All Green 绿一色

What It Is

All Green (绿一色, Lü Yi Se) uses only the green tiles: the 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8 of Bamboo, and the Green Dragon (Fa Cai). The 1, 5, 7 and 9 of Bamboo are out, however green your hand looks.

Sets can be Chi, Pongs or Kongs, claimed or not. The only Chi possible is 2-3-4, so most All Green hands lean on Pongs. The Green Dragon is optional here: an all-Bamboo version counts too.

What It Pays

At a Singapore table it pays the limit, 5 tai, in place of everything else: 128 points on a discard. Without the dragon it’s a Qing Yi Se as well, and with it a Hun Yi Se, but the limit is the limit; you’re paid once.

How To Build It

You’ll almost never set out for it. All Green happens when you’re already building a Bamboo flush and notice your tiles are mostly 2s, 3s, 4s, 6s and 8s. Then it’s a matter of steering: throw the 1, 5, 7 and 9 Bamboo, keep the green ones, and Pong any Green Dragon you can.

Pongs of 6 and 8 Bamboo and the Green Dragon are your friends. A Green Dragon set adds 1 tai on any flush hand, so even if All Green slips away you’re building something that pays.

Your runs are the weak spot. Only 2-3-4 works, so a 3-4 waiting on 2 or 5 is half dead: the 5 would wreck the colour. Swap runs for Pongs when you can, and count the 2s and 4s already on the table before you rely on them.

How Others Spot It

To the table it looks like a Bamboo flush, and that’s how they’ll defend: hold back Bamboo and the Green Dragon. A sharp reader might notice you’ve thrown a 5 or 7 Bamboo from a flush hand, which rarely makes sense otherwise.

If you’re reading someone else: three Bamboo sets face up already means keeping Bamboo to yourself, because the flush risk is the same whichever way their hand ends.

At Other Tables

This game’s Hong Kong table has no All Green, and Malaysian 3 Kaki plays without Bamboo. In Riichi it’s Ryuuiisou, a yakuman, and Hatsu (the Green Dragon) isn’t required there either. Home tables vary, especially on the dragon, so agree before the first tile.