Super Bingo Sanma Rules

These are the rules for Super Bingo Sanma, a 3-player mahjong variant originally created by 卓上のハッケヨイ and popularized by the 麻雀カッコイイシリーズ video about the format. This is a fast-paced, high-variance shugi variant of sanma that creates interesting dynamics around hand building, allows for massive shugi payments (highest i’ve seen is ~150 chips all), and is honestly just downright fun to play.

Like all mahjong variants, a lot of this is compatible with other rulesets. I’ve compiled a list of recommended rules (and what’s described here is what we play at my house in Seattle with), but the core rules that make Super Bingo unique will be highlighted in bold text. (A lot of this is the “Tulip Rules” section below). The rainbow sevens and grand cross rules are inspired by the rules used at 麻雀ゆんゆん. Feel free to mix and match other rules to your liking, such as yes/no tsumo loss, how many other red/gold dora, etc.

If you’re ever in the Seattle area and want to play, reach out to @puddi on twitter/puddizzle on Discord!

Last update: 3/13 - rainbow sevens and the grand cross have been moved to their own section.

Game Setup

• Take a normal 3-player mahjong set (i.e., no 2-8m). Remove all of the remaining 1m and 9m, and replace them with 4 additional 7p and 7s.
  • Kan beats pon - if both players want to pon, earlier next draw wins.
• Replace two 5s and 5p (four total tiles) from the set with a red 5p+5s and a gold 5p+5s.
• Replace one Haku (White Dragon) with a Shiro-pocchi.
• Add four flower tiles to the mix, creating a total pool of 112 tiles. (If playing on an autotable, this should be the 三人花 setting.)
• Correspondingly, there should be 8 rinshan tiles.
• Players should have a healthy amount of chips at the ready - it is not uncommon to move ~200 chips per hanchan.

Game Rules 

• Normal hanchan game length.
• Open tanyao ok, atozuke ok. Tsumo pinfu ok.
• 30,000 point start. The game ends when a player has 0 points at the end of a hand, or following normal hanchan rules (if nobody busts). (See “game end” section below for scoring details).
• There is no tsumo loss, nor is there fu calculation. Hands have the following value (basically, the 30 fu table, but rounded up) 

• Flower tiles are nuki-dora. Removing them and drawing a replacement tile does not break ippatsu (either by someone else removing a flower before the riichi declarer’s next tsumo, or by the riichi declarer drawing a flower on their next tsumo), nor do they break a tenhou/chihou chance or a double riichi chance. They also do not provide rinshan for the same reasons.
  • A flower as the dora indicator means that removed flowers are double dora.
• Honba is 2,000 per honba (on tsumo, split amongst both opponents).
• Players draw until the dora indicator. You cannot kan if there is no indicator to reveal, and there can be only four additional dora indicators max. Tenpai renchan, No-ten payments are 4,000 on the table.
• Red tiles and gold tiles are dora, no matter where they are, open or closed.
• Shiro-pocchi is wildcard after riichi, always. 
  • You can choose which instance of a tile it is (gold/red), as long as the location of that instance of the tile isn’t known to you. i.e., if you don’t see the gold 5 in anyone’s discards, or called/in your hand, and you win w/ tsumo using the shiro-pocchi on a 2-5 ryanmen wait, you can say that the shiro-pocchi is acting as the gold 5, and gives you those benefits.
• You can’t skip on a winning tile.
• You can kan post-riichi, as long as it doesn’t change your wait. (It can change your interpretation/yaku).

