How to Score a Mahjong Tournament: Phone Entry vs Paper

To score a mahjong tournament, give each table one score sheet per round. East writes each player's points for every game, the table checks the totals and initials the sheet, and the director adds each round to a running standings sheet. Paper is free and works with no signal. With phone entry, East types the same sheet on her phone, the totals add themselves, and the standings update for the whole room.

This guide starts with paper, because every tournament should be able to fall back on it, then shows what changes when scores go in by phone. For the whole day, from sign-ups to prizes, see how to run a mahjong tournament, and for choosing a format, mahjong tournament formats.

The Short Version

1. Agree on the rules first: points, penalties, wall games, dead hands and ties, in writing.
2. Use one sheet per table per round: a row per player, a column per game, a total and initials.
3. Keep a running standings sheet and post it after every round.
4. Or let East type the sheet on her phone, and keep the paper as the backup.
5. Settle disputes and ties by a rule, never on the spot.

Agree on the Scoring Rules Before the First Round

Most scoring arguments are really rules arguments. Before anyone sits down, write down and announce:

• What a hand is worth. Usually the value on the current NMJL card, plus any bonuses your tournament adds.
• Penalties. Whether a player loses points for a wrong Mah Jongg call or for throwing the winning tile, and how many.
• Wall games. What each player scores when nobody wins.
• Dead hands. What a player whose hand is ruled dead scores for that game, and whether she still gets the wall game.
• Ties. How you will break them, or whether tied players share the place and the prize.
• Rounds. How many games a round, and how long a round runs. The sheet below assumes four games.

Print the rules on the sheet or post them by the scoring table. A rule nobody saw before round one is a rule somebody argues about in round three.

How to Score a Mahjong Tournament on Paper

Paper needs a printer, pens and one calm person at a scoring table.

1. Before each round, hand every table a fresh sheet with its table number and the round written on it.
2. East keeps the sheet. After each game she writes the winner's points in that game's column, and an X or the penalty for everyone else.
3. At the end of the round, East adds each row. Every player checks her own total and initials it.
4. A runner brings the sheet to the scoring table.
5. The scorer adds each player's round total to a running standings sheet, sorts it, and posts it before the next round starts.

The arithmetic grows fast. Sixteen players over four rounds is 64 round totals to carry. At four games a round, that is 256 game scores behind them.

A Score Sheet Layout That Works

One sheet per table, per round, with the table number, round and date at the top:

Give every player a number for the day, such as 17W for Table 17, West, in round 1. Numbers are faster to read than names, and they let you post standings without names on a wall. Ask East to cross out rather than erase, so a changed number shows.

Common Paper Scoring Mistakes

• Adding errors. One wrong sum in round 2 carries into every later standing. Have two people add the standings sheet, or add it twice.
• A missing sheet read as zero. A table that has not turned in its sheet has no score yet. A zero says they played and scored nothing. Wait for the sheet.
• Unclear handwriting. Was that a 25 or a 75? Ask East to rewrite any number someone queries before the table initials it.
• Dead hands and wall games handled differently at each table. That is why the rule goes on the sheet.
• Ties decided on the spot. Pick the rule before round one.
• Lost sheets. Keep every sheet in one folder until prizes are paid. It is your only record if a score is questioned.

How Phone Entry Works in Bam Good Time

Bam Good Time runs a tournament from sign-up to final standings. Tournaments are on the Pro plan, $49 a month (see pricing). Phone entry follows the paper sheet rather than replacing it. When you build the tournament, set Scoring to Scores only (Game 1-4), which is offered for Round Robin and Swiss. Ask each East to sign in on her own phone at check-in.

East Types the Same Sheet

During the round, East opens your club's home page on her phone. A card at the top tells her which table she is East at and gives her an Enter Round 1 scores button, so there is no QR code to scan. Her table's players are already listed. She types each game's points in the Game 1 to Game 4 boxes, in 5s, and each player's Grand Total adds itself as she types. If your rules use penalties, a ± key makes a score a minus, and you can turn minus points off for the whole tournament. Then she taps Save Round 1.

In the iPhone and Mac apps (Bam Good Time: Mahjong Club and Bam Good Time Desktop), East taps Enter this table's scores on her Your Table card instead.

The paper sheet still goes to the front table. It is the backup if a phone or the Wi-Fi fails.

The Rest of the Table Checks It

East's first save goes in at once, and the other three players are asked to check it against the sheet on their phones, with Confirm or Dispute. This check is part of Scores only (Game 1-4). On a Detailed tournament East's first save asks nobody; only a change to a saved round is held for the table. East's screen shows who it is still waiting on. If someone disputes, her screen names them. She fixes the number with her table and saves again, and everyone is asked again. Once a round is saved, any change East makes waits until the rest of the table confirms it.

