The Beginner's Guide to Mahjong

Table of Contents
Equipment Gameplay Melded Chow Order of Claims
The Objective Normal Turn Big Melded Kong Replacement Tiles
Building the Wall Special Moves Small Melded Kong Mahjong
Breaking the Wall Melded Pung Concealed Kong Draw

Equipment
To play mahjong all you need are 3 dice and four of each of the following tiles, for a total of 136 tiles.

Bamboos Dragons

Bamboo suit tiles Green, Red, and White dragon tiles

In most sets 1-bamboo looks like a bird. These are the Green, Red, and White dragon tiles. If your
set has English letters, the green dragon is labeled F, red is
Characters C, and white is P or B. InJapanese sets, the White dragons
are completely blank tiles. In American sets, the Green and
Red dragons may be depicted with a dragon graphic.

Winds
Character suit tiles

If you haven’t learned Chinese numerals yet, make sure to

play with a set that has Arabic numerals too!

East, South, West, and North wind tiles

Dots
If your set has English letters, they are labeled E, S, W,
and N, respectively.

If your mahjong set comes with other tiles besides these

Dot suit tiles (usually flowers, jokers, red tiles and/or blanks), then put
those extra tiles away. These tiles are used for variations
Also known as circles, disks, spots… of the game.
The Objective
For every hand, your basic goal is to be the first player to get a hand composed of four sets and a pair. Each set can be either
a pung, chow, or kong.

A pung is a set of three identical tiles.

… …

These are pungs

A chow is a set of three tiles of the same suit and consecutive numbers.

… …

These are chows

Dragons and winds can't be used in a chow. A chow cannot loop from 9 back to 1.

… …

These are NOT chows

A kong is a set of four identical tiles.

These are kongs

Each set can either be concealed or melded/exposed. Concealed sets are made of tiles from your initial hand and tiles you draw
from thewall. Melded sets are formed by claiming discard from other players and are explained later in the special moves section.
Concealed sets are not shown to other players unless you win the hand. Melded sets are immediately shown when they are
formed.
As explained earlier, the goal is to get four sets and a pair. The first player to reach this goal wins the hand. Most of the time, the
winning hand will have exactly 14 tiles. If the hand includes kongs, it will have more than 14 tiles. The following are all valid
winning hands:

Example 1

chow chow chow pung pair

Example 2

kong pung pung chow pair

Example 3

chow pung chow pung pair

Building the Wall

Get three friends and sit randomly around a table,
facing towards the center. Ideally you want to play on a
square table that's small enough that you can reach across
easily.
Each player will be assigned a wind. A good
analogy is to think of this as board game, but instead of
being assigned a colored token you are assigned a direction
for your seat.
Randomly assign one player to have the East seat
wind. The rest of the players assume seat winds as specified Playing order: East, South, West, North
by the image below: the player to the right of east is South,
the player across is West, and the player to the left is North.
This assignment of winds DOES NOT match the cardinal
directions on a compass.

Dump out your tiles on the table. Turn all the tiles face-down and swirl them around with your hands to shuffle them.
After the tiles are shuffled, each player makes a wall 17 tiles across and 2 tiles high. Each player's wall should look like this:

All players move their walls towards the center of the table,
One wall making a big square like this:
Breaking the Wall
The East player starts by rolling three dice and adding up the sum of the rolls. East uses this number to determine whose
wall to break and where to break it.
Counting themselves as number one, East counts off players counter-clockwise around the table until they reaches the
sum. This determines whose wall they will break. For example, if East rolled 12, then they would break North's wall.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
E S W N E S W N E S W N
Next, starting from the right side of the indicated player's wall, East counts off stacks clockwise until they reaches the
sum. they then takes the next two stacks (four tiles) after the last stack they counted. South takes the next two stacks, West takes
the next two, then North takes the next two. All players continue to take stacks in turn until each player has six stacks (12 tiles).
Note: players take turns going counter-clockwise, but tiles are drawn from the wall going clockwise. This applies when dealing
tiles and during gameplay.
Lastly, the players take their final tiles as shown below. East takes his two tiles, then South takes one, West takes one,
and North takes one. After this step, east should have 14 tiles, and the rest of the players should have 13.

The last five dealt tiles

Breaking North's wall at the twelfth tile from his right.
Here is what the tile distribution would look like if East rolled
a sum of 12:

Gameplay
East starts the game by discarding one tile from his hand and placing it face-up in the area in the middle of the walls,
which is called the river. If nobody claims East's discard, then play resumes with the player to his right, South. Remember,
players take turns going counter-clockwise. For most turns, you will simply draw a tile and then discard a tile.
Many of the moves below require you to "use the most recently discarded tile." That refers discards from other players,
not your own discards. For example, you can't discard a tile and then immediately claim it for a melded pung.
If you claim a discard to make a melded set, that melded set cannot be integrated back into the concealed part of your
hand. The melded set remains visible until the end of the hand.

Normal Turn
At the beginning of your turn, you can
1. Claim the most recent discarded tile to make a melded pung, melded chow, or big melded kong, OR if you can’t or
choose not to, you can
2. Draw a tile from the wall.
If you claim the discard, follow the corresponding procedure in the Special Moves section.
If you simply want to draw a tile, you must:
1. Draw a tile from the wall. Remember, take tiles from the wall going clockwise. If the next stack in the wall is two tiles
high, take the top tile. Otherwise, take the bottom tile.
2. Optional: Declare a concealed kong or a small melded kong. (These are explained in the special moves section.) If you
declare one of these kongs, DO NOT go on to step 3. Instead, follow the procedure listed under Concealed Kong or Small
Melded Kong.
3. Discard a tile. If nobody claims the discard, play resumes with the player to the right.
Special Moves
Melded Pung
If you want to use the most recently discarded tile in a pung, you must already have two concealed tiles in your hand that match
the discard. You must:
1. Declare “pung”.
2. Take the discard. (Do not place the discard in your hand).
3. Lay down the three tiles of the pung face-up as a set in front of your hand. This set is called a melded pung.
4. Discard a tile. If nobody claims the discard, play resumes with the player to the right. Note: some players might get their
turns skipped.

