How to Play Mahjong

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Although you may only be familiar with Mahjong as a single-player computer game, Mahjong is traditionally a Chinese gambling game that uses tiles instead of cards. Read on to learn how to play Mahjong.
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Although you may only be familiar with Mahjong as a single-player computer game, Mahjong is traditionally a Chinese gambling game that uses tiles instead of cards. Read on to learn how to play Mahjong.
Introduction
- Mahjong is a four-player tile game. Each player represents one of the four winds (East, West, North and South), which is why Mahjong is also known as the Chinese game of the four winds. If you like games of skill and strategy, you will enjoying playing Mahjong.
The Objective
- The objective of the game is to score the most points. Points are earned by collecting certain tile combinations.
Tile Basics
- There are 144 to 156 tiles, depending on the version of Mahjong you play. Tiles include:
1. Suits: There are three suits and each suit has tiles numbered from one to nine. There are four identical tiles for each number.
  1. The Circle Suit (Pin).
    The rank is indicated using the number of circles.
  2. The Bamboo Suit (Sow).
    The rank is indicated using the number of bamboo pieces on the tile.
  3. The Character Suit (Wan).
    The rank is written in the form of a Chinese character.
2. Winds: There are four identical tiles for each of the four winds. The name is written with a Chinese character.
  1. East (Ton).
  2. North (Pei).
  3. West (Sya).
  4. South (Nan).
3. Dragons: There are four identical tiles for each of the Dragons.
  1. Red (Chun).
  2. Green (Hatsu).
  3. White (Haku).
4. Seasons.
  1. Spring.
  2. Summer.
  3. Autumn.
  4. Winter.
5. Flowers.
  1. Plum.
  2. Orchid.
  3. Chrysanthemum.
  4. Bamboo.
Hand Basics
- Each player represents a direction: North, South, East and West.
1. All tiles are placed face down.
2. Each player:
  1. Draws 34 tiles.
  2. Divides into 17 stacks of two.
  3. Arranges the stacks of two to form a wall.
3. Push the four walls together to form a square.
4. The Player who represents East is the dealer.
  1. He or she will roll the dice to determine who will break the wall.
  2. The numbered rolled is the number used to count off the players.
  3. East will count itself as one and continue counting clockwise the amount the dice indicated to select a player.
5. The selected player will roll again.
  1. He or she will add up the sum of the first and second throw.
  2. That number is used to determine where the wall will be broken.
  3. Starting at player's right, the player will start counting stacks.
6. The two stacks following the counted stacks will go to the dealer.
7. The next two by the player on the dealer's right and so on.
8. This will continue until each player has three stacks of two.
9. Each player will then take one additional tile.
  - Each player should have a total of 13 tiles.
10. The dealer will draw one more card to start the game.
Playing the Game
1. Going clockwise and starting with dealer, each player will take a turn:
  1. Drawing a tile.
    Choose a tile from the wall or the discard pile.
  2. Discarding a tile.
  3. Announcing the tile being discarded.
2. The game ends when the walls are depleted.
Scoring
- To score points, players must complete a set. Sets include:
1. Kongs: a set of four identical tiles.
2. Pongs: a set of three identical tiles .
3. Chows: a sequence of three tiles of consecutive ranks in one suit
- To automatically win the hand (and score 20 points) you can go Mahjong. Mahjong is when you:
1. Collect four sets.
2. Collect a pair.
Variations
- Mahjong has many variations, including:
1. American Mahjong.
2. Taiwanese Mahjong.
3. Japananse Mahjong.
4. 3-Player Mahjong.
- Each variation may follow different rules.

How to Play Mahjong

Table of Contents

Related Mahalo Pages

Categories

Introduction

The Objective

Tile Basics

Hand Basics

Playing the Game

Scoring

Variations

References

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