The check happens on the web page the room's QR code opens, so players need no app. A player who is not signed in can still play, and her initials on the paper are her check. If you would rather East could not change a saved round at all, turn on Lock East's scores once saved on the website, and only you can change it.

Standings on the Wall and on Every Phone

When you press Complete Round & Advance, the display board's standings update, and every registered player with notifications on gets a push that the round's standings are up. On the phone page the board's QR code opens, a player types her number and taps Current Standings to see her own line, such as "You: 3E, 5th (tied), 215 points." The iPhone and Mac apps show the same Current Standings row. At a numbered tournament the public board shows place, number and points, with no names, unless you choose to name the top places.

At the end, Finalize Event sends results to every player and to the Mahjic Rating.

A Round Clock and a Help Button

Set a round length and the round clock waits until you press Start, with Pause and Stop & Reset beside it. Open projector timer puts just the round and the time on a wall screen in large type. The clock is on the web; the Mac and iPhone apps do not show it.

During a round, each player's phone page shows Call a director to Table 5, with her own table number. One tap alerts your Owners and Admins on screen, by push, and by text if they have a phone number on file. The same button is on the Your Table card in the iPhone and Mac apps.

When a Table Disputes a Score

A table that needs you shows under Waiting on the table on the tournament page.

• A disputed first save shows the scores as saved and who disputed. Fix the table on the grid, or ask East to save again, then clear the notice.
• A held change, where East changed a round already saved, shows the old and new numbers. Apply works once everyone at the table has confirmed. Override applies it with a reason you type, for example when a player has left. Dismiss drops it.

Complete Round & Advance will not run while a change is waiting, or while a table has no scores at all ("Table 7 has no scores yet."). Never type a 0 for a table that has not sent scores. For an earlier round, use Edit a prior round's scores, and in a Scores only tournament that table is asked to confirm the new numbers.

On paper the rule is the same without the buttons: fix the sheet with the whole table present, initial the change, and correct the standings sheet.

How Ties Are Broken

On paper, use the rule you announced. In Bam Good Time it depends on the scoring setting:

• Scores only (Game 1-4): equal totals share a place, so a board of 180, 180, 150 reads 1, 1, 3. There is no roll-off.
• Detailed scoring, which records mahjongs and wall games too: you pick the ranking (Points, Mahjongs, Points then Mahjongs, or Mahjongs then Points). A tie falls to the other of points and mahjongs, then to fewer wall games. Past that the board still lists one player above the other, so settle a prize between them by your own rule.

Because wall games break ties, dead hands matter. A Detailed grid has a Dead Hands box that records the ruling and changes no score or ranking. The screen's own advice is to enter the wall game for everyone at the table, record the dead hand separately, and withhold that player's wall-game points in Points. A Scores only sheet has no Dead Hands box: the player simply gets what your rules give her for that game.

What You Can Print

From the tournament page, on the web and in the iPhone and Mac apps:

• Assignment slips: a quarter page per player with her number, seat and starting table, plus her table for every round when the tournament uses a fixed rotation.
• Table cards: one per table, four to a sheet, with each seat's wind, number and name and a box for points. Cards printed before you confirm the tables say UNCONFIRMED.
• Wall Sheet (PDF, no names): place, player number and score, to tape up between rounds. It needs every player numbered.
• Payout Sheet: place, player, amount and a signature line for each finisher. In a Scores only tournament a tie reads "2 (tie)" with no amount, and the sheet says "Tied places: the director decides the prize at the table."
• Scoring Archive (CSV, with names): your own copy, with each player's phone, email and points in every round, one column per round, in case anyone questions a score.

Paper or Phones: Which Should You Use?

When Paper Is the Better Choice

• One or two tables, where the sums take a few minutes.
• A room with no reliable signal or Wi-Fi.
• Players who do not carry smartphones, or a one-off event where nobody wants to sign in.
• No budget for a paid plan.

You do not have to pick one. Phone entry was built around the paper sheet: East types what she writes, and the sheet stays as the backup. To compare tools, see the best mahjong tournament software. For game nights, see the mahjong scoring app guide, and for a season, league scoring.

Getting Started

On Pro, players pay the entry fee by card when they sign up; card payments on their own start on Starter at $19 a month. Open to outside players? List your tournament free. Each listing is reviewed, then shows in the tournament directory.

Create your club on Bam Good Time and build your tournament.