Changsha长沙麻将 (258麻将)
108 tiles, no honors. The pair must be a 2, 5 or 8 unless the hand is a flush, all triplets, all 258s, or entirely claimed. Five dealt hands pay out instantly and keep playing, one discard can pay several winners, and a bird drawn after the win doubles whoever it points at.
- 13 tiles, 14 to win
- 4 melds and a 2/5/8 pair (二五八将)
- Seven pairs, 清一色, 碰碰胡, 将将胡 and 全求人 stand outside the pair rule
- Chow upstream only, pong from anywhere, kong any way
- 起手胡: five dealt hands pay at once, and you keep playing
- 抓鸟: a tile drawn after the win doubles whoever it points at
Rules
The tiles
108 tiles: three suits 1 through 9, four copies each. No winds, no dragons, no flowers: nothing but the numbers, which is what makes every hand a race through the same three suits.
二五八将: the rule it's named for
Four sets and a pair, same as anywhere, except the pair must be a 2, 5 or 8 in any suit. Pair on anything else and the hand can't go out, however finished the four sets are. Changsha is known as 258麻将 for exactly this.
Set
Set
Set
Set
Pair: legal (5)
The five ways past it
| Shape | Why it's exempt |
|---|---|
| 七巧对 | Seven pairs. There is no single pair to judge, so the rule has nothing to bite on. |
| 清一色 | Every tile in one suit. |
| 碰碰胡 | Every set a triplet or kong. No runs anywhere. |
| 将将胡 | Every tile in the hand is itself a 2, 5 or 8. |
| 全求人 | All four sets claimed off other players: you held nothing but the pair. |
全求人 is the one exemption you can lose. It is granted because the tiles came off other players, so it only stands on a hand finished off a discard; draw the last tile yourself and the 258 rule applies again.
起手胡: the hand that pays before you play it
Five things about your dealt thirteen pay out on the spot, at the Small Win self-draw rate. Crucially, this does not end the hand: you collect, and then you keep playing the same tiles as everyone else.
| Hand | What it is |
|---|---|
| 四喜 | Four copies of one tile already in hand |
| 板板胡 | Not a single 2, 5 or 8 anywhere |
| 缺一色 | One of the three suits missing entirely |
| 六六顺 | Two triplets already sitting there |
| 三同 | The same rank paired in all three suits at once |
跟胡: winning again
Having banked a win, you may only win again on a higher tier. A Small Win off the deal gives way only to a Big Win; bank a Big Win and you're done for the hand. This is what gives an instant winner something to keep playing for.
通炮: one discard, several winners
If a single discard completes more than one hand, every one of them wins, and the discarder pays each in full. Nobody is squeezed out by seating order.
海底牌: the last tile roams
When one tile is left in the wall it isn't simply drawn; it is offered around the table, starting with whoever's turn it was. Take it and win, and that's 海底捞月; take it, throw it away and let someone else win on the throw, and that's 河底捞鱼. All four pass, and the hand dies. A last tile spent as a kong replacement never opens this at all.
开杠 or 补: your choice on every kong
Declaring a kong, you pick how to replace the tile. 开杠 takes it off the dead-wall end and pays 杠上开花 if it wins. 补 is an ordinary draw off the front of the wall and wins as a plain self-draw. 开杠 is almost always the better bet.
抓鸟: the bird
After a win, one tile is drawn and its rank points at a seat: 1/5/9 the dealer, 2/6 the next seat round, 3/7 the one after, 4/8 the one after that. That seat's payment doubles, and if the bird lands on the winner, every payer's does. A 海底 win draws no bird: the winning tile is the bird.
Scoring: two tiers in 片
A hand is 小胡 (Small Win) unless a Big Win pattern fires, in which case it is 大胡. Big Win patterns stack, one rate's worth each. The dealer pays (or is paid) one extra 片 on their own row.
| Tier | Per payer |
|---|---|
| 小胡 | 1 片 (dealer 2), the famous 12片 |
| 大胡 | 6 片 (dealer 7), the famous 67片, per pattern |
| Big Win | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 碰碰胡 / 将将胡 / 清一色 / 全求人 | The four shapes that also skip the pair rule |
| 七巧对 | Seven pairs |
| 豪华七小对 ×2 | Seven pairs including a four-of-a-kind |
| 海底捞月 / 河底捞鱼 | Won on the last wall tile, or on the throw that followed it |
| 杠上开花 | Won on a 开杠 kong replacement |
| 杠上炮 / 双杠上炮 ×2 | Won off a discard thrown straight after one kong, or two |
| 抢杠胡 | Won by taking a tile out of someone's kong |
| 地胡 / 天胡 | Won inside the opening cycle, or before anything was thrown at all |
双杠上炮 replaces 杠上炮 rather than stacking with it: the doubled row is the same shoot, priced for the second kong. Off the dealer it comes to 6 × 2 + 1 = 13 片.
Who deals next
In order: the winner. Failing that, whoever took 海底牌; failing that, whoever it was first offered to; failing that, whoever was drawing kong replacements when the wall ran out. On a 通炮 the discarder deals, since no single winner can. And overriding all of it: if two or more players took a 起手胡 at the deal, the bird among them decides, however the hand later ends.
What's not on this table
跑胡子 is a different Hunan game entirely, not a mahjong build. 红中癞子 (Red Dragon as a wildcard), 抓2鸟/抓4鸟 (more than one bird per win), 呼叫转移 (kong-liability transfer) and any flower layer are all left off. So are 金童玉女 and 步步高.
The 片 figures here are pinned to the two every Changsha source agrees on: 12片 for a Small Win self-draw and 67片 for a Big one. The remaining cells are set to keep those two exact rather than from a source of their own.
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