Playing the game

Two walls of 19 stacks and two of 18, each two tiles high, accounts for all 148 tiles. The dice are thrown in the middle, and once they have been rolled they are kept to the left of the current dealer — the dealership moves from hand to hand, so the dice move with it. The prevailing wind indicator, by contrast, always stays on Absolute East’s left, and does not move at all.

The 2 Dice method is said to prevent manipulation or trap dealing but both methods should be ok (unless you’re playing with some real pros). The dealer should always retrieve the dice and keep them to his/her left immediately after the wall has been broken.

Dealer rolls 2 dice. He/she then counts off the number rolled (e.g. East, the dealer, rolls 7), starting from him/herself and going counter-clockwise. The person who is sitting in the position that corresponds to this first number (in this example, counting 7 starting from East ends with West) then rolls both dice (in this example, West now rolls a 6). This second person (here, West) then adds the first and second number (7+6=13) and counts off the total from his/her wall, from the right that amount, he/she then splits the wall (in this example, after splitting, there should be 6 tiles on the left and 13 tiles on the right for West’s wall).

Dealer rolls 3 dice. He/she then counts off the number rolled (e.g. East, the dealer, rolls 15), starting with him/herself and going counter-clockwise. The person who is sitting in the position that corresponds to the number then counts off the number from his/her wall, starting from the right. He/she then splits the wall (in this example, after splitting, there should be 4 tiles on the left and 15 tiles on the right for West’s wall).

After all 4 players have taken 3 sets of 4 tiles, the dealer and each player in turn take 1 tile each. After this, the dealer again takes another tile. Doing this, each player should have 13 tiles, while the dealer has 14. The diagram below shows how the tiles should be distributed.

The players then expose any Animals/Flowers from their tiles. Starting with dealer they replace these tiles by drawing from the flower pile (see diagram). If anyone again draws a flower or animal in this process, they have to wait till everyone has had a chance to replenish their tiles before drawing again from the flower pile.

Throughout the game, each time a player draws a flower or animal, he/she should expose it and draw a replacement from the flower pile.

Play starts with the dealer making a discard of one of his/her 14 tiles. Play then moves in a counter-clockwise direction with each player claiming a discard or drawing a tile and then making a discard. If all 4 players make the same discard on the first round (no Pong or Chi in between), then there is a redeal (dealership remains with the current dealer).

The sets of three can be made in one of two ways: Chi or Pong. Players do this by taking turns to draw from the drawing pile and making a discard of an unwanted tile. When a discard is claimed to form an exposed Chi or Pong, the player claiming the discard has to make a discard in turn (this is done without drawing from the drawing pile).

Play always moves in a counter-clockwise direction, based on which player made the last play.

A Chi is a numerically ascending sequence of three tiles (e.g. , , ). For mahjong tiles, 1 is the smallest number and 9 the largest, so 8-9-1 or 9-1-2 are NOT sequences. It can be concealed or exposed. A player can only claim the discard of the player to his/her immediate left to make an exposed Chi. He/she does this by announcing “Chi” and exposing the other two tiles that make up the sequence.

A Pong is a set of 3 similar tiles (e.g. ). It can be concealed or exposed. A player can claim the discard of any other player to make an exposed Pong. He/she does this by announcing “Pong” and exposing the other two tiles that make up the Pong.

A Kong is a set of 4 similar tiles (e.g. ). A Kong that is concealed is called an Um Kong. Both Kong/Um Kong are worth points the moment they are exposed. Since Kong/Um Kong involves 4 tiles, a replacement tile should be drawn from the flower pile, before making a discard. Thus a player with an Um Kong should expose it and draw a replacement tile (else he/she will be a tile short to complete the rest of the hand), unless he/she intends to use the fourth tile as part of a Chi.

An exposed Kong can be made in one of two ways: (i) a player has a concealed Pong in hand and the fourth is discarded by another player or (ii) a player has an exposed Pong and he/she draws the fourth tile.

