🀄 Sichuan Mahjong — Blood Battle Guide

1 Overview

Origin: Sichuan province and Chongqing municipality, southwest China.

Difficulty: ★★★☆☆ — Medium. Requires strategic thinking about suit selection and Blood Battle dynamics.

Best for: Players who want a more strategic, exciting game where everyone stays involved until the very end.

Sichuan Mahjong (四川麻将) is one of the most thrilling Chinese Mahjong variants, famous for its two signature rules: Que Yi Men (缺一门) — the suit restriction rule, and Xue Zhan Dao Di (血战到底) — "Blood Battle to the End." These rules transform the game from a simple race to win into a complex strategic contest where positioning, timing, and risk management all matter.

The suit restriction means you must discard one entire suit at the start, concentrating your hand into just two suits. This dramatically changes tile probability and forces meaningful strategic decisions from the very first turn. The Blood Battle rule ensures no one is left watching — after the first player wins, the remaining players continue competing for second and third place.

Sichuan Mahjong is wildly popular in its home region, where it's played in homes, teahouses, and Mahjong parlors across Sichuan and Chongqing. Its popularity has spread nationally through online gaming platforms.

2 Tile Setup

Que Yi Men (缺一门) — Suit Restriction

This is the defining rule of Sichuan Mahjong. Before or during the early game, each player must choose one of the three suits to completely discard. You will NOT collect any tiles of that suit for the rest of the hand. Your winning hand must be composed entirely of tiles from the remaining two suits.

For example, if you choose to discard Tiao (Bamboo), your winning hand can only contain Wan and Tong tiles. Any Tiao tiles you draw must be discarded.

This rule has profound strategic implications:

• Concentrated tile pool: Since everyone discards one suit, there are more tiles available per suit for the remaining two suits. This makes it easier to form sequences and triplets.
• Information leakage: When a player discards all tiles of one suit, you know they're only working with two suits — making it easier to predict what they need.
• Suit selection strategy: Your initial suit choice should be based on your starting hand. If you have few Tiao tiles, discard Tiao. But be careful — switching suits mid-game is not allowed.

3 Basic Gameplay

Seating & Dealing

• 4 players, standard seating. Dice determine the dealer.
• Each player arranges their portion of the wall.
• Dealer starts with 14 tiles; others start with 13.

Turn Structure

• Same as other variants: draw, then discard, counter-clockwise.
• Chi, Pong, and Kong are available with the same priority rules (Hu > Kong > Pong > Chi).

Gua Feng Xia Yu (刮风下雨) — Special Kong Rules

This uniquely Sichuan rule adds an extra scoring dimension to kong actions:

• Ming Gang 明杠 (Open Kong): When you upgrade an existing pong to a kong by claiming the fourth tile from another player, or when you claim a discarded tile to form a kong directly — the discarder pays you bonus points.
• An Gang 暗杠 (Concealed Kong): When you declare a kong from four tiles entirely in your own hand — all other players pay you bonus points.
• Jia Gang 加杠 (Added Kong): When you already have a declared pong and draw the fourth copy yourself, you can upgrade it to a kong. If another player can win on that tile, they can rob the kong (qiang gang 抢杠).

4 Blood Battle to the End (血战到底)

This is the most dramatic and distinctive rule of Sichuan Mahjong. In most Mahjong variants, the round ends as soon as one player declares "Hu" (win). Not here.

How It Works

• When the first player wins, they reveal their hand and collect points — but the game does NOT stop.
• The remaining three players continue playing as if a new round has started, competing for second place.
• When the second player wins, they also score — and the last two players keep going.
• The round only ends when all players have won, all tiles are drawn (a draw/流局 liuju), or only one player remains without a win.

Strategic Implications

• No sitting out: Everyone stays engaged throughout the entire round. There's no boring "waiting for the next game" phase.
• Dynamic risk assessment: After the first player wins, the remaining players may play more aggressively (to win quickly) or more defensively (to avoid dealing into another player's hand), depending on the scoring situation.
• Multiple winners: In theory, all four players could win in a single round (though this is extremely rare). More commonly, 2–3 players win per round.
• Point differential matters: Even if you can't win first, winning second still earns you points and — crucially — prevents you from being the last player who pays out to everyone else.

Draw Rules (流局 Liuju)

If all wall tiles are drawn and no one has won (or not everyone has won in Blood Battle mode), it's a draw. In most Sichuan Mahjong rules:

• Players who have not declared a ready hand (听牌 tingpai) must pay penalties to those who have.
• A "chicken hand" (查鸡胡) check may be performed — players reveal their hands, and those closest to winning receive compensation.

5 Common Winning Patterns

Pattern Combinations

Patterns can stack. For instance, Qing Yi Se + Dui Dui Hu = 8× (4× × 2×). Since you're restricted to two suits, achieving Qing Yi Se is more feasible than in variants where all three suits are in play — if everyone else discards the same suit you're keeping, the pool of useful tiles becomes very dense.

The Qi Dui (Seven Pairs) Pattern

Qi Dui is a special winning pattern unique to certain variants, and it's very popular in Sichuan Mahjong. Instead of the standard 4 melds + 1 pair, you win with 7 pairs (14 tiles). This pattern is harder to achieve because you need 7 different pairs, but it offers strategic flexibility — you don't need to form sequences or triplets, just pairs.

6 Scoring

Base Scoring

Blood Battle Scoring

In Blood Battle mode, scoring is cumulative:

• The first winner scores against all remaining players.
• Subsequent winners score against players who haven't won yet.
• The last player standing (who didn't win) pays the most over the course of the round.

7 Tips & Strategy

8 Quick Reference