Mahjong (American) Rules

What you need

• An American mahjong set of 152 tiles: three suits (dots, bams and craks) with 36 tiles each, 16 winds, 12 dragons, 8 flowers and 8 jokers
• Four racks, and two dice
• The current card from the National Mah Jongg League, one per player. It lists the hands you can win with. You buy it from the League; it is not reproduced here.
• Chips, coins or pen and paper to settle payments, or the free score keeper

Players and time

4 players. About 20 to 30 minutes a hand (an estimate).

The goal

Be the first to complete a hand that matches one line on the League's yearly card. You win with 14 tiles, either by drawing the last tile yourself or by claiming another player's discard. Every hand is paid in points or coins, and the winner collects from the other players.

This page covers American mahjong, the style most played in the United States. Other styles exist and use different tiles and rules: Chinese Official, Hong Kong, Riichi (Japanese) and more. They generally do not use the yearly card or the Charleston, so check which style your group plays before you follow any page.

Setup

1. Mix all the tiles face down on the table. Each player builds a wall 19 tiles long and two tiles high and pushes it to the middle, so the four walls form a square.
2. East, the player at the dealer seat, rolls the dice to choose where the wall is opened. Starting there, players take four tiles at a time, going around the table, until each has 12 tiles.
3. East then takes two more tiles and each other player takes one. East ends with 14 tiles and everyone else with 13. Stand your tiles up on your rack.
4. Before play starts, everyone plays the Charleston (see below), so you can swap away tiles that do not fit your hand.
5. Look at the card and decide which hands your tiles might make. You may change your mind as the game goes on.

A turn

1. Turns go counterclockwise. East has 14 tiles, so East discards first. Place the tile face up in the middle and say its name out loud (for example, 'three bam' or 'north').
2. The next player in turn may take the discard instead of drawing, but only if it completes a set of three or more identical tiles (a pung, kong, quint or sextet), or if it completes a winning hand. A pair, a single and a group of different tiles such as the four winds cannot be claimed unless the tile wins the game.
3. A claimed tile is shown face up with the rest of that set, and the set stays exposed in front of the rack. You expose only the set the tile completes. Then you discard a tile and play continues from your right.
4. If nobody claims the discard, the next player draws one tile from the wall, keeps it or one of their tiles, and discards one, so they again hold 13 tiles.
5. Only the most recent discard can be claimed, and you must claim it before the next player puts a tile on their rack or discards. A discarded joker can never be claimed.
6. You may swap a real tile for a joker in an exposed set (see Jokers). Do this on your own turn, after you hold 14 tiles.
7. To win, declare mahjong, show your whole hand and compare it with the card. The hand must match a line exactly. If it does, the hand ends and the winner is paid.
8. If the wall runs out and nobody has won, the hand is a wall game (see Scoring).

Special cards and combinations

The card

The League prints a new card every year. It lists the winning hands in sections, such as even numbers, odd numbers, runs, like numbers, winds and dragons, quints, and singles and pairs. Each line shows the tiles, a note about what is allowed, and the value of the hand, usually from 25 to 50 points. Within a line, tiles printed in the same color must come from the same suit, but different colors may be different suits, so the colors only tell you which groups must match. Dragons that match a suit's color have to go with that suit. The card is copyrighted, so it must be bought from the League.

Exposed and concealed hands

Each hand on the card is marked as either exposed or concealed. An exposed hand lets you claim discards and show sets during play. A concealed hand lets you take a discard only if it wins the game, and you must not expose any set before you win. Exposing a set on a concealed hand makes your hand dead.

Sets of identical tiles

A pair is 2 identical tiles, a pung is 3, a kong is 4, a quint is 5 and a sextet is 6. Singles and pairs on the card are exposed only when you go out.

Jokers

A joker stands in for any tile in a pung, kong, quint or sextet. Jokers may not be used in a pair, a single, or a group of different tiles such as a run, the four winds or a year group, so those need real tiles. A joker cannot be passed in the Charleston, and a discarded joker cannot be claimed. A set made only of jokers is allowed in a concealed hand.

