The Beginner's Guide will introduce you to the very basics of the game. The basic rules written here describe the core principles across most forms of mahjong. This page is written under the assumption that you have no prior experience in four-player mahjong. Mahjong has a great deal of terminology and maybe overwhelming to any beginning player. Feel free to refer to the glossary.
Equipment
To play mahjong all you need are 3 dice and four of each of the following tiles, for a total of 136 tiles.
Bamboos
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| Bamboo suit tiles |
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In most sets 1-bamboo looks like a bird.
Characters
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| Character suit tiles |
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If you haven’t learned Chinese numerals yet, make sure to play with a set that has Arabic numerals too!
Dots
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| Dot suit tiles |
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Also known as circles, disks, spots…
Dragons
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| Green, Red, and White dragon tiles |
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These are the Green, Red, and White dragon tiles. If your set has English letters, the green dragon is labeled F, red is C, and white is P or B. In Japanese sets, the White dragons are completely blank tiles. In American sets, the Green and Red dragons may be depicted with a dragon graphic.
Winds
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| East, South, West, and North wind tiles |
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If your set has English letters, they are labeled E, S, W, and N, respectively.
If your mahjong set comes with other tiles besides these (usually flowers, jokers, red tiles and/or blanks), then put those extra tiles away. These tiles are used for variations of the game.
The Objective
For every hand, your basic goal is to be the first player to get a hand composed of four sets and a pair. Each set can be either a pung, chow, or kong.
A pung is a set of three identical tiles.
| … … |
| These are pungs |
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A chow is a set of three tiles of the same suit and consecutive numbers.
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| These are chows |
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Dragons and winds can't be used in a chow. A chow cannot loop from 9 back to 1.
| … … |
| These are NOT chows |
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A kong is a set of four identical tiles.
| … |
| These are kongs |
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Each set can either be concealed or melded/exposed. Concealed sets are made of tiles from your initial hand and tiles you draw from the wall. Melded sets are formed by claiming discard from other players and are explained later in the special moves section. Concealed sets are not shown to other players unless you win the hand. Melded sets are immediately shown when they are formed.
As explained earlier, the goal is to get four sets and a pair. The first player to reach this goal wins the hand. Most of the time, the winning hand will have exactly 14 tiles. If the hand includes kongs, it will have more than 14 tiles. The following are all valid winning hands:
Example 1
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| chow | chow | chow | pung | pair |
Example 2
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| kong | pung | pung | chow | pair |
Example 3
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| chow | pung | chow | pung | pair |
Building the Wall
Get three friends and sit randomly around a table, facing towards the center. Ideally you want to play on a square table that's small enough that you can reach across easily.
Each player will be assigned a wind. A good analogy is to think of this as board game, but instead of being assigned a colored token you are assigned a direction for your seat.
Randomly assign one player to have the East seat wind. The rest of the players assume seat winds as specified by the image below: the player to the right of east is South, the player across is West, and the player to the left is North. This assignment of winds DOES NOT match the cardinal directions on a compass.
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| Playing order: East, South, West, North |
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Dump out your tiles on the table. Turn all the tiles face-down and swirl them around with your hands to shuffle them. After the tiles are shuffled, each player makes a wall 17 tiles across and 2 tiles high. Each player's wall should look like this:
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| One wall |
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All players move their walls towards the center of the table, making a big square like this:
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| Bringing all four walls together |
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Breaking the Wall
The East player starts by rolling three dice and adding up the sum of the rolls. East uses this number to determine whose wall to break and where to break it.
Counting themselves as number one, East counts off players counter-clockwise around the table until they reaches the sum. This determines whose wall they will break. For example, if East rolled 12, then they would break North's wall.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
E S W N E S W N E S W N
Next, starting from the right side of the indicated player's wall, East counts off stacks clockwise until they reaches the sum. they then takes the next two stacks (four tiles) after the last stack they counted. South takes the next two stacks, West takes the next two, then North takes the next two. All players continue to take stacks in turn until each player has six stacks (12 tiles). Note: players take turns going counter-clockwise, but tiles are drawn from the wall going clockwise. This applies when dealing tiles and during gameplay.
Lastly, the players take their final tiles as shown below. East takes his two tiles, then South takes one, West takes one, and North takes one. After this step, east should have 14 tiles, and the rest of the players should have 13.
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| The last five dealt tiles |
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Here is what the tile distribution would look like if East rolled a sum of 12:
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| Breaking North's wall at the twelfth tile from his right. |
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Gameplay
East starts the game by discarding one tile from his hand and placing it face-up in the area in the middle of the walls, which is called the river. If nobody claims East's discard, then play resumes with the player to his right, South. Remember, players take turns going counter-clockwise. For most turns, you will simply draw a tile and then discard a tile.
Many of the moves below require you to "use the most recently discarded tile." That refers discards from other players, not your own discards. For example, you can't discard a tile and then immediately claim it for a melded pung.
If you claim a discard to make a melded set, that melded set cannot be integrated back into the concealed part of your hand. The melded set remains visible until the end of the hand.
Normal Turn
At the beginning of your turn, you can
- Claim the most recent discarded tile to make a melded pung, melded chow, or big melded kong, OR if you can’t or choose not to, you can
- Draw a tile from the wall.
If you claim the discard, follow the corresponding procedure in the Special Moves section.
If you simply want to draw a tile, you must:
- Draw a tile from the wall. Remember, take tiles from the wall going clockwise. If the next stack in the wall is two tiles high, take the top tile. Otherwise, take the bottom tile.
