How to Play Mahjong for Beginners: Chinese Mahjong Rules

Mahjong is a game for four players built from 144 tiles. Each player draws and discards in turn, trying to turn a hand of thirteen tiles into a complete winning hand of fourteen. It is often compared to rummy, and that is the right instinct: you are collecting sets.

This guide covers Chinese (Hong Kong-style) mahjong, the classic game played with a 144-tile set. American mahjong is a different game: it uses a set of 152 tiles with jokers and a new card of hands issued every year. A 144-tile set will not play American rules.

The tiles

• Three suits, numbered 1 to 9, four of each: dots (circles), bamboo (sticks) and characters (the Chinese numerals). That is 108 tiles.
• Winds: East, South, West and North, four of each. 16 tiles.
• Dragons: red, green and white, four of each. 12 tiles.
• Flowers and seasons: eight bonus tiles, one of each.

108 + 16 + 12 + 8 = 144.

Setting up

Shuffle the tiles face down, then each player builds a wall in front of them, two tiles high and eighteen long. The four walls are pushed together into a square. One player rolls the dice to decide where the wall is broken, and tiles are dealt from that point.

Each player takes thirteen tiles; the dealer (East) takes fourteen and begins by discarding one.

Flower and season tiles are bonus tiles: set them face up in front of you as soon as you get one and draw a replacement from the end of the wall.

A turn

On your turn you draw one tile from the wall, then discard one tile face up into the middle. Play passes counter-clockwise.

Sets you are collecting

• Pung: three identical tiles — three 7 of bamboo, three red dragons.
• Kong: four identical tiles. Counts as a set; draw a replacement tile when you declare it.
• Chow: three tiles in a run in one suit — 4, 5, 6 of dots. Honour tiles (winds and dragons) cannot form chows.
• Pair (the "eyes"): two identical tiles.

Claiming a discard

You can take another player's discard to complete a set, out of turn:

• Pung or kong: from any player. Say "pung" and take it.
• Chow: only from the player on your left, on what would have been your turn.

A claimed set is laid face up in front of you. Then you discard, and play continues from your right.

Winning

A winning hand is four sets and a pair — fourteen tiles in all. When you complete one, by drawing or by claiming a discard, call "mahjong" and lay your hand down. A claim to win takes priority over any other claim.

If the wall runs out before anyone wins, the hand is a draw and is redealt.

Scoring

Scoring varies more than any other part of mahjong, from club to club and family to family. The simplest way to start is to play for wins alone, and add points for special hands — all one suit, all pungs, dragon pungs — once everyone knows the game.

Tips for a first game

• Keep pairs early. They become pungs, and you need one for the eyes.
• Watch the discards: a tile everyone is throwing away is safe to throw too.
• Do not chase a beautiful hand. A plain win beats a brilliant loss.

A little history

Mahjong took its modern form in China in the late nineteenth century and swept the world in the 1920s, when sets were exported to Europe and America in their thousands. It has been a family and social game across East Asia ever since.