Category a Day 9, Section 9: Incidental Bonuses

This category is for points awarded for how you win, rather than for any particular tiles or patterns in your hand. Concealed Hand might also go here, but it is so common that it was put in the trivial patterns category. Some of these require the winning tile to be kept separate, so just make a habit of doing that.

9.0 Incidental Bonuses

9.1.1  Final Draw          :  10

9.1.2  Final Discard       :  10

9.2    Win on Kong         :  10

9.3    Robbing a Kong      :  10

9.4.1  Blessing of Heaven  : 155

9.4.2  Blessing of Earth   : 155

The first four are nice little bonuses that happen from time to time. Some of them are quite rare, but they are all luck, so awarding them a lot of points would not balance the effort required.

9.1.1 Final Draw

A player takes the last tile in the wall (besides the 14 left in the kong box), and wins on that tile.

9.1.2 Final Discard

A player takes the last tile in the wall, then discards some tile. Someone else wins on that discard.

9.2 Win on Kong

If you declare a kong of any type, and your replacement tile is your winner, ten points for you!

9.3 Robbing a Kong - Everyone should know this one!

If any player has an exposed triplet (pung) and later promotes it to a kong, you can take that tile to go out. It adds a dramatic twist to what is normally a very safe move, and someone who thought she had been adding points to her own hand suddenly has to pay the winner her share of 10 more points.

9.4.1 Blessing of Heaven

When the dealer starts, she has 14 tiles. It could be that those 14 tiles are matched and make a legal hand. If she goes out on those 14 tiles, she gets these points, plus any others in the hand. This is exceedingly rare, so its score is rather arbitrary, as it won't affect many games. It is given a higher score to honor its tradition of awarding a limit hand.

9.4.2 Blessing of Earth

If the dealer can't go out with her first 14 tiles, she discards. If another player wins on that tile, a big bonus for him. This is more common than blessing of heaven, but not by much.