One more set than the short hand
Taiwanese mahjong deals sixteen tiles. You win with seventeen: five sets and a pair. The score is counted in tai.
- A usual set is 144 tiles, with eight flowers. Some tables add more flowers. Ask before you sit.
Suits, honors, and a flower. - The extra length is a fifth set. A thirteen-tile game wins on four sets and a pair. Here the win is five sets and a pair.
Five sets and a pair. Seventeen tiles. This is the shape, not a scored hand. - Chow, pung, and kong all exist. A flower is declared and replaced. It is not wild.
Flowers leave the hand and a replacement is drawn. - Tai are the scoring units. The table agrees which patterns pay. There is no yearly printed card of the American kind.
The American hand is fourteen tiles, with jokers. That course starts at the tiles.