Terminals And Honours

A Terminals and Honours hand uses only 1s, 9s, winds and dragons, so every set is a Pong or Kong. It is worth 2 tai in Singapore Mahjong, plus 2 tai for the Pong Pong Hu that always comes with it.

A hand built from the edges of the suits and the honours, with nothing in the middle. It sounds exotic, but it’s really a Pong Pong Hu with very particular taste.

Also called: Hun Lao Tou

What It Is

Pongs of 1 and 9 Characters, 1 Dots and North, with an Eye of 9 Bamboo.

Terminals are the 1s and 9s of each suit. A Terminals and Honours hand (some players call it Hun Lao Tou) uses only terminals, winds and dragons, with at least some of each. Not a single 2 to 8.

Since you can’t make a Chi from 1s and 9s, every set has to be a Pong or a Kong. So this hand always arrives with Pong Pong Hu attached.

Only 1s and 9s, no honours? That’s All Terminals, a limit hand of its own.
Only honours? That’s Zi Yi Se, also a limit hand.
One 1-2-3 run? Then it isn’t this hand at all.

What It Pays

What it’s worth at each table
Table	Called	Worth
Singapore	Terminals & Honours	2 tai
Hong Kong	Terminals & Honours	1 faan
Riichi	Honroutou	2 han

At a Singapore table it’s worth 2 tai, plus 2 tai for the Pong Pong Hu that always comes with it. Any Pong of a dragon, your Own Wind or the Round Wind adds 1 tai more, so one dragon set takes the hand to the usual 5 tai.

That makes it one of the more reliable ways to reach the limit without a flush, if the tiles are there. Even without an honour Pong that pays, a discard win at that value comes to 64 points.

How To Build It

Look for it when you’re dealt pairs of 1s, 9s and honours, and few middle tiles worth keeping. Three or four such pairs is a good start.

Throw middle tiles first, from 4s to 6s outwards; none of them can ever be part of this hand. Pong any terminal or honour you’re offered, from any player.

Watch the 2s and 8s in your hand. They’re tempting as edges of a run, but a run ends this plan. If you find yourself holding 7-8-9, you’ve quietly switched to a different hand.

Seven pairs of 1s, 9s and honours won’t do it here either. This table gives no award for Seven Pairs, so you still need four Pongs and an Eye.

What Gives It Away

Claimed Pongs of 1s, 9s and honours, and a stream of middle-tile discards, tell the table what you’re doing. Careful players will start holding their terminals back.

Reading someone else: once a player shows three Pongs of terminals and honours, the remaining 1s, 9s and honours are the tiles to worry about. At this table, three sets of 1s and 9s face up also brings Bao for All Terminals, the same way a full flush does.

At Other Tables

Hong Kong counts Terminals & Honours as 1 faan, with Dui Dui Wu on top. In Riichi, Honroutou pays 2 han, and comes with Toitoi or Chiitoitsu, since those are the only shapes these tiles can make. Malaysian 3 Kaki has no separate row for it.