All Kongs (十八羅漢) — Limit Hand

All Kongs is a limit hand — four kongs plus a pair, eighteen tiles in total, paying the maximum automatically.

What it is

All Kongs — literally "Eighteen Arhats" (十八羅漢) — is one of the hardest hands in Hong Kong Mahjong: all four melds are kongs (four tiles each) plus a pair, for eighteen tiles in hand. Open and concealed kongs both count.

How to form it

You can’t really plan for this one — it takes declaring four kongs in a single deal and then completing the win. Remember to draw a replacement tile from the back of the wall after every kong. In practice it grows out of an exceptionally pung-heavy hand where the kongs come naturally.

Example hand — Limit Hand

Common scoring mistake

Four pungs without kongs is just All Pungs (3 faan) — All Kongs requires all four melds to be kongs. And every kong must be followed by a replacement draw; skipping it leaves your hand short, a procedural slip that’s especially painful on a limit hand.

Combines with

All Kongs inherently contains All Pungs, but as a limit hand it pays the maximum outright — nothing further stacks.

Frequently asked questions

How many faan is All Kongs?

All Kongs is a limit hand — it automatically pays the maximum. At tables capped at 13 faan, it counts as 13 faan.

Do all four melds have to be kongs?

Yes. Four kongs plus a pair — eighteen tiles. Four mere pungs is All Pungs, worth 3 faan.

Do open and concealed kongs both count?

Yes. Exposed kongs (claimed or extended from a pung) and concealed kongs (all four drawn yourself) both count toward All Kongs.

See how this hand fits into the complete scoring table:

Full faan scoring chart Play now