Chinese Official Mahjong · 2 pt

All Chows (Ping He) in Chinese Official Mahjong (MCR): Points, Rules and Reaching 8

In Chinese Official Mahjong, All Chows (平和, ping he) is worth 2 points: when you win, all four sets are chows and the pair is a suited tile, not an honor. A single pung or kong, or an honor pair, and it's not All Chows.

The rules for All Chows

• All four sets are chows: claimed or built in hand, both fine
• No pungs or kongs at all
• The pair is characters, dots or bamboo; an honor pair breaks it
• Doesn't need to be concealed — claimed chows still count
• Any wait: two-sided, edge, closed or single, self-drawn or on a discard
• Flowers don't affect it; each scores 1 point separately (not toward the minimum)

How to get All Chows to 8 points

An All Chows hand is all chows, so it pairs best with chow-based fan:

Without one of those you have to build from small fan: Concealed Hand 2, All Simples 2, then 1-pointers like Pure Double Chow, Mixed Double Chow, Short Straight, Two Terminal Chows, Edge, Closed or Single Wait. All Chows + Concealed Hand + All Simples + one 1-pointer is only 7 — a very common MCR hand, and the classic "I'm complete but I can't win" moment for newcomers.

What All Chows no longer counts

• No Honors (1 point): all four chows and the pair are suited, so there are no honors by definition; under the non-repeat rule it's not counted again.
• All Simples, Concealed Hand, One Voided Suit, Full Flush, Pure Double Chow, Short Straight and the like still count.

The other way round, Pure Terminal Chows (64 points) and Three-Suited Terminal Chows (16 points) are always four chows plus a suited pair, so the fan table says All Chows is not counted with them.

One engine detail: a Knitted Straight (1-4-7, 2-5-8, 3-6-9 split over three suits) counts as three chows when scoring, so a knitted straight plus one chow and a suited pair also scores All Chows.

Scoring examples

These three hands are scored live by the site's scoring engine — exactly as in the game.

How it relates to other fan

• Mixed Straight, Pure Straight, Mixed Triple Chow, Mixed Shifted Chows: chow-built fan — with All Chows, the most common routes to 8.
• All Simples: all four chows within 2–8 and a middle-tile pair give All Chows plus All Simples, 4 points.
• Concealed Hand, Fully Concealed Hand: All Chows doesn't need concealment, but without claims you get 2 more for Concealed Hand, or 4 for Fully Concealed when self-drawn.
• Chicken Hand: All Chows is worth 2, so an All Chows hand is never a Chicken Hand — and an All Chows hand that can't reach 8 simply can't win.
• All Pungs: the exact opposite, four pungs.

All Chows odds

All Chows is one of the most frequent fan in MCR: in 4,000 hands of the site's AI playing normally, it appears in 44% of wins, and those wins average 15.1 points.

The reason is simple: the routes to 8 that get completed most often — Mixed Shifted Chows (23%), Mixed Straight (15%), Mixed Triple Chow, Pure Straight — are made of chows. Add one more chow and a suited pair and All Chows comes for free.

How to play for All Chows

• Find the big block first: All Chows is only 2 points; look for the start of a Mixed Straight, Mixed Shifted Chows or Pure Straight, and let All Chows come along.
• Keep a suited pair: an honor pair kills All Chows; an honor pair is better punged for a Dragon or Wind Pung, or discarded early.
• Concealed Hand is 2 more: without a combination fan, staying closed and adding All Simples or Self-Drawn matters more than claiming fast.
• Count before you're ready: All Chows + Concealed + All Simples + a 1-pointer is 7, often one short; check that every winning tile reaches 8.

To practise, play MCR online against the AI — scores are worked out for you.

All Chows in other mahjong styles

"Ping hu" means very different things across styles:

• Taiwanese Mahjong: 2 tai, with much stricter conditions — five chows, no honors, no flowers, a two-sided wait, won on a discard (Taiwanese Mahjong Ping Hu)
• Sichuan Mahjong: "ping hu" is the basic win with no other pattern, 0 fan (Sichuan Mahjong Ping Hu)
• Japanese Riichi Mahjong: pinfu, 1 han — concealed, two-sided wait, pair not a value tile (Riichi yaku list)

FAQ

How many points is All Chows?

All Chows is worth 2 points in Chinese Official Mahjong. With the 8-point minimum it always needs other fan to win.

Can you chow for All Chows?

Yes. MCR's All Chows doesn't have to be concealed, and claimed chows count; staying concealed adds Concealed Hand, 2 points.

Does All Chows need a two-sided wait?

No. Any wait is fine — edge, closed or single — and if it's your only wait you also score Edge Wait, Closed Wait or Single Wait for 1 point.

Is it still All Chows with an honor pair?

No. The pair must be a suited tile; with an honor pair there's no All Chows even if all four sets are chows.

Related fan

Chicken Hand 8 pt A win with no fan at all scores 8 points. No concealed hand, no All Chows, no All Simples, no One Voided Suit… and no self-draw. All Simples 2 pt Only 2s to 8s, 2 points: rules, what it absorbs, which bigger fans absorb it, and how to use it to reach 8. 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.