Ping Hu 平胡

Ping Hu is a hand of four Chi and a plain Eye, with no bonus tiles and a two-sided wait on a discard. It is worth 4 tai in Singapore Mahjong.

Ping Hu is the quiet hand that pays surprisingly well. Four runs, a plain pair and not a single flower: simple to picture, fussier to finish than it looks.

Also called: Peng Hu

What It Is

Four Chi and a plain Eye of 9 Dots.

Ping Hu (平胡, “flat win”, also said Peng Hu) is a hand of four Chi (runs of three in one suit, like 4-5-6 of Dots) and an Eye (the pair). That’s the shape. What makes it Ping Hu rather than an ordinary win is everything it leaves out.

No bonus tiles at all. Not one flower, season or animal.
A plain Eye. The pair can’t be dragons, your Own Wind or the Round Wind. A pair of 9 Dots or North (when North is neither) is fine.
A two-sided wait on a discard. To win on someone else’s throw, you must have been waiting on more than one kind of tile, like 4-5 waiting on 3 or 6. If you draw the winning tile yourself (Zi Mo), the wait doesn’t matter.

What It Pays

What it’s worth at each table
Table	Called	Worth
Singapore	Ping Hu	4 tai
Hong Kong	Ping Wu	1 faan
Malaysian 3 Kaki	All Chow	1 fan
Riichi	Pinfu	1 han, closed only

At a Singapore table Ping Hu is worth 4 tai, which is a lot for a hand with no honours and no flush: one tai short of the usual five-tai limit. On a discard win that’s 64 points from the table, with the shooter paying double.

Some tables, including SPGG competition rules, give Ping Hu its own fixed price instead of counting it as four tai. Agree which you’re playing before the first tile.

What Spoils It

The commonest heartbreak is a bonus tile. Draw a flower in the first round and your perfect runs become Chow Ping Hu, sometimes called “smelly” Ping Hu (臭平胡), worth only 1 tai. The shape is the same; the flower spoils it.

The second is the wait. Holding 1-2 and needing 3 (an edge wait), or 4-6 and needing 5 (kalong, the middle wait), means only one tile finishes you. Win on a discard that way and it isn’t Ping Hu. Draw that tile yourself and it still is.

And one Pong anywhere turns it into a different hand altogether. Ping Hu is all runs, every time.

How To Build It

Ping Hu suits a hand that starts with lots of middle tiles (3s to 7s) in two or three suits, few honours and no flowers. If you’re dealt a flower, let the dream go early and build for something else.

Throw honours first: lone winds and dragons can’t be part of a run, and they’re the tiles other players want for their Pongs, so you’ll be giving them away while they’re still fairly safe. Keep connected pairs like 4-5 or 6-7, which can grow at either end, over edge pairs like 1-2 or gaps like 3-5.

Claiming a Chi from the player on your left is allowed. Unlike Riichi, Singapore’s Ping Hu doesn’t need the hand kept closed.

At Other Tables

Hong Kong’s Ping Wu is the same four runs, but any pair will do and flowers don’t spoil it. It’s worth much less, though: 1 faan.

In Riichi, Pinfu is worth 1 han, closed only, only with nothing claimed, and the pair and two-sided wait rules are much like Singapore’s. At a 3 Kaki table the closest hand is All Chow, 1 fan.