- Optional: Declare a concealed kong or a small melded kong. (These are explained in the special moves section.) If you declare one of these kongs, DO NOT go on to step 3. Instead, follow the procedure listed under Concealed Kong or Small Melded Kong.
- Discard a tile. If nobody claims the discard, play resumes with the player to the right.
Special Moves
Melded Pung
If you want to use the most recently discarded tile in a pung, you must already have two concealed tiles in your hand that match the discard. You must:
- Declare “pung”.
- Take the discard. (Do not place the discard in your hand).
- Lay down the three tiles of the pung face-up as a set in front of your hand. This set is called a melded pung.
- Discard a tile. If nobody claims the discard, play resumes with the player to the right. Note: some players might get their turns skipped.
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| Two concealed identical tiles + discarded matching tile = melded pung |
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Melded Chow
If you want to use the most recently discarded tile in a chow, you must already have two concealed tiles in your hand that would make a chow with the discarded tile, and the discard must come from the player to your left. You must:
- Declare “chow”.
- Take the discard. (Do not place the discard in your hand).
- Lay down the three tiles of the chow face-up as a set in front of your hand. This set is called a melded chow.
- Discard a tile. If nobody claims the discard, play resumes with the player to the right.
Example 1
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| Concealed 4- and 5-bamboo + discarded 6-bamboo = melded chow |
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Example 2
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| Concealed 4- and 6-bamboo + discarded 5-bamboo = melded chow |
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Big Melded Kong
If you want to use the most recently discarded tile in a kong, you must already have a concealed pung in your hand that matches the discard. You must:
- Declare “kong”.
- Take the discard. (Do not place the discard in your hand).
- Lay down the four tiles of the kong face-up as a set in front of your hand. This set is called a big melded kong.
- Draw a replacement tile from the back end of the wall. (Replacement tiles are explained later.)
- Optional: Declare a concealed kong or a small melded kong. If you declare one of these kongs, do not go on to step 6. Instead, follow the rules concerning the concealed kong or small melded kong.
- Discard a tile. If nobody claims the discard, play resumes with the player to the right. Note: some players might get their turns skipped.
| + = |
| concealed pung + matching discard = big melded kong |
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Small Melded Kong
If you draw a tile that matches a melded pung you already have, you may promote the pung to a kong. Note that you DO NOT have to promote the pung. If you do want to promote the pung, you DO NOT need to do it on the same turn you drew the matching tile. You can declare a small melded kong on any of your turns, but only immediately after you draw a tile from the wall or a replacement tile. You must:
- Declare “kong”.
- Add the matching tile to your melded pung. This set is called a small melded kong.
- Draw a replacement tile.
- Optional: Declare a concealed kong or a small melded kong. If you declare one of these kongs, do not go on to step 5. Instead, follow the rules concerning the concealed kong or small melded kong.
- Discard a tile. If nobody claims the discard, play resumes with the player to the right.
| + = |
| melded pung + drawn matching tile = small melded kong |
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Concealed Kong
If you draw a tile that matches a concealed pung you have in your hand, you may declare a concealed kong. Note that you DO NOT have to use the tiles as a kong. If you do want to use the tiles as kong, you DO NOT need to do it on the same turn you drew the matching tile. You can declare a concealed kong on any of your turns, but only immediately after you draw a tile from the wall or a replacement tile. You must:
- Declare “kong”
- Lay down the four tiles of the kong face-down as a set in front of your hand. This set is called a concealed kong.
- Draw a replacement tile.
- Optional: Declare a concealed kong or a small melded kong. If you declare one of these kongs, do not go on to step 5. Instead, follow the rules concerning the concealed kong or small melded kong.
- Discard a tile. If nobody claims the discard, play resumes with the player to the right.
Note: if you wish to use a concealed kong as one of your sets but you do not declare it, then you will not have enough tiles to complete the four sets and the pair you need to win.
| + = |
| concealed pung + drawn matching tile = concealed kong |
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Order of Claims
If players claim the same discard, a pung or kong will supersede a chow. However, a claim of mahjong trumps all other claims. If two or more players claim mahjong, then the next player counterclockwise from the discarder gets the discard to win.
Replacement Tiles
When you declare a kong, you must draw a replacement tile from the back end of the wall (the ridge). That is to say, you draw a tile from the end of the wall you normally WOULD NOT draw tiles from. If you don't get a replacement tile, you won't have enough tiles to make the four sets and a pair you need to get mahjong.
Players may not declare kong when the wall is exhausted and there are no replacement tiles to take.
Mahjong
When you have a hand that requires only one more tile to make four sets and a pair, then your hand is ready. If you draw the last tile you need, then you can declare "mahjong" to win by self-draw. If another player discards the last tile you need, then you can declare "mahjong" to win by discard. When a player adds a piece to a pung to form a small melded kong, if you require that tile, you can declare "mahjong" by robbing a kong.
If you declare mahjong, reveal your entire hand so that everybody else can see it and verify that your hand is valid. After you win a hand, typically you would calculate your score and make your opponents pay. If you want to learn a simple scoring system, I suggest you look up the scoring rules for Hong Kong Old Style.
For the next hand, if the winner is not the dealer, rotate the dealer and seat winds counterclockwise. The South player of the first round becomes the new East, and the other players change seat winds accordingly. Shuffle the tiles, rebuild the wall, and start again! If the winner is the dealer, he continues to be the dealer and the dealer is not rotated.
Draw
If no player has won and there are no more tiles to take from the wall, then the hand is a draw and nobody wins. Shuffle the tiles and start a new hand. All players keep their current seat winds.