Clucking Over 'Chicken Hand' Rule at the Mahjong World Series

At the World Series of Mahjong in Macau, the controversial "Chicken Hand" rule will be allowed, frustrating purists who say it waters down the complexity of the game. Photo: Menglin Huang/The Wall Street Journal
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[@dinkaboutit4228]

The WSoMJ is still a point based tournament. Progression is based on points, and even in the final, the payout is determined by points scored. So even if you CAN win with zero points, there's not much impetus to do so. Also, the scoring does have some elements of Riichi, so the chicken hand can be strategic. If discards lead me to believe that an opponent has neared completing a high scoring hand, I'd rather win with no points than pay the penalty for them winning on my discard, and doing so is completely consistent with good strategy.

[@Gumden]

Chicken hand = face hunters

[@dchang11]

I keep things simple in Mahjong. Don’t do anything fancy.

[@Johannes00]

Might as well disable all big luck elements then? 2 - 3 han min, no dora at all, no lucky han additions like ippatsu, etc. 😅

[@marvinuhilarious]

Those are Japanese exclusive rules. We don't deal in yaku and dora in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

[@goodmoringful]

This guy is making an excuse, he could’ve setup his own chicken hand competition. I don’t mind if you want a chicken hand competition but you can’t change the rules on the last minute because that would be cheating and unfair to those who are unaware.

[@LoveXKnife]

so which is the chicken hand? Yakuhai?

[@munmunyee]

yakuhai is one yaku - chicken hand has no yaku. Even if you menzen tsumo (1 yaku each), a chicken hand would still be invalidated.

[@alexschalk5439]

@@munmunyee So in chinese mahjong it doesn't need any yaku at all?

[@munmunyee]

@@alexschalk5439 Depends on ruleset. I'm not sure about the specifics of Mainland Chinese mahjong, but chicken hands are worth some points under Taiwan rules. Under Hong Kong rules chicken hands count as winning hands. It's a winning hand in that there's a "loser" who plays the tile that completes the hand of the "winner," and that the winds rotate (assuming the winner is not East). However, points are not gained or lost.

[@Asdayasman]

@@munmunyee tf but no yaku is -8000 points won isn't it?

[@munmunyee]

@@Asdayasman the scoring system is different between versions. a chicken hand under the japanese ruleset is considered a blunder as it's declaring ron with an invalid hand, hence the 8000 point penalty. however, under hong kong and taiwan rules (again, not sure about mainland china), chicken hands are considered valid hands albeit with no points. similarly though, declaring ron on an invalid hand also leads to a penalty under hong kong and taiwan rules. to my knowledge, the penalty is not standardized, and may often change depending on house rules or prior agreement by all players. besides the blunderer paying X amount of points from the person they tried to win off their discard, or to the other 3 players, another penalty may be incurred, such as having to play the rest of the round with all their tiles revealed. here are two hands hand a: south wind sitting on north, but I forget it's the south wind. 3x east 7-8-9 pin 6-7-8 pin 3x 4 man 1x 2 sou someone discards 2 sou i declare ron JP: invalid hand, penalty is incurred and play continues HK: chicken hand, move on to west wind, I get no points TW: I might get points based on other factors such as mini combos (but cba calculating), and I get some (very minor) points for chicken hand, because it counts for something apparently. hand b: whatever wind sitting wherever 2x 6 pin 1x 9 pin 3x 2 sou 3-4-5 sou 3x 5 man 1x green dragon someone discards red dragon and I declare ron all 3 rulesets: this is an invalid hand and must be penalized.