Beginner guides Guide 2 of 14
The 152 tiles
Three suits, four winds, three dragons, flowers, and jokers. Once you can name every tile, you can follow any table.
| Group | What is in it | Tiles |
|---|---|---|
| Suits | Craks, bams, and dots. Each runs 1 to 9, with four copies of every number. | 108 |
| Winds | East, South, West, North. Four of each. | 16 |
| Dragons | Red, Green, and White. Four of each. | 12 |
| Flowers | Eight tiles that all count as the same tile. | 8 |
| Jokers | Eight wild tiles. | 8 |
The three suits
Craks, short for characters. Each one carries a number and the same red character at the bottom.
Bams, short for bamboo. Count the sticks. On most sets the 1 bam is a bird instead of a single stick.
Dots. Count the circles.
Winds and dragons
The white dragon is the plain or nearly plain tile. Everyone calls it the soap. It has a second job: in hands built from the digits of the year, the soap is the zero.
Each dragon belongs with a suit. When a hand on the card asks for a matching dragon, this is the match:
| Red dragon | goes with craks |
| Green dragon | goes with bams |
| White dragon (soap) | goes with dots |
Flowers
Your set may have eight different pictures on its flowers, and some may be labelled as seasons. For play they are all one tile, called a flower. Flowers are not bonus tiles in the American game. They are ordinary tiles that some hands on the card ask for.
Jokers
Eight wild tiles. Where they may and may not be used gets its own guide: what jokers can and can't do.
Say the names out loud
At the table every discard is named as it is placed: "three crak," "green," "soap," "flower." Practice saying them now. It is the quickest way to stop feeling lost when the tiles start moving.