How to Play Mahjong
Pieces
- 55 standard tiles
- 4 of each of the 4 winds (each tile has one Chinese character on it)
- 4 of each of the 3 dragons (each tile has one Chinese character on it, or
a rectangle)
- 3 suits of 1-9 each
- Sticks (the 1 may have a bird on it)
- Dots
- Chinese numbers (each tile has two Chinese characters on it)
| Number |
Chinese Character |
| 1 |
一 |
| 2 |
二 |
| 3 |
三 |
| 4 |
四 |
| 5 |
五 |
| 6 |
六 |
| 7 |
七 |
| 8 |
八 |
| 9 |
九 |
Gameplay
- Shuffle the tiles face-down
- Assemble the tiles into a square with 17 2-tile stacks per “wall” (side)
- Each player then picks 13 tiles
- Except for the first player, who receives 14
- The starting player then discards a tile by moving it from their hand to the
middle of the table
- Play proceeds counter-clockwise
- On your turn, you must do two things:
- Draw a tile from the middle
- You must draw the tiles in order, i.e., from the ends of the walls
- Discard a tile
Goal of the game
- Win with 4 sets of 3 and 1 pair
- A pair can be any two identical tiles
- A set of 3 can be formed in 2 different ways
- Triples: 3 identical tiles
- Straights: 3 tiles of the same suit in sequential order (e.g., 1, 2, and 3)
- Once you have acquired the last tile of your winning hand, you do not discard
a tile
Pong and chow
- If a player discards a tile that you want, you can say “pong” or “chow” and
take that tile
- If you choose to do this, you must do it the moment that player discards
the tile
- Pong versus chow
- You can say “pong” and take a just-discarded tile whenever any player
discards a tile, but only when it completes a triple for you. This ends
your turn, and then play continues with the player after you
- You can say “chow” and take a just-discarded tile whenever the player
directly to your left discards a tile, but only when it completes a
straight for you. This ends your turn, and then play continues with the
player after you
- After taking a tile with pong or chow, you must discard a tile to ensure
there are only 13 tiles in your hand
- When you complete a set with pong or chow, then you must reveal the
completed set for the rest of the game
Optional rules
- You can say “kong” and take a just-discarded tile whenever any player
discards a tile, but only when it completes a set of 4 identical tiles for
you. You do not discard a tile afterwards
- With a kong, you must win with a 15-tile hand, since you still need three
sets and one pair to win, and a kong only counts as one set
- You can also try to win with a hand of 7 pairs
- Your Mahjong set may include flower, season, and blank tiles
- Remove the blank tiles before playing
- If you draw a flower or season tile from a wall, then immediately discard
it, and then draw another tile to replace it
References