Special Hands

Special hands are alternative target sets of tiles that a player can call Mahjiang with. The original Chinese game allowed only a few special hands but some Western derivatives controversially include many more, these include:

Special Hand	Description
Buried Treasure	Concealed Pongs in one suit with Winds/Dragons and a pair.
Heads and Tails	Pongs/Kongs of Ones and Nines.
The Wriggling Snake	A pair of Ones and a run from Two to Nine in the same suit, with each of the winds.
Three Great Scholars	Pongs/Kongs of all three Dragons, another Pong/Kong and a pair.
Four Blessings Hovering Over The Door	Pongs/Kongs of each of the four Winds with any pair.
The Thirteen Unique Wonders	One of each Dragon, one of each Wind, one of each One and one of each Nine. Any one of these tiles must be paired.
Heaven's Blessing	Mahjiang immediately made by East with the original fourteen tiles dealt to that player.
Earth's Blessing	Mahjiang immediately made by West, North or South using the first discard made by East.
Gathering the Plum Blossom from the Roof	The Plum Blossom is the Five of Circles. This is made by a player who draws a loose tile (the roof) as a replacement for a Kong, a Flower or a Season and that tile is the Plum Blossom which allows the player to go Mahjiang.
Plucking the Moon from the Bottom of the Sea	The Moon is the One of Circles. This is made by a player who upon drawing the last tile from the wall finds that it is the Moon which allows the player to go Mahjiang.