Hand/Yaku Rules

• You cannot use more than 4 sevens of a single suit in your hand. Holding on to five or more sevens of the same suit automatically makes your hand not tenpai.
• There is open riichi. It costs the same amount as regular riichi, and is worth an additional +1 han. You must reveal all the tiles in your hand and confirm your wait with the table. If you are in furiten and want to riichi, you must open riichi. This does not undo your furiten (you still cannot win off of people’s discards).
  • Dealing into an open riichi while not in riichi yourself is a yakuman.
• Chanta is worth 4 han closed, 3 han open. Junchan is worth 6 han closed, 4 han open.
• Chiitoi using 2 of the same pair is 4 han. Chiitoi using 2 sets of 2 of the same pair is 8 han. Chiitoi using 3 sets of 2 of the same pair is a yakuman.
• Chinitsu Chiitoi is a yakuman.
• Renhou is 6 han and an agari yaku. Add any other value your hand had. 
• Sanshoku is dead.
• Kokushi Musou is dead. In its place is Nanashi Musou, which requires one of every honor tile, 1-7-9 in each suit, and a duplicate somewhere. (Think of it as the extra sevens replacing the 1m and 9m needed.)
• After you declare riichi, there are two additional ways to win:
  • Discarding three sevens in a row is a Haneman victory. They do not have to be the same suit, nor do they have to be in the same discarded row.
  • Alternatively, creating a tic-tac-toe line (horizontal, vertical, or diagonal) of 3 sevens in your discards (using normal 6-long discard piles) using only tiles discarded post-riichi is a Haneman victory.  They do not have to be the same suit. That’s bingo, baby!
• A 7 in your discard pile does not prevent you from winning off a 4 in a 4-7 ryanmen wait. You still cannot win off of the 7, and a 7 in your discards is still considered furiten for any other type of waits (shabo, tanki, etc).

Tulip Rules

(This entire section is what makes super bingo unique, so just consider all this text bold)

• After winning with riichi (or winning with a real yakuman), first resolve points normally (either via tsumo or ron).
• Add the winning tile to your hand.
• Determine your starting shugi total. You earn shugi for:
  • +1 shugi for each gold tile used in your hand
  • +1 shugi for each ura-dora that you hit
  • +2 shugi for a kazoe yakuman
• +50 shugi for a real yakuman (+100 for double yakuman, etc.)
• This total is your starting shugi total. 
• Determine your number of extra lives. By default, this is 0, but you earn extra lives for:
  • +1 extra life for winning with ippatsu
  • +1 extra life for winning a sanbaiman or higher.
• This total is your extra lives.
• Then, based on how many sevens of a suit that you used, look at the corresponding section:

TIER 1: Less than 3 sevens in each suit (i.e., just a 667788 shape, or using 7s as a pair, or not using any 7s at all):

• Starting from the end of the wall (i.e., right before where the dora indicators were - you did look at the ura-dora, right?), reveal the top tile of the wall. Look to see if that tile, or any tiles adjacent to it (going in indicator order), are in your hand. i.e.:
  • If you reveal a 2s, check to see if any 1s, 2s, or 3s are in your hand.
  • If you reveal a 9p, check to see if any 8p, 9p, or 1p are in your hand.
  • If you reveal a North, check to see if any West, North, or East are in your hand.
  • If you reveal a Green Dragon, check to see if any White, Green, or Red Dragons are in your hand.
  • If you reveal a Flower tile, check to see if you removed any flower tiles. 
  • If you reveal the Shiro-pocchi, you may choose which tile it is. (Note that unlike on tsumo, you cannot choose which instance of the tile it is - just which denomination it is.)
• If there are tiles in your hand that are the revealed tile or adjacent to it, add that many shugi to your running shugi total. Then continue this process by revealing the next unrevealed top tile in the wall.
  • i.e., revealing a 5s with 44567s in your hand would add +4 to your shugi count, and you’d reveal the next tile. If that revealed tile was an 8s, add +1, and continue.
  • Flower tiles add +3 to your shugi count per flower tile you’ve removed.
• If there are no tiles in your hand that are the revealed tile or adjacent to it, stop revealing tiles, unless you have an extra life to spare. If so, consume that extra life, and continue revealing the top tile of the wall.
  • I.e., revealing a 8p with no 7p, 8p, or 9p in the hand is a “miss”, and you would stop revealing tiles here - unless you have an extra life saved by winning via ippatsu/sanbaiman or bigger.
• Once you stop revealing tiles (either by missing, or by running out of wall), collect that many shugi chips from players. If winning by ron, from the player that dealt in - if winning by tsumo, from each other player.
• If there’s just the bottom tile of a wall left, don’t look at it. 

TIER 2: At least 3 sevens in one suit, but less than 3 sevens in the other suit

• This is the same as Tier 1, but instead of looking at just the top tile, look at both the top and bottom tiles of the wall, and calculate shugi for each one. 
  • i.e., if your hand is 112233s 66677799p, and you reveal South and 1p from the wall, add +2 shugi to your count, and look at the next pair of tiles (since at least one of them hit your hand).
• If either tile hits a tile in your hand and gives you shugi, then you can continue and look at the next pair of tiles in the wall. Otherwise, normal rules apply for stopping and extra lives.
• If there’s just the bottom tile of a wall left, don’t look at it. 

