Mah Jong is a game that derived in China, but is popular worldwide. It's similar to a card game in that the goal is to meld the Mah Jong tiles in groups or sequences in order to put together a winning hand of 13 to 15 tiles. A complete game of Mah Jong should be 16 rounds, so it can take a long time to play. It's a game that requires skill, strategy and an element of luck!
Mah Jong Tiles
Mah Jong is played with tiles that fall into specific categories, or suits, just like in cards. The following apply to all versions of Mah Jong:
- Stones - the suit of stone tiles all have different patterns of circles
- Bamboos - the suit of bamboo has bamboo sticks in different patterns
- Characters - the suit of characters has Chinese letters on each of them
- Wind Tiles - there are wind tiles for the East, South, North and West winds
- Dragon tiles - there are three dragon tiles which each have their own significance
- Flowers - some players prefer not to use these tiles in their Mah Jong strategy, while others keep them for the bonus points
Here is the basic process of a Mah Jong Game, further detailed will be provided below:
- To determine who will be the dealer (called the East Wind in Mah Jong) all players involved need to throw the dice. The player with the highest score becomes the East Wind, and the players are assigned roles based on their location at the table. Going clockwise, the next player is the South, then West and North
- Next players need to draw their tiles. Beginning with the East, players draw 4 pieces at a time until they each have a total of 12 tiles
- After each player has 12 tiles, they get to draw just one more for a total of 13
- Players should keep their tiles hidden from their opponents and arrange them in order based on suit to make game play run more smoothly
- Players can discard any tile with a season or flower on it and take another one from the Mah Jong wall. Discarded tiles go face up in the center of the table
- The game itself begins with the East player. Each player can discard one tile face-up and take a new one from the wall, taking their turns in order clockwise
- After the first round, players have a choice to take the tile discarded from another player in the center of the table or draw from the wall. A discard tile can only be taken if it can be used right away to make 3 of a kind
Types of Sets in Mah Jong
There are 3 main types of sets that players need to build with their tiles:
- A Pung - 3 identical tiles in a set (3x Red Dragons or 3x Two Circles)
- A Kong - 4 identical tiles in a set (4x Eight of Bamboos or 4x North Winds)
- A Chow - 3 tiles of the same suit.
- In order to call "Mah Jong" and go out of the games, players must have the following combinations of sets:
- A pair, and 4 Kongs, Chows or Pungs.
- The goal of each round of Mah Jong is to go out, but ultimately it is the score that determines where a player stands in the game or series
Scoring
Mah Jong is scored on a special, and rather complicated system. Each hand is scored based on a standard structure, but bonus points and doubling may also apply.
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