HOW TO PLAY >> home     >> how to play How to Play Mahjong is an ancient Chinese game and is said to have originated in the court of the King of Wu about 500 years BC in a very basic form. Mahjong roughly translates as "chattering sparrow". The basic Chinese mahjong set has 136 tiles, and all of them are included four times in the set. There are three suits, known as bamboos, characters and circles, which are numbered from one to nine. There are 12 cardinal tiles known as dragons and 16 tiles known as winds. The European set also has four flowers and four seasons, and so a total of 144 tiles. Four players are needed for the game. Objective is to make 4 sets and a pair; sequence of 3 consecutive same suit tiles or 3 identical tiles or a set of 4 of a kind. Each player can discard or take tiles, until all the tiles form combinations. A full game consists of 16 hands of play, falling within 4 rounds. The rounds are named after the four directions: East, South, West, and North. The first 4 hands are the East round; the South round follows (second 4 hands); the West round is next (third round of 4 hands); last is the North round (last four hands). In each hand, each of four players is assigned a wind or direction. The first player (the dealer) is always East. To her right is South; to the right of South is West (across from East), and to the right of West is North (to the left of East). The order of play, beginning with East, therefore, is counter clockwise. Note that the Chinese compass (placement of the directions) is not the same as the English compass. There are certain situations in which you can act other than a basic draw of one tile. What to "Call" Types of Suit When You Can Get It “Chi or Chow” A group of tiles (characters, sticks, or balls) like 1,2, 3 or 3-4-5, etc. You can make a chi/chow from the fresh tiles you will be picking up with each turn or from a tile discard by the player on your left if you are already holding 2 of the 3 needed tiles. “Peng or Pong” A group of three identical tiles of any suit You can make a peng/pong from the fresh tiles you will be picking up with each turn or from a tile discard by the player on your left if you are already holding 2 of the 3 needed tiles. “Gang or Kong” A group of all 4 identical tiles of any suit You can make a Gang/Kong from the fresh tiles you will be picking up with each turn or from a tile discard by the player on your left if you are already holding 3 of the 4 needed tiles. Using the racks included in the set, each player builds a "wall" of tiles, two layers of 18 tiles facing down for each, if you use an European set, which are then brought together to form a set - the Chinese Garden, if you like fancy names. Then, tiles are dealt, in an order agreed upon (again, rules vary considerably here), until each player has 13 tiles and a discard has been set as well. A player can take the discarded tile if it helps to make one of the combinations mentioned above. If nobody claims a discarded mahjong tile, then it is put aside and it cannot be brought back into the game. Mahjong scoring also varies considerably, depending on the system you play. It is a good idea to discuss the rules before starting the game, in every little detail, and to make sure that everybody is familiar and comfortable with them. Usually, any "open" combination is considered half the value of a "closed" one. Open means that it was formed by taking a discarded tile, closed, that it was obtained using only the tiles drawn by the respective player. The winning hand also gets additional points from other players and for the combination of bonus tiles (dragons, winds, seasons and flowers). For games following the 13 tile rule format, at all times, a mahjong player can have no more than 13 tiles. If, by accident, a player gets more tiles, he is out of the game, until the game is won or drawn - considered a dead hand. A game is drawn when the last 14 tiles (including any loose tiles) remain in the wall. In this case, there are no scores registered and the tiles are reshuffled for a new game. Remember, just as in other skill games, in the long run, better players tend to win more often.