Rules for mahjong card game

After the optional last across pass, East discards a tile from her rack, placing it face up on the table and naming it out loud. The player to East's right then picks a fresh tile from the wall, looks at it, and decides whether or not she wants to keep it. If she keeps it, she places it in her rack and then discards a tile.

If she does not want it, she places it face up on the table and names it. The play continues in turn, with each player picking and then discarding.

When a wall is exhausted, the wall to the left gets pushed out. The last wall to be played is the wall which East reserved in the beginning. Remember, all picking is to the right, the walls come out to the left. The only time a player may have 14 tiles is at the beginning of a game if she is East, at the moment of picking a tile and before discarding, and at the time she makes a Mah-Jongg. If a player miscounts and has more or less than 13 tiles, she is declared DEAD and is excluded from play.

These hands utilize tiles which make up the year: i. The white dragon represents a zero, as there is no tile with an actual zero. You would need four flowers, four fives of one suit, four fives of a second suit, and a 2 and a 5 of a third suit. However, a quint of five flowers is possible. Winds and dragons may also be referred to as "honor" tiles. The singles and pairs hands contain a representative sample of all the hands above; i. Mah-Jongg cards are printed in three colors; red, blue and green.

For example, in consecutive runs, a hand may read: 11 55, in all one color. In order to make mah-jongg, you must have all the above tiles, in the above order in one suit only. In other words, if you are using dots, you must have two one dots, three two dots, four three dots, etc. Another hand may read: , written in two colors with a parenthetical following it, Any 2 suits, 4 consecutive Nos. This means that you must use two suits, but you may use any four consecutive numbers, you are not bound to play four through seven.

You may play the hand , wherein the sixes and sevens must be one suit and the eights and nines must be another suit. The instructions may refer to "pung" and "kong.

A "pung" is three of a kind, a "kong" is four of a kind. A "quint" is five of a kind, of which one must be a joker except for flowers. When the instructions refer to matching dragons, they are as follows:. Be careful, as some hands require matching dragons and others require opposite dragons. When a hand calls for opposite dragons, if you are using Dots, the dragons must be either green or red; for bams, white or red, etc. Flowers do not belong to any suit and are used wherever there is an F.

The most difficult aspect of modern American of Mah-Jongg is to determine which hand to aim for. While you may have many tiles that belong in one category, a player may be missing a whole family, or a pair of tiles that may prove difficult to obtain. Next to each hand is a number, which tells how much the hand is worth. The harder the hand, the more it is worth. A hand with a value of 25 is usually easier to work out than a hand with a value of If the hand you are playing has an X next to the value of the hand, the hand is designated as a calling, or open hand.

A hand with a C is a closed hand and if a tile you need is discarded, you may not call it from the table. If a tile you need is discarded, and you are playing an open hand, you may call the tile to complete a pung, a kong, a quint or to make mah-jongg. A tile may not be called to make a pair, unless it is your mah-jongg tile. Once you call a tile, you must expose the pung or kong and you may not make any further changes to the exposed tiles.

If two players call for the same tile, the one whose turn is next gets the tile. If one of the players is calling the tile for mahjong, she has priority over a player who needs it for a pung or kong.

These are optional and not required for gameplay. These are tools that can be used to keep track of the score. Whether sticks or coins, players may assign them a point value. Each player can have a rack to hold their tiles during play. Pushers are used to push racks forward during play, without revealing the tiles.

The game uses two dice to assign the position of the dealer East and to figure out where to break the wall discussed below. Players score various hands based on information determined by the National Mahjong League. These are updated annually and should be used as a reference when building hands. Each player grabs a rack and places it in front of them. All of the tiles are shuffled around in the center of the racks.

Players build the wall by building a row of tiles in front of their rack that is two tiles high and 19 tiles across. The wall utilizes every tile. After the wall has been built, players must figure out who will be East or the dealer.

Players take turns rolling the dice, the player who rolls the highest number first becomes East. The player to the right of East is South, then West, and finally North. Next, Breaking the Wall occurs. The player who is East rolls the dice. Based on the number they roll, the count the tiles in front of them, right to left, and then breaks the wall.

For example, East rolls a six. After, East will separate a group of 6 tiles by two tiles tall from the right end of the wall in front of them.

After, East takes four tiles two tiles from the top row and two from the bottom row. Breaking the wall passes to the right. Players take turns grabbing four tiles for their hand until each player has 12 tiles.

After everyone has 12 tiles, East or the dealer grabs two extra tiles, these tiles come from the first and third tiles of the top row. Then, the other players take a single tile from the end. South grabs the first bottom tile, North grabs the second bottom tile, and West grabs the second top tile.

Hands are represented on the score card with numbers or letter in red, green, or blue. The colors do not correlate to a specific suit but rather mean different suits are used. Flowers and Zeros are not in a suit, they are always blue.

Year: Patterns that create a year. For example, would be made of 2s, 0s, 1s, and 7s. Quints: Hands that contain at least 1 quint with one tile as a joker. Quints are 5 identical tiles. Hands can also be X or exposed or C or concealed.

This is used for gambling and scoring purposes. Prior to play is The Charleston. This is unique to American Mahjong and began being practiced in the s. The Charleston is a tile exchange which allows players to improve their hand by passing around tiles they do not want to opponents.

This can be repeated if need be a second time, pending all players agree. Reverse the directions of the passing first passing left, then across, then to the right. The pass to the right is called the last right.

In Mahjong was banned in its native China, as it was said to be encouraging gambling which was outlawed entirely. However, the game became legal again in , minus the gambling element, although today it is common for people out of China to play it for money.

Today there are many variations of the game, with different rules applying to each. Traditionally, Chinese Mahjong uses tiles; Hong Kong Mahjong has the same number of tiles but different rules in scoring and play. Korean Mahjong is more fast-paced and played with tiles. To play American Mahjong, you will need an American Mahjong Set and a tabletop or a cleared floor if playing without a table. There are also be scorecards produced by the National Mah Jongg League , which are updated annually.

Inside your set, you should find tiles; will be used in the game, with the rest being spares. There are 4 of each type in the set. Scoring sticks or coins are used to keep track of points and scoring, and you can assign yourself their value and distribute how you want. Understanding the rules and gameplay of Mahjong is pretty straightforward, but it is not so easy to become a master of the game.

This makes the player to their right South , the player next to the West , and the final player North. Counterclockwise around the table, each player takes the following 2 columns until each player has 12 tiles. This process is known as the Charleston and continues through to Steps 9, 10, and 11 can be repeated if all players agree. This is known as a Courtesy Pass.

However, sometimes mistakes can be made during play which does result in penalties. Remember, East has 14 tiles at the beginning of the game. They can start by discarding 1 tile, giving other players the chance to claim this tile for themselves.

They can either place it into their hand and choose another tile to discard or discard the new tile.