Lucky Wins

The Four Lucky Wins

A Singapore table pays an extra tai for four ways of winning. Each adds to whatever your hand is already worth:

• Hua Shang (花上, “on the flower”): you draw a bonus tile, set it aside, and the replacement tile completes your hand.
• Gang Shang (杠上, “on the Kong”): you make a Kong, draw its replacement from the back of the wall, and that tile completes your hand.
• Hai Di Lao Yue (海底捞月, “fishing the moon from the sea bed”): you win on the very last tile there is to draw.
• Qiang Gang (抢杠, “robbing the Kong”): another player adds a fourth tile to their Pong, and that tile is the one you were waiting for. You take it and win.

What They Pay

At a Singapore table each one is worth 1 tai. Because Hua Shang, Gang Shang and Hai Di Lao Yue are all draws from the wall, they count as Zi Mo: everyone pays, and a hand with nothing claimed adds Men Qing Zi Mo as well.

Replacement Wins

Hua Shang often stacks nicely. If the bonus tile you drew is your own flower or an animal, that pays too, so one lucky draw can bring two tai at once.

Gang Shang is a reason to declare a Kong when you’re already waiting. The replacement is an extra draw, and if it finishes you, it’s worth more than a normal win. A concealed Kong keeps your hand concealed as standard, so Men Qing still counts.

Two Kongs in a row and then the win is something else again: Gang Shang Gang, a limit hand.

The Last Tile And Robbing A Kong

Hai Di Lao Yue is pure luck, but it changes how you play the end of the wall. Keep a ready hand ready right to the finish, rather than breaking it up in a panic. You might draw the last tile yourself.

Qiang Gang punishes adding to a Pong late. If someone adds the fourth tile to their Pong and you’re waiting on it, you can win on it, and the player who added it is treated as the shooter. Robbing a concealed Kong is different: as standard here, only a hand waiting on 13 Wonders may do it, though House Rules can change that.

Before you add to a Pong yourself, check whether that tile might be someone’s wait. See Kong Decisions for more.

At Other Tables

Hong Kong pays for Gong Seung Hoi Fa, Hoi Dai Lo Yuet and Cheung Gong, but nothing extra for a flower’s replacement. Malaysian 3 Kaki makes the last-tile win, and a win on the hand’s last discard, into limit hands.

Riichi has Rinshan Kaihou, Haitei, Houtei and Chankan. Each counts as a yaku, so a lucky win can make an otherwise yaku-less hand legal.