How to Play Mahjong

Mahjong is a very ancient game that originated in China. Although Mahjong is quite easy to play, learning the basics may feel like learning a new alphabet. That's because the Mahjong tiles have Oriental characters and artistic nuances that we don't usually have in the West.

Online, Mahjong lends itself to the creativity of the software programmers. The game is fundamentally the same but there are many different motifs.

You can buy Mahjong sets. They usually have 144 tiles, a score counter, and a rack on which to keep the tiles.

Let's begin with the tiles. They are divided into three types: suits, honors, and bonuses. Each type is further subdivided. In each subtype are tiles that represent numbers.

Let's consider the suits first. There are three suits. There are four tiles of each number in each suit subtype.

• The circles (or dots) resemble dice. Each tile has 1 to 9 dots.
  
  
• The bamboos also resemble dice but less so than the dots. Each tile has 1-9 bamboos.
  
  
• The characters need to be learned. They also range from 1-9 but the symbols are Chinese.

Next are the honors. There are two types of honors: dragons and winds.

• There are three dragons, red, green, and white. These characters must also be learned.
  
  
• There are four wind tiles representing east, west, north, and south. These characters must also be learned.

Finally, the bonus tiles. There are two types: flowers and seasons. These characters must also be learned.

• The dealer is chosen by local custom. The dealer is called east; to the dealer's left is south and to the dealer's right is north (the reverse of how they are named on maps); opposite the dealer is west.
  
  
• A game has four rounds. Each round is named after a different wind. There are two different understandings of "wind", the prevailing wind and the seat wind. The prevailing wind never changes but the seat wind does. The order of the rounds is counter-clockwise.
  
  
• Each round has at least four hands. Each player plays each of the four seat winds in each round. If the dealer wins a hand or if there is a tie, an extra hand is played.
  
  
• The scoring is affected by the seat winds, thus their importance.

In Mahjong, the tiles are not dealt. All tiles are placed on the table face-down and the players mix them up. When they are thoroughly mixed each player makes 18 stacks of two tiles. The players push their stacks together to form the "wall". There are various ways for players to pick their starting hand from the wall. Each player ends up with 13 tiles in their starting hand and the rest of the tiles stay in the wall.

• Play continues until someone can call Mahjong.
  
  
• When a player takes a tile they must either call Mahjong or discard a tile. Players discard tiles into the wall. Often they loudly announce the tile they are discarding. Discarded tiles can be "stolen" to complete a meld.
  
  
• Any player can "steal" a discard.
  
  
• Stealing must be done immediately upon hearing the name of the discarded tile.
  
  
• Until someone calls Mahjong there must always be 13 tiles in a player's hand excluding flowers and seasons which have been set aside.
  
  
• When a player has a winning hand s/he calls Mahjong.

• A winning hand will have four melds and a pair called "eyes". There are two kinds of melds:
  
  
• A "pong" is three same tiles (exactly like a set in rummy)
  
  
• A "chow" is three consecutive tiles of the same suit (exactly like a run in rummy).
  
  
• A pong can be turned into a "kong" by "stealing" a discarded tile. When a player has a kong s/he must take another tile from the wall to complete their 13-tile hand. Kongs receive bonus points.
  
  
• Eyes are two same tiles.

There are many variations of Mahjong. As the game is very old and originated in China it is understandable that almost every region of China and the Far East has its own variation of Mahjong.

Mahjong can be played online as a form of solitaire or it can be played with other people.

As solitaire, there are dozens of variations.

When you play with others you will usually play Hong Kong , American, or European Mahjong.