Mahjong Compendium

Proto-mahjong Chinese classical Shanghai / Hong Kong new style Hong Kong old style Nanyang variants Vietnamese classical Vietnamese modern

Vietnamese modern

176+ tiles, 24+ jokers

Cross-comparison

corroborated — two or more independent sources agree on the facts that define this variant

SourceTilesHandFlowersScoringPayout
[1]176 or more large tiles13, out on 14flowers/seasons, 8 kings/queens, and 24 or more jokersbased on the 19 ways of going Outwinner only
[2]176 or 184
  • [2] describes the modern variant as triplicating or quadruplicating the jokers, which gives 176 or 184 rather than Sloperama's open-ended '176 or more'

Reading it

Two independent sources agree, and Wikipedia is the more precise: triplicating or quadruplicating the eight jokers gives exactly 176 or 184 tiles, where Sloperama says 176 or more and the chart says 176+. The mechanism explains the number rather than just reporting it.

Sources

  1. Sloper, Tom. "FAQ 2b: Identifying a Mah-Jongg Variant." Sloperama. canonical checked 2026-09-18

    Tile counts, hand sizes, flower handling and scoring for roughly 50 named variants. Primary source for most leaf nodes in this chart.

    https://www.sloperama.com/mjfaq/mjfaq02b.html

    Also cited on: Chinese archaic, Chinese pre-classical, Chinese classical, Shanghai / Hong Kong new style, Hong Kong old style, Modern HKOS and 43 more · bibliography #1

  2. Wikipedia. "Mahjong." cross-check checked 2026-09-18

    The main article's regional-variations section, which describes most branches of this tree independently of the chart's own sources.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahjong

    Also cited on: Chinese classical, Hong Kong old style, Taiwanese style, Singapore style, Filipino style, Vietnamese classical and 6 more · bibliography #54

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