Note that a Kong cannot be made by claiming the fourth tile from a discard to add to an exposed Pong.

Usually a pre-determined amount of points is assigned to each Kong/Um Kong since it potentially disrupts the scoring of a hand.

This occurs when a player’s hand is complete (i.e. it has 4 sets of three and a pair, has at least the minimum number of Doubles and fulfills any Special Hand requirements).

• A claim to a discard to Hu supersedes any claim to Kong/Pong or Chi.
• A claim to a discard for Kong/Pong supersedes a claim for Chi.
• If a discard results in Hu for 2 players, the player next in turn to the person who made the discard gets the claim (e.g. if South makes a discard that allows both North and East to Hu, North is the winner).

This happens when one player makes a discard that allows all the other 3 players to Hu. When this happens, all the players are considered to have won and the player making the discard loses the appropriate amount of points to each of the other players (e.g. East throws a tile that causes South (5 Doubles), West (3 Doubles) & North (4 Doubles) to Hu with 1 Double worth 10–20 points, East loses 640, 160 & 320 respectively). Not everyone plays this, so do check ahead of time.

When claiming a discard for Chi/Pong/Kong or Hu, it is advisable for the player to expose the other tiles forming the set first, before adding the discard to the set.

The discard should not be placed in a player’s concealed tiles and then exposed as part of the Chi/Pong/Kong or Hu. This is to prevent accusations of cheating or Zha Hu.

You should complete all necessary actions (i.e. taking in the discard to display with your exposed tiles) before your next opportunity to draw a tile.

First, someone declares Hu. If the dealer manages to Hu, he/she retains dealership. This is referred to as Diao Zheng. Otherwise, the dealership moves to the next player (in a counter-clockwise direction).

Upon Hu, the winner then counts the number of Doubles and announces it. The others then pay the winner the appropriate amount of points. If the winner has over-declared the number of Doubles he/she has, it is the duty of the other players to announce the correct number of Doubles the hand is worth. If no one notices, then they should give the winner the amount of points he/she has declared. If the winner under-declares the number of Doubles he/she has, it is polite of the other players not to say anything. Any person pointing out the irregularity will pay for all the others the difference between the declared and right number of Doubles.

If the hand of the people declaring Hu is found to be incomplete, a Zha Hu has occurred. See the section on Faults & Penalties for details.

Second, the game ends in a draw. This happens when there are no more tiles left to draw in the drawing pile. The end of the drawing pile is reached when there are only 15 tiles left. The last tile that is drawn does not have to be discarded.

There are four variations to determine who will be dealer for the next hand:

1. so long as the current dealer has Kong/Um Kong, then he/she retains dealership,
2. so long as there is any Kong/Um Kong, then the dealership moves on,
3. dealership moves on in the event of a draw, or
4. current dealer retains dealership in the event of a draw.

Once the hand ends, the tiles are pushed to the centre, covered and “washed” in preparation for the next hand. It is impolite to look at other people’s tiles (especially if the player does not expose them) or to grab at other people’s tiles at the end of the hand.

The person who draws the East/dong tile can also be thought of as the Absolute East. The person to his/her left is the Absolute North. Absolute East begins as dealer. Dealership moves to the person on the right of the current dealer after each hand, unless the current dealer wins the hand. The prevailing wind changes (from East/dong to South/nan to West/xi to North/bei) after each person has had a chance to be dealer and the Absolute East deals again.

At each change of the prevailing wind, it is the job of the Absolute North to change the counter indicating the prevailing wind and it is courteous of Absolute East to announce the new prevailing wind.

A round of Mahjong is complete after Absolute North’s turn as dealer is over during the North/bei prevailing wind. Mathematically, a round of Mahjong has a minimum of 16 hands. The players then tally up and begin a new round, according to the procedure suggested in the seating order section (however, the current Absolute East makes the stack and the current Absolute North gets to roll the dice, or maybe the winner of the round makes the stack and the loser of the round gets to roll the dice). For the subsequent round, at least 2 players should be seated in different positions.