| Taiwanese: | Overview | Gameplay | Scoring | Penalties & Errors | Resources |
|---|
| Taiwanese Mahjong |
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| Taiwanese |
| Length | 4 rounds |
| Tiles Used |
| Wall | 144 tiles |
| Hand | 16 tiles |
| Dead Wall | 16 tiles |
| Scoring |
| System | Pattern |
| Unit | Tai |
| Minimum | 5 tai |
| Maximum | 300 tai |
| Payout | Winner(s) only |
Taiwanese Mahjong differs from other forms of mahjong in that a hand plays with an additional three tiles. A complete hand contains five sets and a pair, using 16 tiles and going out with 17. Because there are more tiles to be played with, a winning hand can rack up a considerable score for various combinations. On the other hand, traditional scoring patterns such as a pure hand become difficult to achieve, while other traditional 13-tiled patterns have been omitted altogether (i.e. Nine Gates and Thirteen Orphans).
Preliminaries
Equipment
| Bams | Cracks | Dots | Winds | Dragons | Flowers | Seasons | Jokers | Red tiles | |
| Tiles used |  |
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- 144 tiles
- Dice (x2)
Terminology
- tai
- A unit of score.
Seating
For casual play any seating arrangement will do. Tiles are then dealt accordingly to each player.
Main Article: Seating
Before the tiles are shuffled and the wall is built, each player sits down arbitrarily at the table. Set aside one of each wind tile, an even, and an odd numbered tile. Shuffle the wind tiles face down and arranged them sandwiched in between the odd and even tile as seen below.
Example
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| Random wind tiles face down |
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Any arbitrary player rolls two dice and counts off, starting with him/herself as one, the next player as two, etc. continuing counterclockwise. The indicated player, then rolls the dice once more noting both the total and if the total is an even or odd number. This will determine who draws first and from which side. Again, he/she counts off starting with him/herself.
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| Wind tiles face up for illustration purposes. |
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If the number is odd, for example, the indicated player draws the face down wind tile closest to the odd-numbered tile (in this case South). The next player in turn draws the next wind tile (North), and so on (East and last West). The wind tile drawn is your seat wind. The player who is east remains stationary while the other players arranges themselves accordingly. Shuffle up all of tiles and build the wall.
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| Playing order: East, South, West, North |
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Winds
See Main Article: Seat and Prevalent Winds
Seat winds are winds assigned to each player prior to the start of the game. The player who is in the East position is the dealer. Following counterclockwise, is South, West and North.
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| The player sitting at the star is East in the first hand |
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If the deal passes when the hand is over the player’s wind change. The player who was originally East position is now North, the player starting as South is now East, etc. In other words, the winds rotate counterclockwise.
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| The player sitting at the star is now South |
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When the player who was originally East becomes East again (deals again) a new round begins.
Each round is assigned a wind, known as the prevalent wind or round wind. After each round the prevalent wind changes. For the first round the prevalent wind is East, for the second South, third West, and fourth North. A marker or indicator is commonly used to keep track of the round.
Dealing
Tiles are then dealt accordingly to each player. The wall will be 18 tiles in length. The dead wall consists of the last 16 tiles.