Mahjong Winning & Scoring
A player wins the round (胡, hu) by creating a standard mahjong hand (in Western Classical variants, this is known as creating a Mahjong, and the process of winning is called going Mahjong) which consists of a certain number of melds, four for 13-tile variations and five for 16-tile variations, and a pair. Some variations may also require that winning hands be of some point value.
Variations may also have special nonstandard hands that a player can make (in this sense, American Mahjong is a variant where only special hands exist).
Turns and Rounds
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If the dealer wins the game, they will stay as the dealer. Otherwise, the player to the right becomes dealer and the player's wind becomes the Game Wind, in the sequence East-South-West-North.
After the wind returns to East (ie. each player has been the dealer), a round is complete and the Prevailing Wind will change, again in the sequence East-South-West-North. A full game of mahjong ends after 4 rounds, ie. when the North Prevailing Wind round is over. It is often regarded as an unlucky act to stop the gameplay at the West round, as West has a similar meaning to death in Chinese.
Scoring
When a player has a complete hand of melds and a pair, he may declare it and show it to the other players. This ends the hand. The player that went out calculates his score using the following table:
| Tile Combinations | Points |
| Chow | 0 |
| Pung or Kong (These multipliers apply only to it.1) | 2 |
| Major Tiles | x 2 |
| Concealed | x 2 |
| Kong | x 4 |
| Pair of Colors or of Own Wind or of Prevailing Wind (Each player may count only one pair.2) |
2 |
| Each Flower or Season | 4 |
| Bonus Points for Winner: | |
| Winning | 20 |
| Drawing the winning tile oneself | 2 |
| Winning with the only tile possible | 2 |
| No Scoring Combinations | 10 |
Important:
1 - The notation for scoring a Pung or a Kong is compact, but fairly simple once you understand it. For example, an exposed Pung of Winds is worth 2 (base) x 2 (Major Tiles) = 4 points. A concealed Kong of the Three of Bamboos is worth 2 (base) x 2 (concealed) x 4 (a Kong) = 16 points.
2 - However, the same pair can count as both your wind and the prevailing wind, if they're the same this round, for four points.
| Doubles | Multiplier |
| Pung or Kong of Colors | x 2 |
| Pung or Kong of Own Wind | x 2 |
| Pung or Kong of Prevailing Wind | x 2 |
| All but last tile concealed | x 2 |
| Fully concealed | x 4 |
| No Chows | x 2 |
| Only One Suit and Honors | x 2 |
| Only One Suit or Only Honors or Only Terminals | x 8 |
| Only Major Tiles (Not Cumulative with Previous) | x 2 |
| Only Minor Tiles | x 2 |
| Own Flower or Season | x 2 |
| Prevailing Flower or Season | x 2 |
| All Four Flowers or Seasons (Not Cumulative with Previous Two) |
x 16 |
| Going Out on a Loose Tile | x 2 |
| Going Out on the last tile before the Dead Wall (May be either drawn or claimed.) |
x 2 |
| Going Out by Robbing a Kong | x 2 |
Because of the large differences between the various systems of scoring (especially for Chinese variants), groups of players will often agree on particular scoring rules before a game. Like with gameplay, many attempts have been made to create an international standard of scoring, but most are not widely accepted.