TIER 3: At least 3 sevens in both suits

• This is the same as Tier 2, but at the end, the amount of shugi you earn is doubled.
  • i.e., you end the tulip phase by running out of wall with a total of 41 shugi earned. This number is doubled to 82, and that is how much people give you (either 82 from the person that dealt in, or 82 all if you tsumo).

Tier Progression

• If you reveal a tile that hits 6 or more distinct tiles in your hand, you advance to the next tier. It caps out at tier 3.
  • i.e., you win with 112233p 66778899p. Since you do not have at least 3 sevens of one suit in your hand, you start at tier 1. The first tile you reveal is the 8p - +6 shugi, and since this hits six unique tiles in your hand (the 778899 shape), starting from the next tile pair in the wall, you advance to tier 2, meaning you can look at both the top and bottom tiles of the wall. Hitting another 8p (or a 7p, or a 2s) would then advance you to tier 3, doubling your shugi at the end.

Yakuman

• Winning with a yakuman automatically grants you access into tier 1 on winning (and with 1 skip, by virtue of winning with a sanbaiman or higher). Winning with a double yakuman grants you access into tier 2 - a triple yakuman or higher grants you access into tier 3.

Other Shugi Rules

• If you don’t win with riichi, but you used gold tiles in your hand, you get 1 shugi for each gold tile used, even if your hand was open. Normal shugi payment rules apply - collect from both players if you win via tsumo.

Game End

The game ends when someone is at 0 points or lower at the end of a hand, or via normal game length rules for a hanchan. Placement payments are done via shugi. The rate and stuff is ultimately up to you and how much you want to balance points vs. in-game shugi transactions, but a simple system that I use to keep scoring easy to calculate at the end is the following:

• 3rd place gives 50 + ((30,000 - ending points) / 1000) shugi to 1st place. This caps at 80 shugi per hanchan.
• If 2nd place is at or above 35,000 points, they get (ending points - 30,000) / 1000 shugi from 1st place. This caps at 20 shugi per hanchan.
• Otherwise, if 2nd place is below 35,000 points, they give 10 + ((30,000 - ending points) / 1000) shugi to 1st place. 

But really, use any scoring system you want. Hypothetically, if you were to gamba with this ruleset, I’d suggest keeping your value per shugi low - as mentioned previously, it’s not uncommon for ~40/50/60 shugi payments to happen.

Whew! That's the base rules. The following are additional variants that use the same base tileset and rules as above: incorporate them into your game if you want an even more fun ruleset!

SPECIAL VARIANT: RAINBOW SEVENS

Additional doras that bump up the shugi total and increase tulip tiers.

Setup:

• Replace one of the eight 7p’s with an equivalent “rainbow” 7p tile. Do the same for one of the eight 7s’s. This should leave each suit with seven regular 7s, and one rainbow 7.

Gameplay:

• Rainbow sevens act the same as gold doras, except they are worth 10 shugi, not just 1.
• Winning with riichi using both rainbow sevens in your hand automatically bumps you up one tulip tier. Doesn’t do anything if you would already be in tier 3, though.
• Revealing a rainbow 7 from the wall during the tulip phase adds double the number of shugi if it hits any tiles in your hand. This does not allow you to jump from tier to tier with just 3 tiles, though - it needs to be six distinct tiles.
  • i.e., your hand has a 677889p shape, and you reveal the rainbow 7p. This adds +10 shugi to your running total (hitting 5 tiles * 2), but does not allow you to jump up a tier (as it still only hit 5 tiles). 
• Normal rules about the shiro-pocchi choosing which variant applies for the sevens now, too - you can choose the rainbow 7 of a suit if its location is not known to you.

SPECIAL VARIANT: GRAND CROSS

Finally, you can use NEWS.

Setup:

• (Optional) Replace one Pei (North) with a gold Pei.

Gameplay:

• If you naturally have East-South-West-North (henceforth lovingly called NEWS) in your hand, you can do a special kan called a “Grand Cross”. Reveal all four winds, and treat it like a normal kan otherwise. (Reveal a new dora indicator, draw a replacement tile, etc).
  • When you do this, you immediately get 10 shugi from each other player.
  • If you perform the Grand Cross with the gold North, you get 20 shugi from each other player instead.
  • You cannot daiminkan NEWS. You have to naturally draw all four winds.
  • This NEWS meld is neither honors nor terminals nor simples nor suited. i.e., it is incompatible with yaku like Tanyao, Honitsu, Chanta, and Honrouto. 
• A Grand Cross otherwise acts like a normal kan (it breaks ippatsu). You cannot Grand Cross if there would be no dora indicator to reveal.

