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Ancient Chinese Game - Mahjong
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Ancient Chinese Game - Mahjong

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Ancient Chinese Game - Mahjong
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Automatic Mahjong Table
Demo of automatic Mahjong table

God of Gamblers

Mah Jong Duel

Hong Kong Mahjong

Training video

Mahjong In Depth
Board Games with Scott

World Mahjong Tour

Celebrity Invitational

World Series of Mahjong

Play the "Next Poker"

Mahjong History

Mahjong, also spelled mah-jong or mah-jongg is a game of Chinese origin. Dating to over two thousand years ago, Mahjong is said to have originated in the court of the King of Wu. This was roughly the time that Confucius existed, which was some five hundred years before the Christian era. Within this court, there lived a beauty in seclusion. To keep herself from utter boredom, she invented a game of her own. She began to carve domino-shaped pieces of ivory and bamboo. When she was finished, she invited three of her maids to play her newly invented game. Each person was to receive 34 tiles in which they would each create a wall with. For centuries, mahjong remained exclusive of the royal class. It was against the law for commoners to play. The penalty for commoners who dared to play mahjong was decapitation. However, around 500 A.D., the penalty was lifted, which enabled everyone to play mahjong.

Mahjong Game Play

The purpose of the game is to be the first to complete a hand. A completed hand consists of four sets of three (or four) tiles in a suit plus an identical pair of any suit. The individual sets can be triplets or quadruplets (identical) or sequenced.

Mahjong Hand Examples

Starting a Mahjong Hand
At the beginning of play, each of the four players sits at each side of a square table. The square table allows the players to be equidistant from each other. Each side of the table represents the four winds, north, south, east and west. All the tiles are placed face down on the table and are shuffled around. Each player collects 36 tiles and arranges them in 2 rows of 18, one row stacked on top of the other. The stacks are then pushed to the middle of the table to form a square.

The player designated as the east has the duty of rolling the two dice. Counting himself as "1" and the player to his right as "2," the east player continues counting in a counter clockwise direction until he hits the number rolled on the two dice. Seven stacks are counted from right to left on the selected player’s wall. This is set aside for the exchange of flowers later in the game. From that point, the place where the players may begin to take tiles is decided.

The player who is selected, as a result of the number rolled on the dice the first time, has to roll again to determine where along his wall the other players may start taking tiles. The points where the tiles are taken from the wall are decided by counting from the rightmost part of the wall (after the flowers stack is counted) and proceeding to the left until the required number is reached. At that point, the east player takes 2 stacks of 2 tiles (4 tiles total) and is followed by the player to his right taking the same amount. This process continues in a counter clockwise direction until all players have taken 3 double stacks (total 12 tiles).

Each player then takes 1 more tile for a total of 13 tiles in each player's hand. The east player takes 1 more tile after all players have 13 tiles for a total of 14 tiles. This is so the east player can begin the round by discarding one of his tiles. After receiving all of their tiles, each player usually arrange their tiles in order. Any flowers that a player receives in his hand is "retired" to the right hand corner of the table, face up. A tile is drawn from the flower pile to make up for the retired tile. The flowers earn extra points.

Playing a Mahjong Hand
After the east player discards a tile, the player to his right picks up a tile from where the wall was left off. The player decides if he wants to keep the tile or not. If he does keep the tile from the wall, he must discard another tile from his hand, keeping his hand at the original number of 13 tiles. If he decides the tile is useless, he simply discards it in the middle of the wall formation. This process continues with each player in a counter clockwise direction.

Players may not always need to draw from the wall. If a player sees that he can fill one of his sequences in his hand with a discarded tile, he may do so instead of drawing from the wall. A player who intends to pick up a discarded tile must announce his intentions by saying "chow," "pung, or "kong." A "chow" is a sequence of three tiles in the same suit (i.e. 4, 5, 6 of the bamboo suit). A "pung" is 3 identical tiles of the same suit and a "kong" is 4 identical tiles of the same suit. For example, if a player has 2, number 4 tiles of the bamboo suit and a number 4 tile of the bamboo suit is discarded, he may say "pung" to complete his sequence. After a sequence is completed from a discarded tile, the sequence must be "retired" at the right corner of the table for two reasons: to eliminate it from the player’s hand and to prove there really is a sequence.