Swapping for a joker

On your own turn, once you hold 14 tiles, you may swap the real tile for a joker that sits in an exposed set, on any player's rack, including yours. You must have completed any exposure first. The joker you take is yours to use. Putting the wrong tile in leaves that exposure incorrect and your hand dead.

The Charleston

The first Charleston is required. Each player passes three tiles to the right, then three across the table, then three to the left. On the last of these passes you may pass fewer than three of your own tiles and make up the number by passing, unseen, tiles that you just received (a blind pass). A second Charleston is optional and runs the other way: left, across, right. It only happens if every player agrees, so any one player can stop it. After that, opposite players may swap a courtesy pass of up to three tiles; each side passes the smaller number named. Jokers cannot be passed.

Misnamed discard

If you call the wrong name for a tile and another player then claims it to go out, the hand ends and you alone pay the winner four times the hand's value. Nobody else pays. If the claim was for a set and not for winning, you pay nothing and play goes on once the tile is renamed correctly.

Dead hand

A hand can be declared dead if it can never be completed, matches no hand on the card, has the wrong number of tiles, is concealed but has exposed sets, has a wrong exposure, or the player acted out of turn (for example, by picking up a tile too early or from the wrong wall). A dead hand cannot draw, discard, claim or win. A player who wrongly accuses someone else of a dead hand pays 50 points. Check the League's rule book for other penalties.

Wall game

If the wall runs out and nobody has declared mahjong, the hand is a draw called a wall game. Nobody wins and, in the score keeper, nobody pays.

Scoring

The value V of the hand is printed on the card. Players pay the winner in points, or in coins where 25 points is 25 cents. Only the winner is paid. The losers do not pay each other.

A hand with no jokers in it when you declare is called jokerless, and its value doubles before the payments below are worked out. This bonus does not apply to hands from the singles and pairs section, or to quints. You must say 'jokerless' when you declare, or you lose the bonus. If you win by swapping a real tile for a joker in an exposed set, the win counts as a self-draw.

Keep score with the Mahjong (American) score keeper

How to win

The first player to complete a hand from the card wins that hand and is paid. The game has no fixed length. Play as many hands as you like. At the end of the session, the player with the highest running total is ahead.

The score keeper keeps a running total for each of the four players. Every hand is zero-sum: what the winner collects is what the others pay.

Common house rules

These are house rules. They are not part of the official rules, so agree on them before you start.

Penalty for discarding the winning tile (house rule) House rule

The League's rules do not add any penalty for discarding a tile that lets someone win, beyond paying double as the discarder. Some groups add penalties for throwing a tile into an exposed set or from a 'hot' or 'cold' wall. These are table rules and should be agreed before you play.

A pie (house rule) House rule

Each player puts a fixed amount, say five dollars in coins, into a pie. Once your share is gone you keep playing without losing more. It caps the money at risk in an evening.

Betting by a fifth player (house rule) House rule

A fifth person may bet on who will win. A correct bet on a wall game is paid 25 cents by each player. These amounts are set by the table.

Beans or paper instead of money (house rule) House rule

Groups that do not want to gamble count the payments in beans or chips, or write them down. The keeper is made for this. The amounts do not need a currency.

Using an older card (house rule) House rule

Some groups play with an older year's card. The rules of play are the same, but the hands differ. Agree on which card you use and make sure every player has a copy.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• National Mah Jongg League (Publishes the yearly card and the rule book, which are the final authority. The League website could not be opened when this page was written, so the rules were checked against the sources below.)
• Sloperama: American mah-jongg FAQ (Joker rules, claiming discards, exposed and concealed hands, dead hands, misnamed discards, the Charleston, and how payments and the jokerless bonus work.)
• Wikipedia: American mahjong (Contents of the 152-tile set, dealing (14 tiles for East, 13 for the others), the Charleston, wall games and payments.)
• I Love Mahj: Getting started with American mahjong (How the card is read (sections, colors, concealed and exposed marks), the Charleston and dealing.)

The National Mah Jongg League name and its yearly card, Official Standard Hands and Rules, belong to the League. The card is copyrighted, so none of its hands appear on this site. Rules and Scores is not affiliated with or endorsed by the National Mah Jongg League.