Hong Kong mahjong scoring rules are used for scoring in mahjong, the game for four players, common in Hong Kong and some areas in Guangdong. Criteria A hand is considered a winning hand when it has 4 melds and a pair or is considered a special hand. Points are obtained by matching the winning hand and the winning condition with a specific set of criteria, with different criteria scoring different values. Some of these criteria may be subsets of other criteria (for example, having a meld of one dragon versus having a meld of all of them), and in these cases, only the criteria with the tighter requirements are scored. The points obtained may be translated into scores for each player using some (typically exponential) function. When gambling with mahjong, these scores are typically directly translated into sums of money. Some criteria may also be in terms of both points and score. The terminology of point differs from variation to variation. A common English term is double, as the point-to-score translation is typically exponential with a base of 2. Cantonese variants will use the term 番 (pinyin: fān / jyutping: faan1). Because points and score are two distinct concepts, this article will adopt the use of the term score unit to refer to a point in a player's score. At the beginning of each game, each player is given a fixed score, usually in the form of scoring chips. In many cases, only the winner scores, with the winner's gain being deducted from the three losers' scores (that is, the losers pay the winner). In many cases, there exist other modifiers to the score. A common set of modifiers (for which this article will call the standard payment variations) include: In the case where a player wins by a discard (a player picks off an opponent), the player who performs the discard pays double In the case where a player wins by a draw (a player wins by self-pick), every losing player pays double. In the case where a player wins from a high-risk scenario (see below), the player who performs the discard pays for the other two losing players (in addition to the normal double share). There is no universally followed rule determining when a player runs out of score units. In some circles, the match is immediately aborted, with the player furthest ahead in score declared the winner,