Who Wins the Tile
Claim priority, and what happens on a tie
One tile hits the discard pile. Two players want it. Who gets it?
There is a fixed order. It never changes:
WIN > KONG > PUNG > CHOW
A player claiming to win beats a player claiming a kong. A kong beats a pung. A pung beats a chow. Always, regardless of seat.
WHY THIS ORDER
It runs from most decisive to least. A win ends the hand — nothing should outrank it. A chow is the cheapest and most common claim, so it sits at the bottom.
Notice what this means for chow: it loses to everything. Your chow is the claim most likely to be taken out from under you.
WHEN TWO PLAYERS MAKE THE SAME CLAIM
Two players both want to pung the same tile. Priority is equal, so it cannot break the tie.
The tile goes to whichever of them is CLOSEST TO THE DISCARDER in turn order — the one who would have played soonest anyway.
This is the same principle as the chow rule. When the game has to pick, it picks the player the tile was already heading toward. Turn order is the tie-breaker for everything.
WHAT TO DO WITH THIS
Do not count on a chow. If a tile you want is also a plausible pung for someone else, assume you will lose it and have a second plan.
And when you hold a pair of something conspicuous — dragons, the round wind — remember other players may be sitting on the same pair. Closest seat wins, and you may not be it.