involvement adds to the total, and the seat that fed the winning tile pays more than the seats that didn't.
That last detail changes how the game feels. In Taiwanese mahjong a careless discard is expensive in a way it isn't everywhere, so reading the table — what has gone out, what each seat is collecting — is most of the skill.
連莊 — riding the streak
A dealer who wins keeps the deal, and keeps it again, and the streak compounds into the score. A hot dealer in Taiwanese mahjong is a genuine problem for the other three seats, and breaking that streak becomes the table's shared project.
Eight pairs and a half
八對半 — eight pairs and a half — is the style's famous oddity: a hand of pairs rather than sets. It is worth a great deal, and it is the hand every Taiwanese player has a story about.
What the app enforces
- Additive tai from a documented table, with every value verified against the standard
- The full settlement — self-draw against all three, discard paid by the feeder
- 連莊 dealer continuation, with the streak tracked and shown
- The round wind, rotating from the table's first dealer as the deal comes back around
- A scoring receipt that names each pattern and its tai, so the total is checkable
Every call at the table is in the style's own language — Pong 碰, Chi 吃, Gang 槓, Zimo 自摸 — romanized first with the native script beside it.