Then the player must discard one of his tiles from his hand. The player sitting to his right goes next. Therefore, the game has a tendency to skip a player's turn. There are some limitations to completing a sequence from discarded tiles. For example, a player may only "chow" from the player to his left. Also, if two players simultaneously shout "pung" and "chow," "pung" always takes precedence. If a player decides to "kong," he must draw a tile from the flower stack and discard a tile from his hand.

Winning a Mahjong Hand
A player has won when he has completed a combination of 4 triplets, quadruplets or sequences. The "retired" tiles also count toward his combination. In addition, he must also have a pair of identical tiles, sometimes referred to as the "eyes." Therefore, his winning combination would be 2 sequences on hand, 2 "retired" triplets and a pair of "eyes."

Scoring Mahjong

Winning player gets 20 points. The other players reveal tiles and points are tallied as follows:

Points can also be doubled in the following manner: All players: three or four tiles of the players own wind or three or four tiles of any dragon/prime suit. Winner only: hand of one suit plus a pair of dragons/primes or winds2. A hand of only one suit earns 8x the score. hand of one suit plus a pair of dragons/primes or winds2. A hand of only one suit earns 8x the score.

Mahjong Do's and Don'ts, Trivia and Humor

Mahjong Do's and Don'ts
Winning the first game is bad luck
Sit opposite the light for luck to shine on you
Wear red for good luck and don’t tap any players on their shoulders

Mahjong Trivia
Little known to most players, the suits of the tiles are money-based. In ancient China, the copper coins had a square hole in the center. People passed a rope through the holes to tie coins into strings. These strings are usually in groups of 100 coins called diao or 1,000 coins called guan.

Mahjong is featured in Amy Tan’s novel The Joy Luck Club, and its 1993 film adaptation.

A Mahjong game is described in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie, ending with the very unusual event of a player getting a complete winning hand on the initial draw. This success makes the character unduly talkative, which leads to significant plot developments.

British superspy James Bond plays a dangerous game of mahjong in Zero Minus Ten, a suspense novel by Raymond Benson.

Mahjong Humor

Mahjong Glossary

Bamboos
One of the three suits, usually bamboo or sticks

Bonus Tiles
Flower or Season tile

Characters
One of the three suits, sometimes called cracks

Chicken Hand
A hand without points

China Jade
A hand composed entirely of green tiles

Chow
Three tiles of the same suit in sequence or knitted

Circles
One of the three suits, sometimes called coins or dots

Concealed
A tile or tiles drawn from the wall and not exposed

Discard
A rejected tile which may be claimed by another player

Dispersed Kong
A hand with four identical suit tiles other than in a kong

Exposed
A face-up tile, part of a set or a discard

Family Hand
A hand composed or the three suits, dragons and winds

Flower Tile
Bonus Tile

Going Mahjong
Declaring a hand worth eight points or more

Going Out
Going Mahjong

Head
The pair of tiles necessary in most hand to go out

Honours
Dragon and wind tiles

Knitted Tiles
Tiles 1-4-7, 2-5-8 and 3-6-9 in different suits

Kong
Set of four identical tiles

Major Tiles
Honours and terminals

Matchin Chows
Two matching chows in different suits

Meld
A set Nine Gates
A single suit hand in which any tile of the same suit completes the hand

Progressive Chows
Chows stepped up one or two digits

Progressive Pungs
Pungs stepped up one digit

Pung
Set of three identical tiles

Reversible Tiles
Tiles that have the same appearance when inverted

Self-Drawn
A tile drawn from the wall

Sequence
Set of suit tiles in numerical order

Set
Chow, pung or kong

Simples
Suit tiles other than terminals

Stepped
Chows separated by one or two numbers

Terminals
Tiles one and nine of the three suits

Thirteen Orphans
A hand composed of one each of every major tile, one tile paired

Twin Chows
Two identical chows in the same suit

Void Suit
A hand lacking tiles of one suit

Wall
Tiles assembled face down at the start of the game

Wind, Own
Wind corresponding to the player's seat

Wind, Prevailing
The wind of the round

Wind, Seat
Wind corresponding to the player's seat

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