How to Play Mahjong

Mahjong is a tile game for four players that began in China in the 19th century. It plays a lot like the card game rummy: each turn you draw a tile and discard one, trying to be first to turn your 13 tiles into a complete hand, usually four sets and a pair. There are many versions, and the two most people learn are the classic Chinese game and American mahjong, which uses jokers and a new card of winning hands every year. This guide explains how to play mahjong step by step, starting with the tiles, then the classic rules, then what changes in the American game.

Mahjong Rules at a Glance

The Mahjong Tiles

The three suits and the honours (winds and dragons) make up the 136 tiles used to build hands. Flowers and seasons are bonus tiles: when you draw one, you put it aside and draw a replacement. That is why a classic set has 144 tiles and an American one 152.

Sets: Chow, Pung, Kong and Pair

• Chow: three tiles in sequence in the same suit, such as 3-4-5 of bamboos. Honours can’t make a chow, and sequences don’t wrap round from 9 to 1.
• Pung: three identical tiles, from a suit or the honours.
• Kong: four identical tiles. It counts as one set, and you draw an extra replacement tile when you make it.
• Pair (eyes): two identical tiles. A winning hand needs exactly one.

How to Set Up a Game of Mahjong

1. Choose seats and the dealer. Each player rolls the dice; the highest becomes East, the dealer. Or shuffle the four wind tiles face down and draw one each.
2. Shuffle all the tiles face down in the middle of the table.
3. Build the wall. Each player builds a row 18 tiles long and two tiles high in front of them (17 long if you play without flowers), and the four rows are pushed together into a square.
4. Break the wall. East rolls the dice to choose which side of the wall to open and where; the details vary between groups.
5. Deal. Starting with East, players take four tiles at a time until everyone has 12, then one more each. East takes one extra, so East starts with 14 and everyone else with 13.
6. Replace flowers. Anyone holding a flower or season puts it aside and draws a replacement.

How to Play Mahjong Step by Step

1. East discards first. With 14 tiles, the dealer begins by throwing one tile face up into the middle of the table.
2. Draw and discard. On your turn, draw the next tile from the wall, then discard one tile so that you keep 13. Play passes counter-clockwise, to the right.
3. Claim a discard. You can take the tile just discarded if it completes a set, but only that one tile, and only straight away. Call “pung” or “kong” to take it from any player, or “chow” to take it from the player on your left only. Lay the completed set face up, discard, and play continues from you, so anyone in between loses their turn.
4. Priority. If two players want the same discard, a player who can win with it comes first, then a pung or kong, then a chow.
5. Keep sets hidden if you can. Sets you build from your own draws stay concealed in your hand; sets made from a claimed discard must be shown.
6. Kongs. When you make a kong, draw an extra tile from the end of the wall to keep the right count, then discard.
7. Win. When a tile completes four sets and a pair, from the wall or from any player’s discard, declare “mahjong” and show your hand. You can only claim a discard for your pair if it completes your winning hand.
8. Draw. If the wall runs out before anyone wins, nobody scores and the hand is replayed.

Scoring Basics

Scoring is where versions differ most, so agree it before you start. In Hong Kong mahjong only the winner scores, counting faan (points) for features of the hand: all pungs, a hand in one suit, dragon pungs, flowers and so on. Most tables require a minimum of three faan to win, and winning with a tile from the wall doubles what each loser pays. The international Mahjong Competition Rules use a longer list of scoring patterns and an eight-point minimum. Beginners often start with simple scoring, such as a fixed amount per win, and add patterns later.

How to Play American Mahjong

American mahjong, standardised by the National Mah Jongg League (NMJL) from 1937, plays very differently once the tiles are dealt:

Other Kinds of Mahjong

• Japanese (riichi) mahjong uses 136 tiles and requires at least one scoring feature (yaku) to win; declaring riichi when you need just one tile is the best-known one.
• Regional Chinese versions (Cantonese, Shanghainese, Taiwanese, Fujianese and more) differ mostly in seating, tile count and scoring.
• Mahjong solitaire, the computer game, uses the same tiles but is a different, one-player puzzle of removing matching pairs.

Mahjong Tips for Beginners

• Sort your tiles by suit and number as soon as they are dealt, with likely sets on the left and probable discards on the right.
• Aim for one plan early. Decide whether you are collecting pungs or chows, and which suits, within the first few turns.
• Get rid of lonely honours first. A single wind or dragon can only become a pair or pung, and others may be collecting it later.
• Watch the discards. Tiles that are already out tell you what is still live, and what an opponent is collecting.
• Don’t claim every discard. Exposed sets show your plan and lock your hand in; a concealed hand often scores more.
• In American mahjong, keep two or three card hands in mind through the Charleston, and save your jokers for the sets that need them.

Mahjong Odds: What You Are Dealt

These are the exact chances for a 13-tile starting hand dealt at random from the 136 suit and honour tiles (flowers are replaced as soon as they appear, so they don’t change the odds):

Being dealt a winning hand is far rarer. The chance that the dealer’s 14 tiles already form four sets and a pair before anyone moves is 1 in 374,373. In American mahjong, with eight jokers among 152 tiles, 52% of 13-tile hands include at least one joker, and the average is 0.68.

Where Mahjong Comes From

Mahjong grew out of Chinese draw-and-discard card games of the 18th and 19th centuries, played with money-suited cards in three suits of nine, which is where the dots, bamboos and characters come from. The switch from cards to tiles probably happened in the mid-19th century, and the oldest surviving tile sets date from around 1870. Ningbo and Fujian both claim to be its birthplace. The game reached the United States in 1920, when Abercrombie & Fitch began selling sets and Joseph Park Babcock published his Rules of Mah-Jongg, and the National Mah Jongg League was founded in 1937.

More Games to Try

If you like collecting sets and runs, try the card game it most resembles, rummy. For another game played with tiles, see the dominoes guide, and for a strategy game for two, checkers.

Another tile game: Rummikub, a rummy game played with numbered tiles on racks.

Mahjong: frequently asked questions