Chinese Official Mahjong · 8 pt

Robbing the Kong in Chinese Official Mahjong (MCR): Points, Which Kongs Can Be Robbed, Examples

In Chinese Official Mahjong, Robbing the Kong (抢杠和) is worth 8 points: a player who has already punged a tile draws the fourth and adds it to make a kong (an added kong). If that tile is the one you are waiting for, you can "rob" it and win. On its own it reaches the 8-point minimum; Last Tile is not counted on top.

The conditions

• Only an added kong can be robbed: a player, on his own turn, adds the fourth tile to a pung he exposed earlier
• Concealed kongs cannot be robbed; a kong declared on someone's discard isn't a robbing situation either — the tile was discarded, so you could simply win on the discard
• Robbing the Kong is a win on another player's tile: the player who tried to kong pays the extra, it is not a self-draw
• The robbed set goes back to being a pung; the kong never happens and there is no replacement draw

What it does not combine with

• Last Tile (4 points) is not counted: the robbed tile is always the fourth of its kind, with the other three in that player's exposed pung, so it always meets Last Tile — the rules don't count it again
• Concealed Hand, All Chows and the like still score; as it isn't a self-draw, there is no Self-Drawn or Fully Concealed Hand

Scoring examples

Both hands are scored live by this site's scoring engine — the same one the game uses.

How often it happens

Someone has to add a kong with exactly the tile you are waiting on — very rare. In 4,000 computer games on this site there were 3,849 wins and only 1 were Robbing the Kong (0.03%). The sample is far too small for a reliable rate.

Before you add a kong

• Is the tile dangerous? If another player may be waiting on it (nobody has discarded anything around it), your added kong can be robbed — and you pay alone.
• When waiting, watch other players' pungs: if you are waiting on a tile someone has punged, you may get to rob his kong.
• To try it, play MCR online — when someone adds a kong you are asked whether to rob it.

In other mahjong styles

• Taiwanese mahjong: 1 tai (Taiwanese mahjong Robbing a Kong)
• Sichuan mahjong: 1 fan (Sichuan mahjong Robbing a Kong)
• Japanese riichi mahjong: Chankan, 1 han (riichi yaku list)

FAQ

How many points is Robbing the Kong?

8 points in Chinese Official Mahjong — enough for the minimum on its own. Last Tile is not added.

Can a concealed kong be robbed?

No. MCR only allows robbing an added kong (the fourth tile added to an exposed pung). Concealed kongs can't be robbed, and a kong on a discard is a tile you could have won on directly.

Who pays for Robbing the Kong?

It counts as a win on the kong player's tile: he pays the fan plus the base, the other two pay only the base.

Related fan

Out with Replacement Tile 8 pt Win on the replacement tile after a kong: 8 points, no Self-Drawn on top. Any kind of kong counts; a flower replacement doesn't. Last Tile 4 pt Win on the fourth tile of a kind when the other three are already on the table: 4 points, discard or self-draw, not with Robbing the Kong. Last Tile Claim 8 pt Win on the last discard of the hand: 8 points. In MCR the self-drawn version is Last Tile Draw — the opposite of the Taiwanese and Sichuan naming.