Mah Jongg : Object of the Game

To play Mah Jongg, you need to collect combinations of tiles. In Mah Jongg these combinations are known as Chows, Pungs and Kongs. A Chow is a consecutive sequence of three tiles of the same suit. A Pung is three identical tiles of the same suit. A Kong is four identical tiles of the same suit. These are illustrated below.

Chow Example Pung Example Kong Example

Kongs always have one or two tiles turned over.

Mah Jongg is played in Hands. A minimum of four Hands make up a Round, four Rounds make up a Game. This is because each Wind must be Wind of the Round once and each player must have four turns playing as East Wind. The minimum number of Hands that make up a Game is therefore sixteen. There can however be more Hands in a Round if the East Wind player continues to win!

Each player's Hand always consists of thirteen tiles, and when it is the turn of the player they are dealt a fourteenth tile. The player can choose to keep the tile that has just been dealt or can immediately discard the tile. In this manner players always retain the correct number of tiles in their Hand.

The object of the Game is to make a complete Hand of fourteen tiles, this is called going Mah Jongg.
The Hand that is needed to go Mah Jongg must consist of either:

Four combinations of three (Chow or Pung) or four (Kong) tiles and a pair of identical tiles.

Starting A Game

You start by getting four friends together

Deciding Which Player Is To Be East Wind

To start a Game it first has to be decided which player is going to start playing as East Wind. This is done by each player throwing a die. The player who scores the highest will play as East Wind. The East Wind Player will always keep their dealt tiles on a red stake. All other players will be assigned black stakes for the tiles that they are dealt.

Starting A Hand

At the beginning of each Hand the Wall is rebuilt and the Tiles dealt.

Building The Wall

At the start of a Game players need to build a Wall out of all 144 tiles in order to start a Game. To do this all the tiles are placed face down on the table and shuffled. Each player then takes an appropriate number of tiles (still keeping the tiles face down) in order to actually build the Wall.

The Wall consists of four sides, each side is 2 tiles high and 18 tiles long

Deciding Which Tile Is To Be Opened

After the East Wind player has decided which side of the Wall will be opened, as explained in the section Deciding Which Side of the Wall is to be Opened, the player who is facing this side of the Wall will have to decide at which position in his or her side of the Wall the breach will be made.

Example

Assume that the East Wind player has thrown "12" and the North Wind player will open his or her side of the Wall.

To do this the North Wind player now throws the two dice. The number that is thrown is added to the previous number (thrown by the East Wind player) the total number indicates where the Wall be opened. Say the latest score is "4" and the previous score which was "12" - we now have a total of "16".

The North Wind player now simply counts over the top of the tiles from the left hand side of the Wall that the player is facing until the number "16" (in our example) is reached. If the total number thrown is greater than "18" then simply continue counting around the right hand corner of the Wall. The tiles (there will be two tiles - remember that the Wall is 2 tiles high all around) that occupy position "16" mark the opening position of the Wall.

The opening position tiles are now removed to one side - these tiles are referred to as the Loose Tiles - at this stage in the Game, the Loose Tiles are used to mark the end of the Wall. If you like this is simply a visual reminder in a Game of where the Wall actually finishes. The Loose Tiles are now placed as follows:

The top tile is placed (face down) on top of the Wall immediately to the left of the opening in the Wall. (In our example, on top of the tiles that occupy position "15" in the Wall).
The bottom tile is placed (again face down) on top of the Wall three positions to the left of the opening in the Wall. (In our example, on top of the tiles that occupy position "13" in the Wall).

The last 14 tiles in the Wall to the left of the opening and the Loose Tiles are referred to as the Kong Box. The purpose of the tiles in the Kong Box is to supply extra tiles to players during a Game. These tiles perform no other function throughout a Game.

Note

Throughout the whole procedure it must be remembered that tiles are kept face down - at no time must any player see the markings on the tiles!

Loose Tiles And The Kong Box
Before play can begin each player's hand is examined for the following tiles:

Flower and Season Tiles
Kongs

If these occur in a player's hand then these tiles will be displayed above the player's stake and the player will need to be dealt replacement tiles.

Replacement tiles are dealt as follows:

All players get replacement Loose Tiles from the Kong Box for each Flower, Season or Kong, starting with East Wind player and progressing counter clockwise. If a Flower or Season tile is dealt as a replacement tile or a replacement tile completes a Kong then another replacement tile is given to the player, after all players have had replacement tiles for Flower, Season and Kong tiles originally dealt.

Playing A Hand
At this stage, all players have 13 tiles in their hand. All players have had replacement tiles for Flowers, Seasons and Kongs. The tiles that each player has been dealt are shown on their stake. A red stake is used for the East Wind player - all other players are assigned black stakes.

East Wind Player Starts A Hand

After the tiles have been dealt and replacement tiles given to players as necessary the East Wind Player will be given an extra tile from the Wall. The hand starts by the East Wind Player discarding a tile.

From now on the East Wind Player will have 13 tiles the same as the other players and this pattern will remain in force until a player goes Mah Jongg in which case they will have 14 tiles.

Claiming An Original Hand
If the East Wind player finds that the 13 tiles dealt to him or her from the Wall together with the first tile given to start the Game is a complete Mah Jongg Hand, then the East Wind player declares an Original Hand, goes Mah Jongg and gets three times extra doubling of his or her total score.

Claiming A Standing Hand

If a player finds that after he or she has discarded their first tile they need only one more tile to complete their Mah Jongg Hand, then the player declares a Standing Hand. The player must keep on playing but cannot change the Hand or the strategy for his or her Hand but has to wait until the tile that is required is discarded by another player or dealt to the player during a Hand.

Drawing Tiles From The Wall

When a player has discarded a tile and none of the other players want this tile, then the hand continues with the next player being dealt a tile from the Wall.

Discarding Tiles

A player has to discard a tile from his or her stake after he or she has been dealt a tile from the Wall or has completed a Chow, Pung or Kong by picking up a tile discarded by another player. If the player completes a Kong or is dealt a Flower or Season tile, then the player first is dealt a Loose Tile as a replacement for this tile. A player does not discard a tile when they go Mah Jongg. If none of the other players claims a discarded tile, then this tile is out of the game and can't be claimed at a later stage. Play continues with the next player taking the next available tile from the Wall.

Picking Up Discarded Tiles

You can pick up a discarded tile to make a Chow, Pung, Kong or to go Mah Jongg.

Picking Up Discarded Tiles for a Chow

A "Chow" is three consecutive tiles of the same suit.

Example

You are ONLY allowed to collect Chows from the suits, Circles, Bamboo or Wan.

There are three ways to make a Chow:

By picking up a discarded tile BUT ONLY if the tile has been discarded by the player to the immediate left of you, if you make a Chow this way it is called an Exposed Chow and is displayed above your stake for all other players to see.

You can make Chows if you wish from tiles you have been dealt. If you do this the Chow can stay in your hand, in such a case it is known as a Concealed Chow.

You can make a Chow to go Mah Jongg, in such cases you are allowed to pick up a tile that has been discarded by any player in order to make the Chow and go Mah Jongg.

Note

There are some circumstances when you are not allowed to pick up a discarded tile to make a Chow - this occurs when two or more players want to pick up the same discarded tile.