+ =

Two concealed identical tiles + discarded matching tile = melded pung

Melded Chow
If you want to use the most recently discarded tile in a chow, you must already have two concealed tiles in your hand that would
make a chow with the discarded tile, and the discard must come from the player to your left. You must:
1. Declare “chow”.
2. Take the discard. (Do not place the discard in your hand).
3. Lay down the three tiles of the chow face-up as a set in front of your hand. This set is called a melded chow.
4. Discard a tile. If nobody claims the discard, play resumes with the player to the right.
Example 1

+ =

Concealed 4- and 5-bamboo + discarded 6-bamboo =

melded chow

Example 2

+ =

Concealed 4- and 6-bamboo + discarded 5-bamboo =

melded chow
Big Melded Kong
If you want to use the most recently discarded tile in a kong, you must already have a concealed pung in your hand that matches
the discard. You must:
1. Declare “kong”.
2. Take the discard. (Do not place the discard in your hand).
3. Lay down the four tiles of the kong face-up as a set in front of your hand. This set is called a big melded kong.
4. Draw a replacement tile from the back end of the wall. (Replacement tiles are explained later.)
5. Optional: Declare a concealed kong or a small melded kong. If you declare one of these kongs, do not go on to step 6.
Instead, follow the rules concerning the concealed kong or small melded kong.
6. Discard a tile. If nobody claims the discard, play resumes with the player to the right. Note: some players might get their
turns skipped.

+ =

concealed pung + matching discard = big melded kong

Small Melded Kong

If you draw a tile that matches a melded pung you already have, you may promote the pung to a kong. Note that you DO NOT
have to promote the pung. If you do want to promote the pung, you DO NOT need to do it on the same turn you drew the
matching tile. You can declare a small melded kong on any of your turns, but only immediately after you draw a tile from the
wall or a replacement tile. You must:
1. Declare “kong”.
2. Add the matching tile to your melded pung. This set is called a small melded kong.
3. Draw a replacement tile.
4. Optional: Declare a concealed kong or a small melded kong. If you declare one of these kongs, do not go on to step 5.
Instead, follow the rules concerning the concealed kong or small melded kong.
5. Discard a tile. If nobody claims the discard, play resumes with the player to the right.

+ =

melded pung + drawn matching tile = small melded kong

Concealed Kong
If you draw a tile that matches a concealed pung you have in your hand, you may declare a concealed kong. Note that you DO
NOT have to use the tiles as a kong. If you do want to use the tiles as kong, you DO NOT need to do it on the same turn you
drew the matching tile. You can declare a concealed kong on any of your turns, but only immediately after you draw a tile from
the wall or a replacement tile. You must:
1. Declare “kong”
2. Lay down the four tiles of the kong face-down as a set in front of your hand. This set is called a concealed kong.
3. Draw a replacement tile.
4. Optional: Declare a concealed kong or a small melded kong. If you declare one of these kongs, do not go on to step 5.
Instead, follow the rules concerning the concealed kong or small melded kong.
5. Discard a tile. If nobody claims the discard, play resumes with the player to the right.
Note: if you wish to use a concealed kong as one of your sets but you do not declare it, then you will not have enough tiles to
complete the four sets and the pair you need to win.

+ =

concealed pung + drawn matching tile = concealed kong

Order of Claims
If players claim the same discard, a pung or kong will supersede a chow. However, a claim of mahjong trumps all other claims. If
two or more players claim mahjong, then the next player counterclockwise from the discarder gets the discard to win.
Replacement Tiles
When you declare a kong, you must draw a replacement tile from the back end of the wall (the ridge). That is to say, you draw a
tile from the end of the wall you normally WOULD NOT draw tiles from. If you don't get a replacement tile, you won't have
enough tiles to make the four sets and a pair you need to get mahjong.
Players may not declare kong when the wall is exhausted and there are no replacement tiles to take.
Mahjong
When you have a hand that requires only one more tile to make four sets and a pair, then your hand is ready. If you draw the last
tile you need, then you can declare "mahjong" to win by self-draw. If another player discards the last tile you need, then you can
declare "mahjong" to win by discard. When a player adds a piece to a pung to form a small melded kong, if you require that tile,
you can declare "mahjong" by robbing a kong.
If you declare mahjong, reveal your entire hand so that everybody else can see it and verify that your hand is valid. After you
win a hand, typically you would calculate your score and make your opponents pay. If you want to learn a simple scoring system,
I suggest you look up the scoring rules for Hong Kong Old Style.
For the next hand, if the winner is not the dealer, rotate the dealer and seat winds counterclockwise. The South player of the
first round becomes the new East, and the other players change seat winds accordingly. Shuffle the tiles, rebuild the wall, and
start again! If the winner is the dealer, he continues to be the dealer and the dealer is not rotated.
Draw
If no player has won and there are no more tiles to take from the wall, then the hand is a draw and nobody wins. Shuffle the tiles
and start a new hand. All players keep their current seat winds.