Malaysian 3 Kaki

A Smaller Set For Three

A 3 Kaki set has 84 tiles. Tong (Dots) 1 to 9 is the only suit. Then all four winds, the three dragons, four flowers, four seasons, the four animals, four face tiles and four Fei (飛), the jokers.

Three seats, East, South and West; North stays empty. The Dealer is East and takes 14 tiles. East is always the Round Wind, and the winner deals the next hand (after a drawn hand, the last player to draw). The last seven tiles are never drawn.

A Chow comes only from the player before you; a Pong or Kong from anyone. A win beats a Kong, which beats a Pong, which beats a Chow. Straight after a Chow or Pong you may not throw any tile of that set the same turn.

Fei, The Jokers

A Fei stands for any tile. In your own hand it can fill one or two places in a Pong or a Chow, or be half the Eye, or all of it. Two rules hold it in check: every set keeps at least one real tile, and a Fei never goes into a Kong.

You can claim with one. A Pong from a discard can use one Fei and one real copy; a Chow can use exactly one Fei. A set shown to the table never holds more than one, and a Pong of real tiles beats a Pong that leans on a Fei for the same discard.

On your turn, if you hold the real tile a Fei is standing in for in one of your shown sets, you may swap it in and take the Fei back. A Pong with a Fei in it can’t become a Kong until you do. Hold all four Fei and it’s a limit hand: the limit, 10 fan.

Sinking A Fei

You can also throw a Fei away, but nobody can claim it. It goes among your bonus tiles, worth 1 fan, and you draw a replacement from the back of the wall and discard again. Tables call it sinking a Fei. Win on that replacement and it’s a replacement win, 1 fan more.

Sink one when that fan lifts your waits to the minimum, or when a fresh tile would help more than the joker. With no tile left above the seven that are never drawn, you can’t sink at all. And sinking is no escape in defence: you still have to discard after the replacement.

Fan And Kang Kang Hu

Fan add up. A hand needs 5 fan to win, and 10 fan is the limit. Bonus tiles carry a lot of it: each animal is 1 fan and each face 1 fan, your own flower and season count (1 East, 2 South, 3 West), and since nobody sits North, the 4s count for everyone. Honours work the same way: dragon sets, the East set, your seat wind and the North set all score.

Hands with no bonus tiles at all, or all sixteen, are limit hands. So is a win on the last tile or the last discard. The shapes are modest by comparison:

Kang Kang Hu, four Pongs made in your hand, is a limit hand with an unusual condition: the winning tile, drawn or discarded, must finish one of the Pongs, never the Eye. Three Pongs and two pairs waiting qualifies; four Pongs waiting on a single tile for the Eye does not. Hong Kong reads it the other way round, and Singapore’s Kam Kam Hu wants a self-draw.

Paying Up

Points rise evenly with each fan from the minimum, then jump at the limit. On a discard, the shooter pays the hand’s value and the other player half; by Ji Mo, both pay it in full.

Kongs are paid at once: a concealed Kong by each other player, an added Kong by each at half that, and a Kong claimed from a discard by the discarder alone. A complete family of four flowers, seasons, animals or faces is paid by each player too, twice as much if it was complete in the deal.

If a player shows two dragon sets and you throw the third dragon, you pay their whole win, both shares, whether they win on it or claim it and win later. After every win there is also a settling-up: each loser pays for each Fei the winner holds beyond their own, then the two losers square up between themselves for their scoring tiles and Fei.

Every Hand 3 Kaki Pays

Every hand, set, bonus and win this game’s 3 Kaki table counts, with an example of each and its fan.

• Full Flush

  3 fan

  Tong and nothing else. Also said full colour.

• Half Flush

  1 fan

  Tong with winds or dragons. Also said half colour.

• All Chow

  1 fan

  Four Chows and an Eye of Tong.

• All Pong

  2 fan

  Four Pongs or Kongs and an Eye. Also said Peng Peng Hu, Dui Dui Hu.

• Little Dragons

  3 fan

  Two dragon sets and the third dragon as the Eye, on top of the sets’ own.

• Dragon Set

  1 fan

  Each Pong or Kong of dragons.

• Dong Set

  1 fan

  A Pong or Kong of the Round Wind.

• Seat Wind Set

  1 fan

  A Pong or Kong of your Seat Wind.

• Bei Set

  1 fan

  A Pong or Kong of North, which nobody sits at.

• Each Animal

  1 fan

  Each animal you hold.

• Each Face Tile

  1 fan

  Each face tile you hold.

• Your Own Flower Or Season

  1 fan

  The flower or season with your seat’s number.

• Flower 4 Or Season 4

  1 fan

  The 4s are everyone’s own.

• Fei Set Aside

  1 fan

  Each Fei set aside instead of played.

• All Four Flowers Or Seasons

  1 fan

  All four flowers, or all four seasons.

• Bonus Replacement Win

  1 fan

  Winning on the tile drawn after a flower.

• Kong Replacement Win

  1 fan

  Winning on the tile drawn after a Kong.

• Robbing The Kong

  1 fan

  Winning on the tile someone adds to their Pong.

• No Bonus Tiles

  Limit · 10 fan

  No bonus tiles at all.

• All Sixteen Bonus Tiles

  Limit · 10 fan

  Every flower, season, animal and face tile.

• Four Fei

  Limit · 10 fan

  All four Fei.

• Big Dragons

  Limit · 10 fan

  A set of each of the three dragons.

• Big Winds

  Limit · 10 fan

  A set of each of the four winds.

• Little Winds

  Limit · 10 fan

  Three wind sets, and the fourth wind as the Eye.

• All Honours

  Limit · 10 fan

  Only winds and dragons.

• Four Concealed Pongs

  Limit · 10 fan

  Kang Kang Hu: four Pongs made in your hand, the winning tile finishing a Pong, not the Eye.

• Nine Gates

  Limit · 10 fan

  1112345678999 of one suit and one more of it, nothing claimed.

• Four Kongs

  Limit · 10 fan

  Four Kongs.

• Last Tile Win

  Limit · 10 fan

  Winning on the last tile there is to draw.

• Last Discard Win

  Limit · 10 fan

  Winning on the hand’s last discard.

• Heavenly Hand

  Limit · 10 fan

  The Dealer wins on the dealt tiles.

• Earthly Hand

  Limit · 10 fan

  Winning on the Dealer’s first discard.

• Kong Upon Kong

  Limit · 10 fan

  A Kong, another Kong on its replacement, then the win.