Heavenly & Earthly Hands in Hong Kong Mahjong

Start with these ideas

HKMA lists both opening-win patterns as 10-faan limits, with specific opening conditions.
Our game awards no separate Heavenly or Earthly Hand item; the calculator does not check opening chronology.

Reference values below follow the Hong Kong Mahjong Association (HKMA) rules. Worked calculator examples use our browser game’s house rules; check the differences before comparing results.

What do Heavenly and Earthly Hand mean in HKMA rules?

In the cited HKMA rules, Heavenly Hand is the dealer winning directly from the initial deal; declaring a concealed Kong removes that qualification. Earthly Hand requires a non-dealer already ready in the initial thirteen tiles to win on the dealer’s first discard; a concealed Kong by the dealer invalidates that opening condition.

These definitions should not be replaced with a different variant’s “first self-draw” rule. Confirm which opening convention your table uses.

Set

Pair

Reference limits and the house example

HKMA lists both as 10-faan limits. Street Corner does not add a separate opening-win award. A legal opening hand in our game still needs a supported shape and is scored by its applicable patterns and winning method.

The saved example is a concealed All Chows self-draw: 1 + 1 + 1 = 3 under house rules. It illustrates ordinary scoring, not proof that a Heavenly or Earthly Hand occurred.

Check the complete faan table

Fourteen tiles do not record the opening sequence

To establish an opening win, you need the initial hand, the winner’s dealer status, the source of the winning tile and any intervening calls or Kongs. A screenshot of the final hand alone cannot establish all of that.

What the calculator can demonstrate

Load the ordinary example and compare self-draw 3 with discard win 2. There is no Heavenly or Earthly Hand selector. A manual custom adjustment changes a total but does not validate the historical opening condition.

Load this exact example Practise the winning minimum

Sources

A hand to try

Set

Pair

Win: self-draw · Seat: East · Round: East · Minimum: 3. Declared melds and special draw context are loaded with the hand.

With the saved win method, seat wind and round wind, this example is expected to score 3 final faan under sc_hk13_v1_2. The calculator also shows every contributing pattern and whether the hand reaches the selected minimum.

Try this in the calculator

Check your understanding

Which statement matches our house rules?

Choose a statement to see the explanation.

Names alone do not settle the rule. Ask whether it means the dealer’s initial hand, the dealer’s first discard, or a non-dealer’s first self-draw, and what calls cancel eligibility.

A few things to know

Is a non-dealer’s first self-draw automatically Earthly Hand?

Not under the cited HKMA definition, which concerns an initially ready non-dealer taking the dealer’s first discard. Other variants may define the name differently, so the label alone is not enough.

CHECK THE RULES

See what this hand scores under our house rules