Mahjong for Beginners

Mahjong Rules

• The object is to complete a hand of tiles or cards before the fellow players. Generally, Mahjong is played on a table or hard surface large enough to hold all of the tiles, and with at least four players. Mahjong racks can also be used to hold the tiles throughout the game.

  Each Mahjong set has 144 tiles. Shuffle the tiles and place them face down on the table or rack. Each player must pick a tile until the East Wind tile is chosen. The player that chooses the East Wind tile is able to choose his or her desired seat at the table. The remaining players will also be seated in this manner according to the order they have chosen their respecting Wind tiles. Next, deal each player 13 tiles. The player that chose the East Wind tile will be dealt 14 tiles and start the game by discarding one of his or her tiles. Place the extra tiles into the Mahjong rack or collect them in a pile and slide the pile away from the game.

Mahjong Gameplay

• A completed Mahjong hand includes three or four pungs and a pair. Pungs are groups of three matching tiles and a pair is one group of matching tiles. Pungs can be replaced by Chows, or numerical sequences of three tiles. Create a chow by pairing tiles such as 3, 4 and 5 or 5, 6 and 7.

  Complete your hand by drawing tiles and creating pungs and one pair. Each player will continue to draw tiles in the order designated by the initial Wind tile selection process. Implement strategic moves by discarding tiles that are useless to you during the game. Tiles such as single dragons and winds should be discarded if you are unable to pair them with an identical tile. Keep dragons and winds only if you can create a pair. For more information on strategic discards and moves, view the reference link below.

  The first player to complete a Mahjong hand has his score counted. The runner-up player, or player that needs only one more tile before a hand is completed, will also have her score counted. The player with the highest score wins the game. For more information on Mahjong and origins of the game, follow the reference links below.