How Do You Play Mahjong: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Rules and Strategies
Mahjong is a game that fascinates players all around the world because of its combination of luck, skill, and social interaction. A centuries-old game played with tiles, probably originating in China, has been developed into a competitive four-player game that requires four players to form winning combinations with a set of 144 tiles. Learning how to play Mah-jong is to learn how to be patient and to think quickly. This guide provides beginning players with the information necessary for them to attractively win a seat at a table where it is played.
This is a basic guide on how to play traditional Mahjong. If you want to play the online browser version, please visit Mahjong123.
Getting to Understand the Game of Mah-jong
Mah-jong is based on four players seated at a square table. Each player tries to complete a hand of fourteen tiles, which equals certain combinations, or forms, similar to poker, but with tiles instead of cards. The game requires a complete set of 144 tiles, containing suits, honors, and bonus tiles. The play runs on until one player, to distinguish a player’s score, cadre, or height of the game, from the others, says, “Mah-jong,” which indicates he has won the game.
The four players sit in fixed positions, designated East, South, West, and North. East is the dealer. The precise object of the play is simple enough, but especially profound. The four players’ aim is to form all melds and pairs possible, in order to have the highest scoring hand. The transitions between turns are so timely that it adds both zest and authority to the game. This means simply that the discards of cards to which one is entitled become the opportunity of the rest of the players to obtain cards for their hands. Each decision made thus influences the cycle of the game.
The beginner charms to successfully comprehend the structure of the game, which consists of four parts, corresponding to quarters each of four wind years, perhaps covering four Akas years in wearing out a set of Mah-jong cards. The game is divided into parts; each part called a round. The round ends either when a player has made a winning hand or when all the tiles have been exhausted, necessitating both a reshuffle and a resumption of the game. This cyclical and systematic feature of the game brings in a quick fairness to the game through various games.
Therefore, to understand its essentials is important. It means much, indeed all, to learn the secrets of the trade.
The Tiles of Mahjong
Mah-jong tiles come in three general classes, namely, suit tiles, honor tiles and bonus tiles. The suit tiles are divided into three suits, which are called dots (or circles), bamboo (or sticks) and characters (or numerals). Each suit has a number from one to nine, with four of each number. The honor tiles are winds (East, South, West, North) and dragons (Red, Green, White), with also four of each. The bonus tiles, such as flowers and seasons, introduce zest into the game without changing the character of winning hands.
The way to tell the suit tiles is by their pictorial designs, as, for instance, the one dot has the one circle on the tile, the winds indicating the different directions of the winds, and the dragons expressing power in the game. The tiles that are designated as flowers and seasons have eight in number, and when one is drawn they allow a bonus to be immediately scored. Hence, it is advisable to familiarize yourself with these pictorial designs before starting a game.
Every tile measures about 1 1/2 inches square. They are usually made of bamboo, bone or plastic in order to keep them from wearing. They are held face down by the players in order to keep the hand a secret. As the game goes on they draw cards in a meld and expose parts of their card to play. Dire consequences are bound to happen in some cases due to their exposé to the others.
Arranging the Mah-jong Table
To begin with the whole of the 144 tiles are shuffled and turned down on the table and thoroughly mixed. Each player piles up a wall of tiles by stacking 18 pairs of tiles (36 tiles in all) in such a manner as to make a square enclosure. The dealer who is represented as East begins to deal from the end of his wall. In detail this is that after the dealer draws two tiles, all players are given one tile in turn until all have 13 tiles with which to play, the dealer getting a 14th tile.
The position is most important, as the corner of the wall here will control the point of initiation for the dealer. After the walls are constructed they will remain until gone. The players must keep their hands hidden from view, looking only at their own possessions. This brings with it a degree of expectation from the very start.
When the tiles are dealt should any flower tiles or season tiles be drawn there will be a second drawing for those. This is at once fruitful. The table is so full of possibility, players looking over their own hands. With the right care in manner of construction no one will have a talk about whether each number is represented. Because of these few reasons then let the walls be scrutinized carefully before they are drawn.
Learning the Turn of Play
The play is counter clockwise, the dealer going first. On your turn you take one tile from the start of the wall, turning and discarding still having a hand of thirteen tiles (fourteen for the dealer at the first turn). If a tile that you require has been drawn and discarded by another player and is available for him after your first tile has been drawn, you call “Pung,” or, “Chow,” or, “Kong,” as the case is, you being allowed to claim it. Otherwise it is the next player’s turn.
Between tile drawing and discarding there is a wonderful continuous wrap. So for instance, if you have claimed a tile from the pile or your neighbor’s discard, under the rules you are bound to discard a tile at once, showing what your hand is to the rest. The defence becomes a place to play as it comes into view, as to melds, for the rest of the hand will reveal to your opponents how good your melding is and they will work for you and so will try and compete against you and your melding will become indirect in its consequences.
At times it will be the best of all to declare oneself with the word “Mah Jongg,” as the sequence becomes for that moment dislocated. But until that time the wall will still sap its resiliency slowly. It becomes more than ever necessary for the players to speak aloud for all calls, so that confusion may be avoided. Thus by this turn of play it becomes the means of the players being more alert as to what takes place.
Melds and Melding are the bones of a good hand, and they are made up of sets or runs of from three to four tiles. A Chow consists of three consecutive suited tiles, e.g., 4-5-6 bamboo. A Pung, three identical tiles, e. g., three Red Dragons, a Kong extends the Pung to four, giving an extra tile. Then come Pairs, two identical tiles which complete the hand, which are called the “eyes.”
You expose melds as you claim discards by laying them out face-up. Concealed melds, which are made with picked tiles only, give later scoring bonuses. From loose tiles to sets, the merger is made by discrimination. All this will come with practice as you make your eyes keen for opportunities.
Most hands consist of four melds and one pair, but special forms like all Pungs or pure Chows will give a larger score. If you are going into making melds you will find the ultimate advantage in having a mental flexibility to prevent dead ends. As the tiles are passed you will find it possible to vary the hand. The thing to think of is that making melds means strategic considerations.
Declaring of Mahjong and Scoring
When you get your 14th tile which completes a valid hand, you announce “Mahjong”. This means that you have won the game at once. The hands which are obtained with self-pick (draw) give a larger score than those gotten with a discard. The score depends on the construction of the hands as a whole. The scoring is determined by the fan points, which are the different kinds of melds, the double points of wind and dragon, also of the concealed part of the hand. The dealer multiplies their score by 1-2, which gives them an incentive to play strongly.
The fans are computed by taking up the parts of the merits which will make them hybrids, as Chow of reform tiles (ones and nines) or matching, and corresponding with the wind to see if they are to your seat. The simple hand scores about 20-30, while in rare cases the hand titled Thirteen Orphans gives over 100 benefits. The figures of the winners are paid from the loser’s pool, the lowest payer covering the rest.