Straits MahjongEight Flowers 八仙过海
Eight Flowers is holding all four flowers and all four seasons at once, which wins on the spot whatever your other tiles are. In Singapore Mahjong it pays the limit, 5 tai.
The only limit hand you can win without a single set. Collect all eight flowers and seasons, and the hand is over.
What It Is
Eight Flowers (八仙过海, “eight immortals cross the sea”) is holding all four flowers and all four seasons at once. Your ordinary tiles don’t matter at all: half a hand, no Eye, nothing ready. The eighth bonus tile wins on the spot.
Animals don’t count towards it. Neither do sets of flowers on their own: a complete set of four flowers is worth 1 tai, and a matching set of seasons another.
What It Pays
| Table | Called | Worth |
|---|---|---|
| Singapore | Eight Flowers | the limit, 5 tai |
| Hong Kong | Eight Flowers | 8 faan |
At a Singapore table it pays the limit, 5 tai. Draw the eighth yourself and it’s settled as a Zi Mo, 192 points in all.
There’s a twist. If you hold seven and someone else draws the eighth, it isn’t theirs: it passes to you, the hand ends, and you win as if they’d thrown it, 128 points, with them as the shooter. Nobody chooses this, and it isn’t Bao. It just happens.
How Realistic Is It?
It’s pure luck. You can’t claim a flower, and you can’t steer what you draw. What you can do is keep a running count: if you hold six or seven, every flower anyone draws matters to you.
The odds get better as the hand goes on, because every bonus tile is drawn sooner or later unless the hand ends first. A player sitting on six flowers late in a long hand has a real chance; the same six in a fast hand rarely get there.
Your bonus tiles pay along the way anyway. Your own flower and season are worth 1 tai each, and the instant payments for pairs and sets come as you collect them, so a big flower haul is never wasted.
What The Table Sees
Bonus tiles sit face up, so everyone knows exactly how many you hold. There’s nothing to defend against, though: nobody throws a flower. The only “defence” is being lucky, and the only tell is a stack of colourful tiles that keeps growing.
At Other Tables
| Table | Called | Worth |
|---|---|---|
| Hong Kong | Seven Flowers | 3 faan |
| Hong Kong | Eight Flowers | 8 faan |
| Malaysian 3 Kaki | All Sixteen Bonus Tiles | the limit, 10 fan |
| Malaysian 3 Kaki | No Bonus Tiles | the limit, 10 fan |
Hong Kong pays Eight Flowers too, 8 faan, paid as a self-draw. It also has Seven Flowers: hold seven of the eight and you may declare a win on your own turn for 3 faan, whatever your hand looks like. There’s no capture of the eighth there.
Malaysian 3 Kaki has sixteen bonus tiles (flowers, seasons, animals and faces), and holding all sixteen is a limit. So, oddly, is the opposite: a win with no bonus tiles at all pays the limit, 10 fan. Riichi plays without flowers.