SPECIAL VARIANT: SEVEN RUSH

This variant makes the tulip phase much more exciting by allowing your hands to grow in size, triggering tier upgrades that much more easier. Original video

Setup:

• Replace the 4 flower tiles with 4 special "bingo tiles" - two red and two blue. If possible, they should have a 7 insignia on them somewhere (i.e., replace the flower tiles with the four unused 7m, or carve your own special tiles. Use stickers/paint to distinguish the two red. vs the two blue.)
  • There is also seven rush deluxe, which uses eight bingo tiles - four red and four blue. If playing this mode, be sure to set aside 12 rinshan tiles!

Gameplay:

• Bingo tiles act as flower tiles - they are removed from your hand and replaced from the dead wall, and act as dora if so.
  • Bingo tiles as the dora indicator do not treat removed bingo tiles as double dora (the same is true for bingo tiles revealed as ura-dora indicators) - instead, the winner of the hand (via riichi) gets to apply their effects after winning.
• After winning with riichi and resolving points, add any removed bingo tiles to your hand - in the case of a red bingo tile, add it as a 7p. In the case of a blue bingo tile, add it as a 7s. If a bingo tile was revealed as a dora indicator (either normal or ura), also add it to your hand.
  • This means that they count as the 7 of their corresponding suit. i.e., if you win with 677889p, and have removed a red bingo tile, your hand when starting the tulip phase will look like 677(7)88p.
  • Note: when determining what tulip tier your hand starts in, do not consider any bingo tiles. In the above example, even though the hand starts with "3" 7p, since only 2 were used in the pure hand, the hand starts in tier 1 (unless there are 3 or more 7s used).
• While revealing tiles, any revealed bingo tiles are treated like the 7 of their corresponding suit. In addition, after counting shugi, add the bingo tile to your hand.
  • If your hand has a 456678s, and you reveal a blue bingo tile, since this acts as a 7s, add +4 to your shugi total, then add the bingo tile to your hand as a 7s, making 45667(7)8s.
• While revealing tiles, if you reveal a 7 of a suit, and have the corresponding bingo tile for that suit in your hand, after counting shugi, add the 7 to your hand.
  • Following from the above case, if the next tile revealed is a 7s, then add +5 to your shugi total. Then, since the blue bingo tile is in your hand, add the 7s to your hand, making 456677(7)8s.
• Given all the above rules, even when revealing both the top and bottom tiles in tiers 2 and 3, you should reveal tiles one at a time, as it might matter (i.e., revealing a bingo tile before the 7 of that suit, or vice versa)
• Normal rules apply for tier progression, extra lives, etc. No special bonus applies if you have both bingo tiles for a suit.

SPECIAL VARIANT: BASES LOADED/HOME RUN

This variant rewards winning hands and not losing hands with a variant of a yakitori marker. Original video

Setup:

• Use yakitori markers. Designated one side as "off", or the "bases loaded" side - designate the other side as "on", or the "home run" side. Players start on the bases loaded side.

Gameplay:

• While in bases loaded mode, the following effects apply:
  • If you bust, you pay double the shugi during the hand that busted you.
  • After points and shugi payments, winning a hand while turns your marker over, and you enter home run mode.
• While in home run mode:
  • Winning a hand gives you double shugi.
    • Winning a hand and having someone bust while they're in bases loaded mode results in quadruple shugi, as both effects apply.
    • Winning a hand and busting both players while both players are in bases loaded mode results in x6 shugi from both players. It's a walkoff homer!
  • After a hand where you paid sticks to a player because of their win (dealing in, tsumo) you turn your marker over, and you enter bases loaded mode.

SPECIAL VARIANT: CRAZY CHERRY

This spooky variant, invented for halloween, adds a layer of bluffing and inverse payments, and results in shugi movements that's an order of magnitude higher. Original video

Setup:

• Designate two 1p, two 2p, and one 3p as "crazy cherry" tiles.
• Designate two 7p as "death" tiles.
• Play with shiro-pocchi.
• Don't bother playing with point sticks. This uses Toutenkou rules as a base - meaning no point sticks. Just play as permanent East, with the winner of the last hand being the next dealer.

