You know the tiles and what a winning hand looks like. The last piece is the flow: how does a hand of mahjong actually start and end? This lesson walks you from the shuffle to the win. The details vary from style to style, so we'll stick to what most of them share.
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Four players, four winds
Mahjong is played by four people, one on each side of the table. One of them is the dealer, and the dealer's seat is East. From there the seats go counter-clockwise: South on the dealer's right, West across, North on the left.
The first dealer is usually picked by rolling dice.
Shuffle, build the wall, roll the dice
- Shuffle: turn every tile face down and mix them around on the table.
- Build the wall: each player builds a wall in front of them, two tiles high. The four walls form a square.
- Roll the dice: the dealer rolls, and the total decides which wall to break and where to start taking tiles.
With an automatic table, the machine does all three for you.
The deal: the dealer gets one extra
Starting from the break, everyone takes tiles in turn, usually a stack of four at a time:
- 13-tile styles (Japanese, Hong Kong, Sichuan, Guobiao, American): 13 tiles each, 14 for the dealer.
- Taiwanese: 16 tiles each, 17 for the dealer.
The dealer's extra tile counts as their first draw, so the dealer discards first.
Flowers: Taiwanese, Hong Kong and Guobiao mahjong use flower tiles. They don't stay in your hand. Put one face up on the table as soon as you get it and draw a replacement from the far end of the wall.
Japanese and Sichuan mahjong have no flowers. American mahjong has them, but there they're used in your hand, not replaced.
Draw one, discard one
On your turn you do two things:
- Draw a tile from the wall.
- Discard a tile face up in front of you.
Your discards form your pond (sometimes called the river), and everyone can see it. Reading other players' ponds gives you clues about what they're building.
Then it's the turn of the player on your right, and play keeps going counter-clockwise. Other players can sometimes grab your discard with a chow, pung or kong, which is the next lesson.
How a hand ends
A hand ends in one of two ways:
- Someone wins: either by drawing the winning tile (self-draw) or by claiming another player's discard. The player who threw it "dealt in".
- Exhaustive draw: the wall runs out and nobody has won. Taiwanese mahjong stops with 16 tiles left, and Japanese mahjong keeps a dead wall that is never drawn.
Who deals next? If the dealer wins, they usually stay on. If anyone else wins, the deal passes to the player on the dealer's right. After a draw it depends on the style: in Taiwanese and Hong Kong mahjong the dealer stays, and in Japanese mahjong it depends on whether the dealer was ready.
That's a whole hand, and you're ready to sit down and play mahjong! Try one against the computer at Taiwanese mahjong or Japanese mahjong.
Quick quiz
In a 13-tile style, how many tiles does the dealer start with?
Show the answer
14 — The dealer takes one extra, which counts as their first draw, so they discard first.
After you discard, whose turn is it?
Show the answer
The player on your right — Mahjong goes counter-clockwise, so the player on your right is next.
Playing Taiwanese mahjong, you draw (Spring). What do you do?
Show the answer
Show it and draw a replacement from the end of the wall — Flowers don't stay in your hand. Show it, then draw another tile.
The wall runs out and nobody has won. What's that called?
Show the answer
An exhaustive draw — With no winner, the hand ends in a draw.