Pung, Kong, Quint, and Pair: The Sets That Make Up Every Hand

Pair: two identical tiles

Two of the same tile, like two red dragons or two five craks. Pairs are the strictest shape in the game: jokers can never stand in for either tile, and you cannot call a discard to complete a pair except when that pair is the last thing your winning hand needs. A pair must come from your own drawing, or from the winning call.

Pung: three identical tiles

Three of the same tile. Jokers may fill any of the three. You may call a discard to complete a pung, exposing all three face up. On the card, a pung shows as the same number or letter printed three times together.

Kong: four identical tiles

Four of the same tile. Jokers allowed, callable from a discard, exposed on a call. A kong of a suited number uses all four copies that exist in the set, so once you hold a kong nobody else can have that tile, which is worth remembering when you read other players' exposures.

Quint: five identical tiles

Five of the same tile, which is only possible because of jokers: there are only four of any natural tile, so every quint contains at least one joker. Callable and exposable like a pung or kong. Quints appear on specific card lines and are a strong reason to hold jokers when a hand offers one.

How they combine

A winning hand is fourteen tiles made entirely of these shapes in the arrangement a card line specifies, for example two pungs, a kong, and a pair. Some lines also use single tiles in a fixed sequence, such as a year written out in numbers, which are not sets and cannot be called or filled with jokers.

Reading a hand on your rack means counting what you already hold of each shape. Three of a number is a pung you can build on; two of a number is a pair that jokers will not help. That count, more than anything on the card, tells you which direction your hand should go.