Chinese Official Mahjong · 6 pt

Mixed Shifted Chows in Chinese Official Mahjong (MCR): Points, Examples and Odds

In Chinese Official Mahjong, Mixed Shifted Chows (三色三步高) is worth 6 points: your winning hand has three chows, one in each suit, whose starting numbers go up by one — e.g. 1-2-3 characters, 2-3-4 dots, 3-4-5 bamboo. Any suit can be the lowest or the highest.

The rules for Mixed Shifted Chows

• Three chows in characters, dots and bamboo — all three suits
• Their starting tiles rise by one: 1-2-3, 2-3-4, 3-4-5 … up to 5-6-7, 6-7-8, 7-8-9
• Any suit order: 1-2-3 bamboo, 2-3-4 characters, 3-4-5 dots also counts
• Claimed chows are fine; the hand doesn't need to be concealed
• Steps of two (1-2-3, 3-4-5, 5-6-7) don't count; in a single suit it's Pure Shifted Chows

How to get Mixed Shifted Chows to 8 points

The fan uses three chows; the fourth set and the pair are where the top-up comes from:

Once you've claimed and lost Concealed Hand, the usual fix is All Chows: make the fourth set a chow and the pair a suited tile.

What Mixed Shifted Chows does not combine with

Mixed Shifted Chows excludes nothing itself. Under the "count once" rule, the three chows it uses can't also form Mixed Double Chow, Short Straight and the like among themselves (they couldn't anyway); the fourth chow may combine once with one of them — for example, if it is identical to one of the three, you also score Pure Double Chow.

Scoring examples

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

How it relates to other fan

• Mixed Straight (8 points): also one chow per suit, but 1-2-3, 4-5-6, 7-8-9. Chows one step apart make shifted chows, three steps apart a Mixed Straight; Mixed Straight reaches 8 alone, shifted chows need a top-up.
• Mixed Triple Chow (8 points): the same chow in all three suits. A hand like 1-2-3 characters, 2-3-4 dots, 2-3-4 bamboo can go either way depending on what's left.
• Pure Shifted Chows (16 points): the single-suit version, worth far more.
• All Chows, All Simples, Concealed Hand: the usual top-up partners.
• All Types: shifted chows already cover the three suits; add a wind and a dragon unit for All Types.

Mixed Shifted Chows odds

Mixed Shifted Chows is one of the routes to 8 that gets completed most often: in 4,000 hands of the site's AI playing normally, it appears in 23% of wins, and those wins average 12.4 points.

The reason is the sheer number of combinations: five starting positions (1 to 5) times six suit orders, so a few chows one step apart in different suits are often enough — unlike Pure Straight or Mixed Straight, which have only one position.

How to build Mixed Shifted Chows

• Connected partial sets in all three suits: e.g. 2-3 characters, 3-4 dots, 4-5 bamboo is the start of it.
• Don't fix on one arrangement: with 2-3-4 characters and 3-4-5 dots, the third suit can be 1-2-3 or 4-5-6 — go with whichever partial set fills first.
• Know where the 8th point comes from: after claiming, rely on All Chows (fourth set a chow, suited pair); concealed, rely on Concealed Hand; All Simples often comes along.
• Compare with Mixed Straight and Mixed Triple Chow: they're 8 points on their own while shifted chows need a top-up, so lean toward them when the hand allows.

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

FAQ

How many points is Mixed Shifted Chows?

Mixed Shifted Chows is worth 6 points in Chinese Official Mahjong. With the 8-point minimum you need 2 more, most often from All Chows or Concealed Hand.

Is 1-2-3 characters, 3-4-5 dots, 5-6-7 bamboo Mixed Shifted Chows?

No. The starting numbers must rise by exactly one (e.g. 1, 2, 3); steps of two don't count. In one suit, steps of one or two are Pure Shifted Chows.

Can you chow for Mixed Shifted Chows?

Yes. Claimed chows count; you just lose Concealed Hand's 2 points and need All Chows, All Simples or an honor pung instead.

Related fan

Pure Shifted Chows 16 pt Three chows of one suit stepping up by one or two — 16 points. How to spot it, what it stacks with, and how it differs from the mixed version. Mixed Straight 8 pt 1-2-3, 4-5-6, 7-8-9 across three suits — exactly 8 points. The most common route to a legal win: how to build it and what it stacks with. Mixed Double Chow 1 pt The same chow in two suits for 1 point: counting it twice, the account-once limit, and how it grows into Mixed Triple Chow.