Gameplay:

• When a player wins a hand, calculate the full point total (as if it were a ron). Divide that number by 1000, then add +10 if the player is the dealer - this is the starting shugi count. Add shugi for gold, ura, and rainbow tiles normally, too (but, uh, you may not want to play with rainbow tiles here.)
• Normal super bingo tulip rules apply, with the following changes:
  • For crazy cherry tiles:
    • Each crazy cherry tile used in the winning hand, or in any players discard also adds +1 extra life.
    • Revealing a crazy cherry tile during the tulip phase adds +1 extra life and applies its multiplier (more on that later)
  • For death 7ps:
    • If a death 7p is in any players discard, extra lives are forcefully set to 0. You cannot earn extra lives in any way.
    • Revealing a death 7p during the tulip phase automatically ends the tulip phase.
• After finishing the tulip phase, cherry tiles also act as negative multipliers. Look at all cherry tiles, both in the winning player's hand, in all player's discards, and revealed during the tulip phase. Round up the final chip total to the next 10 (i.e, 62 => 70), and multiply that number by -X for each cherry tile visible, where X is the rank of that tile. This total is the amount of chips you earn (or pay) from the hand.
  • i.e., after the tulip phase, your chip total is 54, and there are cherry 1p, 1p, 2p, and 3p visible. Round up 54 to 60, then your final chip total is (60 * -1 * -1 * -2 * -3) = 360 chips. This is either from the person who dealt in, or 360 from each person (if on tsumo).
  • If, instead, only the 1p, 1p, and 3p were visible, then your final chip total is (60 * -1 * -1 * -3) = -180 chips. You pay this amount to the player who dealt in.
  • If you would pay chips on tsumo, instead pay half that total to both players. i.e., in the example above, you would pay 90 chips to each player.
• Completing the wall during the tulip phase - i.e., wanting to reveal more tiles but there are none left to reveal - makes your total chip total always positive.
• Winning via the shiro-pocchi also makes your chip total always positive, and also negates any effects of the death 7p (either to prevent skips from applying, or from automatically ending the tulip phase).
• Normal rules about tier progression and tier 3 shugi doubling apply.
• Chips move a lot in this game mode. If you're playing rate with normal super bingo, probably divide each chip value by 10 to get a sane rate.

SPECIAL VARIANT: OROCHI

Call pairs and push your luck in this yakuman-friendly variant. Original video

Setup:

• Nothing! Play with the normal set of super bingo tiles and regular point sticks.

Gameplay:

• There is atama. Atama is a call that allows you to confirm a pair in your hand. To atama, declare "atama", reveal a matching tile from your hand, take the tile and put the pair to the side like you would any other call, and then discard a tile.
  • Atama loses to pon. If both players want to atama, the next player in drawing order has priority.
  • For the flow of the game, after each discard, the next player in line should tap the table to signify that they do not want to call the tile before drawing a tile for their turn. This gives the third player an opportunity to call the tile, without giving away information if the second player also wants it.
• You must win with a yakuman, or win with open riichi. Anything else is not even considered tenpai.
• If your hand is closed, and you do not have a yakuman guaranteed, you must open riichi. Pay the normal 1000 wager and open your entire hand. Normal open riichi rules apply - it's worth an additional han, and if anyone who is not in riichi deals in, it's worth a yakuman.
  • Even a hand like 111 4555 888s 333p must open riichi, because it does not have a yakuman confirmed, as it only gets suuanko on 4s, but can win on 3/6s.
• Chiitoi can be partially open, but as mentioned above, you must have a guaranteed yakuman in order to win, so look at the following section.
• There are three/four additional yakuman added to the game:
  • Hadaka: Chiitoi having made six atama calls, thus waiting as a hadaka-tanki.
  • Orochi: Chiitoi, using only honor tiles and sevens. Can be partially open. You can win with more than four of the same seven.
  • Susanowo: Closed chiitoi, using no sevens. You can call ron, but the 13 other tiles must be closed.
  • Daisharin: Chiitoi, using only tiles from one suit. Can be partially open.
  • These yakuman are stackable with other normal yakuman, or themselves (i.e., hadaka daisharin is a double yakuman.)
• Other normal super bingo rules apply (for yakuman shugi and tulip phase, and not being able to use more than four of the same seven for normal hands).

Questions or comments? Tweet us at @fansubbing! You can also follow us for updates on the latest articles, too.