3. How to Play

How to Win

At its core, Mahjong is a game where you compete to be the first of 4 players to form a winning hand in order to collect money (whether real or fake) from other players. A winning hand consists of 14 tiles, of which there are four sets of 3 tiles and one pair of 2 tiles.

Each of the "sets" can be either a Sequential set or a Matching set, which we will discuss later.

The pair will always be two Matching tiles. See an example of a winning hand below!

Setting the Table

Firstly, lay the protective mat or towel across the playing surface.

Next, seat yourself depending on the shape of the table:

• If you are using a square table, there should simply be one player on each side

• If you are using a rectangular table, there should be two players on each of the longer sides

"To spice up the seating every session, check out our video below!"

Shuffling the Tiles

Once players are seated, place all Mahjong tiles face down on the playing surface. Each player should place their hands on top of the tiles and shuffle them in a circular motion.

Building the Wall

Once the tiles are sufficiently shuffled, you can begin building the Mahjong wall. As pictured below, the wall consists of 4 equal sides. Each side is 18 tiles long and 2 tiles high.

"Check out the short video below for some efficient building strategies!"

Beginning the Game

This part can be quite confusing without a video example, so please watch our tutorial!

If it helps, here is a written reminder of the steps you can reference:

1. Once the wall is built, pick a player at random (or the player who drew the East tile) to throw the dice.

2. The dice result dictates which wall to start drawing tiles from.

   1. For example, if the total of the dice is three, then the player who threw the dice would count counter-clockwise starting from themselves.

3. Whichever wall they end up at, they would then take tiles starting beyond the lowest number showing on the dice faces.

   1. In this case, a result of three would have one of the dice showing a 1, therefore the player would draw starting after the 1st tile.

4. They would draw 4 tiles (a 2 x 2 stack), then the next player clockwise from them would draw 4. This continues until each player has 12 tiles.

5. Then, the first player draws 1 tile, followed by the rest of the players drawing 1 tile.

6. Each player should now have 13 tiles, and play can begin.

Taking Turns

Again, see our video above for a breakdown of this rather complex section! In summary...

The player who throws the dice will be the first to take a turn. Every turn consists of two main phases: the Acquiring phase and the Discarding phase. A player should begin every turn with 13 tiles. In the Acquiring phase, a player draws a tile from the front of the wall and adds it to their hand. This will leave them with 14 tiles, so they then must choose a tile to discard in the Discarding phase. They should place the tile they discard in front of them and between the walls.

Play follows this simple turn-by-turn pattern unless a player takes one of five Special Actions:

1. Chow

   1. During the Acquiring phase, a player can choose not to draw a tile from the wall and instead take the tile the player ahead just discarded. This can only be done if the tile allows for the completion of a Sequential Set of 3.

      

   2. The player must reveal the set they formed in front of them, then discard a tile.

2. Pung

   1. After any tile is discarded, a player can call "Pung!" out loud to claim it. This can only be done if the player uses the claimed tile to complete a Matching Set of 3.

      

   2. A Pung has priority over a Chow. The player who declared Pung must reveal the set they formed, then discard a tile. Play resumes from the player who declared Pung, skipping any turns that originally would have happened.

3. Kong

   1. Behaves similarly to a Pung, except the player instead calls "Kong!" and claims the tile into a Matching Set of 4.

      

   2. Then, they take a tile from the back of the wall (drawing counter-clockwise) so they have 14 tiles. They choose one tile to discard and play resumes from the player.

4. Self Kong

   1. If a player ever finds himself acquiring the fourth tile of one of their existing Matching Sets of 3, they can do a Self Kong. This means they declare "Kong!" on their own turn and add the tile to their set, making it a Matching Set of 4.

   2. Then, they take a tile from the back of the wall and proceed with their turn as usual.

5. Win!

   1. If, at any point in the game, a player forms a winning hand, then they should push their 14-tile hand onto the table and declare victory!

      1. If two players declare a win at the same time, priority goes to the one who is closer to taking their turn in the normal turn order (though some other rulesets allow a mutual win)