Chinese Official Mahjong · 88 pt

Nine Gates in Chinese Official Mahjong (MCR): Points, the Nine-Sided Wait, Odds

In Chinese Official Mahjong, Nine Gates (九莲宝灯) is worth 88 points: a concealed hand whose 13 tiles are 1112345678999 of one suit (1-1-1, 2-3-4-5-6-7-8, 9-9-9). That hand wins on any of the nine tiles of the suit — the famous nine-sided wait. The winning tile is the 14th.

The rules for Nine Gates

• Concealed: no chows, pungs or melded kongs (a concealed kong would break the shape too)
• The 13 tiles before the win must be exactly 1112345678999, all in one suit
• Any winning tile of that suit, self-drawn or claimed
• No honors and no other suit

What Nine Gates does not combine with

Under the non-repeat rule, Nine Gates already includes these fan, so they are not counted:

• Full Flush (24 points), No Honors, One Voided Suit: one suit, no honors
• Concealed Hand (2 points): it must be concealed anyway
• Pung of Terminals or Honors (1 point): the 1-1-1 and 9-9-9 pungs

The engine on this site also lists Fully Concealed Hand as not counted, so a self-drawn Nine Gates scores Self-Drawn (1 point) instead.

Depending on how the winning tile splits the hand (the highest-scoring reading is taken), extra fan appear. Winning on a discard:

Self-drawn adds Self-Drawn (1 point).

How Nine Gates is scored

The hands below are scored live by the same code the game uses, including the fan left out under the non-repeat rule.

How it relates to other fan

• Full Flush: Nine Gates is always a Full Flush, which is why Full Flush isn't counted. Miss the nine-sided shape and Full Flush still gives 24 points.
• Seven Shifted Pairs: the other concealed one-suit 88-pointer.
• Concealed Hand: required for Nine Gates, so not added.
• Pure Straight and Tile Hog: appear when you win on a 1 or a 9, and stack.

Nine Gates odds

You will almost never see Nine Gates. Drawing 14 random tiles from the 136, the chance that they form the Nine Gates shape (1112345678999 plus any tile of the suit) is about one in 490,000,000,000 — before even worrying about which tile was the wait.

Real play isn't random draws either: a 13-tile opening hand has 9 or more tiles of one suit only about 0.25% of the time, and then it has to grow into exactly this shape while staying concealed. In 4,000 hands of computer play on this site (3,849 wins) Nine Gates came up 0 times — nowhere near enough to measure.

Source: 1,000,000 random 13-tile deals (flowers already replaced).

Playing a Nine Gates shape

• You don't really plan Nine Gates; it usually happens when a concealed Full Flush happens to grow into this shape.
• Holding 1-1-1 and 9-9-9 in a flush with one or two of the 2–8 missing gives you a chance — don't chow or pung, one call and it's gone.
• Once the nine-sided wait is there, every tile of the suit wins: don't change the wait and don't declare kongs.
• Before the shape is complete, the Full Flush itself (24 points) is already plenty — don't pass up an earlier win for a dream.

Want to try? Open a table of Chinese Official Mahjong online — the computers play with you and the scoring is done for you.

Nine Gates in other mahjong styles

• Japanese mahjong: a yakuman; some rules make the nine-sided wait a double yakuman (Japanese mahjong yaku list)
• Hong Kong mahjong has Nine Gates too (Hong Kong mahjong fan table)

FAQ

How many points is Nine Gates?

In Chinese Official Mahjong Nine Gates is worth 88 points, and it no longer counts Full Flush, Concealed Hand, Pung of Terminals or Honors or No Honors.

Can you claim tiles for Nine Gates?

No. Nine Gates must be concealed; any chow, pung or melded kong breaks the shape.

Does Nine Gates need the nine-sided wait?

Yes. What counts is whether the 13 tiles before the win are 1112345678999; the same 14 tiles with a different wait don't qualify.

Does a self-drawn Nine Gates score Fully Concealed Hand?

Not on this site's engine, but Self-Drawn (1 point) counts. The competition rules don't settle this explicitly and rulings differ.

Related fan

Full Flush 24 pt Every tile from a single suit for 24 points. Examples, the non-repeat rules, Half Flush vs Full Flush, and how many suited tiles you need. Seven Shifted Pairs 88 pt Seven consecutive pairs in one suit for 88 points: only nine possible hands, no Seven Pairs or Full Flush on top, and hundreds of thousands of times rarer than Seven Pairs. Concealed Hand 2 pt No claims and won on a discard for 2 points: concealed kongs are fine, self-drawn it becomes Fully Concealed, and Seven Pairs or Thirteen Orphans absorb it.