The comparison & result
In the Classic sheet tested here, a declared kong has no separate immediate payment. Its value can come from the replacement draw and applicable scoring patterns, while declaring it can change your options.
The report recorded only a small average difference between kong-declaring players and players who never declared one. Without an uncertainty interval, that is not evidence that the two choices are equivalent. Club’s immediate kong payments belong to a different scoring sheet.
At your table
- You hold the fourth copy of your own pong and the tile is otherwise useless — declare it
- NOT when the kong tile is your last safe discard against a visible big hand
Check your table’s scoring rules before applying the finding. Read the Taiwanese Classic reference.
How it was tested
Tested in the Hé Fēn Lab: 100,000 hands, kong players against players who never kong. The archived report recorded a small difference without an uncertainty interval.
The players were software policies, not human participants. This report describes the published experiment; it does not establish the best move for every possible hand or opponent.
Results without a published uncertainty interval should be read as point estimates. Similar results do not prove two choices are equivalent.
Read the Lab’s method and limitationsPublished by Hé Fēn Mahjong. Ask about this finding or suggest a correction.