How to play

Mahjong is played by exactly four people around a square table, with room in the middle for discarded tiles.

You start with 13 tiles. Draw and discard until your 14 tiles make four sets and a pair. There are three kinds of set:

Every player has a seat wind: East, South, West or North. East is the dealer.

1. 1Take one of each wind tile, shuffle them face down and let each player draw one.
2. 2Whoever draws East picks a seat. South sits on East’s right, West opposite, and North on East’s left.
3. 3East deals first. Play always passes to the right, which is counter-clockwise around the table.

Nobody changes seats during the game. When the deal passes on, the seat winds move instead, so a different player becomes East.

1. 1Turn all 144 tiles face down and mix them well. Everyone helps.
2. 2Each player builds a wall in front of them, 18 tiles long and two tiles high.
3. 3Everyone pushes their wall at the same time, diagonally forward and to their left, until each wall’s end nearly touches the side of the next. The ends stick out a few stacks past each corner, and the square usually ends up a little askew.

1. 1The dealer rolls the dice and adds them up.
2. 2Count around the table counter-clockwise, starting with the dealer as 1. The wall of the player you land on is opened.
3. 3Starting from that wall’s right-hand end, count along the same number of stacks and open a gap there.
4. 4The dealer takes the next two stacks (4 tiles) on the other side of the gap. Each player in turn takes 4 more, until everyone has 12.

That’s a lot of words for one deal. Don’t worry: you’ll practice all of it just below. Go to the practice

A random player rolls three dice. Find whose wall opens, tap the first stack dealt, then say who takes the first two lots of 4 tiles. For the whole deal in one go, from drawing seats to the jump, try Practice.

Once everyone has 12 tiles, the dealer jumps: they take the top tile of the next stack and the top tile of the third stack along, skipping the one in between. South, West and North then take one tile each: the bottom tile of the first stack, then the top and bottom tiles of the skipped one. The dealer now holds 14 tiles and everyone else 13.

Don’t worry about the directions for now. Just know that after the dealer’s jump, everyone else picks up in the same order as the rest of the deal: South, then West, then North.

You are the dealer and everyone has 12 tiles. Find where the deal stopped and tap the two stacks you take your last tiles from. Watch the corners: the wall carries on round them.

Flowers and seasons are bonus tiles. They are never part of a set.

• As soon as you get one, put it face up in front of you and draw a replacement tile from the end of the wall.
• After the deal, the dealer replaces first, then each player in turn.
• A replacement can be another bonus tile. Keep replacing until you hold none.
• They score when you win: 1 Fan for each one numbered for your seat, 2 Fan for a full set of four, or 1 Fan for having none at all.

The dealer starts by discarding a tile, since they already hold 14. After that, every turn goes the same way:

1. 1Draw one tile from the wall.
2. 2If it completes your hand, declare a win. Otherwise discard one tile face up into the middle and say its name (or describe it however you like, as long as everyone knows which tile it is).
3. 3Play passes to the player on your right.

After you discard you always hold 13 tiles, counting sets you have laid down, plus one extra for each kong.

The tile just thrown can be claimed by another player, even out of turn. Call it out straight away, before the next player draws.

A claimed set is laid face up in front of you. It is now exposed and can’t be changed. After a pung or chow you discard, then play carries on to your right, so anyone in between misses a turn.

If two players can win on the same tile, most tables give it to the one whose turn comes first after the discarder.

After any kong, draw a replacement tile from the end of the wall, then discard.

• A winning hand is four sets and a pair: 14 tiles, plus one for each kong. A few special hands, such as seven pairs, have their own shape.
• Win on a tile you draw yourself (self-draw), or call a win on anyone’s discard.
• Lay your whole hand face up so everyone can check it, then count the Fan.
• Under this club’s rules the hand must be worth at least 3 Fan. If it is worth less, you can’t declare it yet, so keep playing.
• Declaring a win you don’t have is a false win. Agree on the penalty before you start.

If the last tile of the wall is drawn and discarded without a win, the hand is a draw. Nobody pays, the tiles are reshuffled, and under these rules the dealer deals again.

• If the dealer wins, they stay East and deal again.
• If anyone else wins, the deal passes to the right. That player becomes East, and every seat wind moves along with it.
• The game starts in the East round. Once the deal has gone all the way round the table, the South round begins, then West, then North.
• The game ends after the North round: at least 16 hands, usually more.

Turn the hand’s Fan into base points: 2 multiplied by itself once per Fan, up to 13 Fan.

• Won on a discard: the discarder pays 2 × base points, the other two pay the base.
• Self-draw: all three opponents pay 2 × base points.

Fan 番

The unit a winning hand is scored in.

Chow (soeng) 上

A run of three in one suit.

Pung 碰

Three identical tiles.

Kong (gong) 槓

Four identical tiles.

Eyes (ngaan) 眼

The pair in a winning hand.

Sik wu 食糊

“I win.” Called when a tile completes your hand.

Zi mo 自摸

Winning on a tile you drew yourself.

Chicken hand (gai wu) 雞糊

A plain winning hand with no scoring patterns. Some rulesets allow it.

Dealer (zong) 莊

The East player, who deals and discards first.

Exposed

Sets claimed from discards and laid face up.

Concealed

Tiles and sets still hidden in your hand.

• Sort your tiles by suit and keep them standing, facing you.
• Pick a target early. All pungs, or one suit with honours, is worth 3 Fan on its own: enough to win.
• Claiming is faster, but it exposes your set, costs you the fully concealed Fan, and shows everyone what you are collecting.
• Watch the discards. Late in a hand, throw tiles others have already thrown; they are less likely to finish someone’s hand.
• Count your tiles after every turn. With the wrong number you can’t win that hand.
• Say every discard out loud, and never take a tile back once it touches the table.