Mahjong Basics
Mahjong looks intricate from the outside and feels effortless once you sit down. This beginner's guide walks through the tiles, the table, the Charleston, and how a winning hand comes together — everything you need to join your first game with confidence.
A standard American mahjong set has 152 tiles. The heart of the set is three suits — Bams (bamboo), Craks (characters), and Dots (circles) — each numbered 1 through 9, with four copies of every tile.
Around those suits sit the honors and specials: Winds (North, East, South, West), Dragons (Green, Red, Soap/White), Flowers, and eight Jokers. Jokers are wild and can substitute for tiles in most groups of three or more.
Four players sit at a square table, each with a rack. Everyone helps shuffle the tiles face-down, then builds a wall of 19 stacks of two tiles in front of them.
The dealer (East) rolls to break the wall, and tiles are dealt in groups of four until every player holds 13 tiles — the dealer starts with 14.
Before play begins, American mahjong uses a passing ritual called the Charleston: three passes of three tiles to the right, across, and left, followed by an optional second Charleston and a final courtesy pass.
This is your chance to shed tiles that don't fit your target hand and gather the ones that do. Never pass a Joker.
In American mahjong you're building one of the specific hands printed on the current National Mah Jongg League card. Pick a target early, and keep a backup in a similar suit.
On your turn, draw a tile from the wall and discard one face-up while naming it aloud. Any player may claim the discard if it completes an exposure — a pung (three of a kind), kong (four), or quint (five).
When your 14 tiles exactly match a hand on the card, call "Mahjong" and expose your tiles. If no one wins before the wall runs out, the hand is a wall game and the deal passes.
Scoring follows the point value listed beside your hand on the card, with bonuses for concealed hands and jokerless wins.
Choose a hand in the suit where you already hold the most tiles, and commit by the end of the Charleston.
Watch what others discard and expose — it tells you which hands they're chasing and which tiles are safe.
Hold Jokers as long as you can; they're the most flexible tiles in the game.
Play at pace. Mahjong is a social game, and rhythm is half the pleasure.
Reading is a fine start — playing is better. We teach beginner classes and private lessons throughout Palm Beach and South Florida.