How The Heck Do You Play Mahjong: A Beginner's Guide

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For this guide, we will (try to) cover the absolute basics of playing mahjong.

Here's a quick test for you: Which of the following pairs have similar tiles?

If your answer is the second and third pictures, then congratulations! You can recognise the symbols and characters in a mahjong tile.

While a full mahjong set has 144 tiles, Malaysian mahjong uses only 84. 

Here's what you'll find in a Malaysian set:

Since there are only three players involved, the North Wind (北) is sometimes removed from the Wind tiles, leaving only East, South, and West winds.

It's important to note that different families have their own way of playing mahjong, so it's always a good idea to ask about any special rules ("house rules") before you start a game.

A set is three or four identical tiles or three consecutive tiles (also known as 'melds'), and a pair is two of the same tiles (often called 'eyes').

When players know that they have a winning hand, they'll typically say sik wu!

To keep things simple, we won't go into the details of scoring in this guide. Essentially, you're trying to collect four matching sets and a pair, with some combinations worth more points than others. The scoring system is something that you can pick up as you play.

Each player then builds their section of the wall with 14 stacks (two tiles high). If the North tiles are not removed, then the dealer side should have 16 stacks.

Since there are only three players, one side of the table remains empty. The walls form three sides of a square, with each player positioned at one wall.

For any game of mahjong, the player assigned the East Wind is the dealer. Each player takes turns rolling the dice, with the highest roller becoming the first dealer (East).

Then, each player is assigned a seating position based on wind directions — East, South, and West. The game is always played in an anti-clockwise direction, starting from the East.

To decide which side of the wall players should take their tiles, the dealer has to roll the dice again. Basically, you're creating a long line of tiles ("the wall") and deciding where to start dealing from ("the break"). Think of it like cutting a deck of cards.

Let's say you're the dealer, here's what you do:

1. Roll the dice. Let's say you rolled a 7.

2. Start counting 7 counter-clockwise to find the wall to "break". You should be pointing at yourself.

3. So, you roll the dice again. Let's say you roll a 5.

4. Add the two numbers (7 + 5 = 12).

5. Count 12 tiles from the right end of your wall. This is where you break the wall.

Then, the dealer is the first to receive tiles, taking the first two stacks of tiles clockwise after the break. Each player takes turns taking their own stacks.

The dealer should have 14 tiles while the others have 13 tiles.

Before the game starts, each player must reveal all their flower, season, face, and animal tiles and take turns replacing them with tiles from the end of the wall. Keep doing this until no one has any more flowers, seasons, faces, and animals tiles in their hand.

Mahjong is just a game of drawing tiles from the wall and discarding your tiles to the middle of table as you work on building your winning hand (four sets and one pair). But there's a very specific rule you have to follow while you play.

Each turn typically looks like this:

1. Draw a tile from the wall or take the tile that somebody just discarded.

2. Try to make a winning hand! If you can't, go to step 3.

3. Discard a tile in the center of the table, officially ending your turn.

4. Immediately after a tile is discarded, someone else can take it to form a set or to complete their winning hand. If nobody takes the discarded tile, that tile cannot be used for the rest of the game and the next player draws from the wall.

5. By default, the next player is the player to the right (anti-clockwise).

It's important to keep track what's been thrown and what's out of play, so that you're not waiting for it in vain later on.

Also, even if it isn't your turn yet, you'll still need to be on alert as the player before you may discard a tile that might complete a set you're building. And you can snatch up that discarded tile.

But how do you snatch up that tile?

A Pong represents three identical tiles, a Kong represents four identical tiles, and a Chow represents three suited tiles of the same suit in numerical sequence.

Pong
When you have two identical tiles, and someone discards the matching third tile, you can call "Pong!" and take that tile to form a set of three.

Kong
If you have three identical tiles, and someone discards the fourth, you can call "Kong!" and take it to form a set of four. You then draw an extra tile from the wall to replace the one used in the Kong.

Chow
If the player to your right discards a tile that creates a sequence with two tiles in your hand (like 4 and 5 dot tiles), you can call "Chow!" and take it to form a set of three.

After forming a Pong or Chow, you must discard a tile from your hand.

Special Rules for Fly (飛) Tiles:

Think of the Fly tile as the wild cards or the 'joker' in gin rummy, which can represent any tile in making a 3-tile set. But, they do have some restrictions. You can't just use them for any Pong or Chow. The specific rules for Fly tiles can get a bit complicated, but here's the main idea:

• If two players want the same discarded tile to make a Pong, the player without a Fly tile gets priority.
• You can gather two Fly tiles to make a pair when you have a winning hand.
• You cannot make a Kong set with Fly tiles.

Winning with a Discard (Mahjong/Hu):

Normally, you can't take a discarded tile to make a pair. However, there's one exception: if that tile completes your winning hand, you can grab it and call "Mahjong!" or "Hu!" This means you were waiting for that exact tile to win, whether it was to finish a Pong, Chow, or even just a pair.

After each round, the next person to the right (counterclockwise) becomes the dealer.

Remember, the sequence of players is always East, South, and West. You can keep playing until everyone's had a turn being the dealer.