Sets and the Pair

Now that you know the tiles, it's time for the one thing at the heart of mahjong: putting tiles into groups. A group of three is called a set, and you also need one pair. A whole game is really just building these.

Chow: three in a row, one suit

Three tiles of the same suit with consecutive numbers make a chow (also called a run or sequence).

Two things to remember:

• Same suit only: a 3 of characters, 4 of dots and 5 of bamboo are in a row, but they're not a chow.
• No wrapping around: 9 doesn't connect to 1, so 8-9-1 is not a chow.

Honors can't make chows. East-South-West or Red-Green-White may look like a row, but honors have no numbers.

Pung: three of a kind

Three identical tiles make a pung (also called a triplet). Suit tiles and honors both work.

Honors have only two jobs: a pung or the pair. That's why a lone honor tile is often the first thing you throw away.

Kong: four of a kind

When you have all four copies of a tile, you can declare a kong.

A kong has four tiles but still counts as one set. That's why you draw an extra tile after making one, so your hand doesn't come up short. How and when to kong is covered in lesson 5.

The pair: one per hand

Two identical tiles are a pair. A winning hand needs exactly one pair, sometimes called the eyes or, in Japanese mahjong, the head.

Any tile can be the pair, suit or honor.

Partial sets: one tile away

Two tiles that are one tile short of a set are a partial set. Reading them tells you what you're waiting for:

• Two-sided: two tiles in a row, open at both ends. 3-4 characters waits for 2 or 5.
• Edge: 1-2 or 8-9, open at one end only. 1-2 dots waits for 3 dots.
• Middle: a gap in the middle. 7-9 bamboo waits for 8 bamboo.
• Pair: waits for a third tile to make a pung.

A two-sided shape catches two different tiles, so it's the best. Edge and middle shapes catch only one. When you have a choice, keep the two-sided one.

Now you can build mahjong sets. In the next lesson we'll put them together into a hand that wins.

Quick quiz