Beginner guides Guide 1 of 14
What American Mahjong is
Four players, 152 tiles, and a card that says which hands can win. Here is the whole game, start to finish.
The goal
Four players each try to be the first to hold 14 tiles that match one of the hands printed on a card. Every player keeps a copy of that card beside their rack. When your tiles match a hand on it, you say "Mahjong" and the round ends.
That card is what makes the American game its own. In other styles of mahjong almost any four groups and a pair can win. Here, only the hands on the card count, and a new card comes out every year.
The shape of a round
- The deal. Everyone takes 13 tiles. The dealer, who is called East, takes 14.
- The Charleston. Before play begins, everyone passes three unwanted tiles to a neighbor, several times over, in a set order.
- Play. East discards one tile. After that each player in turn draws a tile and discards a tile.
- Calls. If someone discards the tile that finishes a group of three or more for you, you may claim it out of turn.
- The end. Someone declares mahjong, or the tiles run out and nobody wins. A round with no winner is called a wall game.
Three things you will not find in other mahjong
The card. A printed sheet of winning hands, grouped into families such as even numbers, odd numbers, and winds and dragons.
Jokers. Eight wild tiles, with firm limits on where they can go.
The Charleston. The opening exchange of tiles. It is how a random deal turns into the start of a hand.
What you actually do
Most of the game is one question asked over and over: which hand am I building, and does this tile help? You look at your rack, find the groups that are already there, choose a hand on the card that those groups fit, and collect the rest.
Nobody memorizes the card on day one. You learn the families, you learn to see groups in a rack, and the rest comes from playing.