How to Play and House Rules
KaLaro plays for fun credits only. Credits have no cash value. See the Terms and Conditions.
Getting started
- Sign in with Google or an email and password. New players get a welcome grant of credits.
- Find a table on the dashboard (filter Tongits or Mahjong) and tap it to sit down. A private table asks for its invite code; you can also just watch.
- Every table has a bet per hand. To sit down you must hold the maximum you could lose in one hand: 4x the bet at Tongits, 10x the bet at Mahjong. Ask an admin for credits (Wallet, Request credits) if you run low.
- Tap I am ready. When every seat is filled and everyone is ready, the host taps Deal.
- After each hand the result shows who won and what moved. Tap Ready again for the next hand. Leave between hands, or flag Leave after this hand during one.
Hosting: ask an admin for host access (dashboard, "Want to host?"). A host creates the table, deals each hand, can remove a player between hands, and ends or cancels the table. Cancelling voids the hand in progress: no credits move.
Tongits (3 players)
One standard 52-card deck. Aces are low (A-2-3 is a run, Q-K-A is not).
- Deal: the dealer gets 13 cards, the other two get 12; the rest is the stock. The dealer goes first without drawing.
- Your turn: draw the top card of the stock, or take the top discard if you immediately meld it (select 2 or more of your cards that go with it, then tap the discard). Then meld and lay off as you like, then discard one card.
- Melds: a set is 3 or 4 cards of the same rank; a run (escalera) is 3 or more consecutive cards of one suit. Select the cards and tap Meld.
- Lay off (sapaw): select cards, then tap any exposed meld on the table, yours or an opponent's, to add them.
- Tongits: get rid of every card in your hand and you win at once.
- Draw (fight): at the start of your turn, if you have at least one exposed meld, you may Call Draw. Each opponent has 20 seconds to Fight or Fold. A player with no exposed meld is burned (sunog) and cannot fight. Among the caller and the fighters, the lowest deadwood wins; a tie goes to the caller.
- Stock out: when the stock runs out the hand ends and the lowest deadwood among the non-burned players wins (a tie splits).
- Deadwood: Ace 1, 2-9 face value, 10-J-Q-K 10 each, added over the cards left in your hand.
Who pays what (times the bet):
| Ending | Each loser pays the winner |
|---|---|
| Tongits | 2x, or 4x if burned |
| Stock out | 1x, or 2x if burned |
| Draw won by the caller | fighters 2x, folders 1x, burned 2x |
| Draw won by a fighter | caller 2x, other fighter 2x, folders 1x, burned 2x |
Mahjong (4 players, Filipino 16-tile)
144 tiles: bamboo, characters (萬) and dots 1-9, four winds (東 南 西 北), three dragons (中 發 and the white dragon □), and 8 flowers (花). You hold 16 tiles. A winning hand is 5 sets and a pair. Sets are a pong (three identical tiles), a chow (three in a row of one suit) or a kang (four identical). Sets you have exposed count.
- Flowers are bonus tiles: they are set aside automatically and replaced from the back of the wall.
- Your turn: tap Draw, then tap one tile and Discard. If you hold four of a kind (or an exposed pong plus the fourth tile), you may declare a Kang first; you draw a replacement.
- Calling a discard: when someone discards, the app tells you privately if you can Pong (you hold two), Kang (you hold three), Chow (only the next player, two tiles that complete a run) or Mahjong (the tile completes your hand). Answer within the call window, or pass. Priority: Mahjong beats Kang beats Pong beats Chow. If two players can win, the one nearer after the discarder wins.
- Mahjong! When your hand is complete after a draw, tap Mahjong! (self-draw, bunot).
- Wall out: if the wall runs out the hand is a draw (tabla): nobody pays and the dealer keeps the deal. The dealer also stays after a dealer win; otherwise the deal passes to the next seat.
Who pays what (units, times the bet):
| Item | Units |
|---|---|
| Win on a discard | the discarder pays 2, the others 1 |
| Self-draw (bunot) | everyone pays 2 |
| Each kang the winner holds | +1 from every loser |
| Cap | 10 units per loser |
House rules
- The server enforces every rule; the app only shows what is allowed. If a button is greyed out, the move is not legal right now.
- Nobody can see your cards or tiles during a hand. Everyone's hand is revealed when the hand ends.
- A hand needs every player present. If someone disappears, the host can cancel the table (the hand is voided, no credits move).
- Be kind in chat. Offensive words are masked and the host can turn chat off.
Not yet in this version: special hands (ambisyon), robbing the kang, Tongits secret bonuses, turn timers. See the app's documentation for the full list.