How to Play Mahjong (with Pictures)

Mahjong is a fun 4-player game where players try to score points by forming combinations with tiles. The goal of the game is to get the highest score by forming Mahjong tiles (4 combinations and a pair). A combination is a set of 3 matching tiles (pong), 4 matching tiles (gang), or 3 consecutive numbers of the same suit (chi). Mahjong has 3 suits: Bamboo (or stick), Figure, and Dot. The tiles in a suit are numbered 1 to 9. There are also 4 Wind tiles, 3 Dragon tiles, 4 Flower tiles, and 4 Season tiles. To start the game, shuffle all 144 tiles face down and then divide them equally between the players. Each player forms a wall in front of them with their 36 tiles, stacking one row of 18 tiles on top of another row of 18 tiles. Then, everyone pushes their rows together to form a square. Each player picks up 13 tiles from their row. Next, each player rolls 2 dice, with the highest number going first. On a player’s turn, they first draw a new card from their row. If the tile they draw can form a combination with the other tiles in their hand, they can call out their tiles and place the tiles in the combination face down in front of them. After players draw their tiles and play any combinations they have, they place a card from their hand face up in the middle of the grid, discarding it. Finally, they draw a new tile from their row to end their turn, and the player to their left plays next. At any time during the game, any player can pick up a tile from the middle of the grid to form a combination, whether it is their turn or not. Players can also pick up a pair of Wind, Dragon, Flower, or Season tiles. Each time a player is about to take a tile to form a combination or pair, they must announce it loudly, then pick up the tile and place it face up in front of them. The game ends when a player forms a Mahjong or four tiles and a matching pair. When a player scores, they reveal their four tiles and a matching pair. Only the winning Mahjong is scored. When calculating the winning Mahjong score, any combination formed with tiles from the center of the grid is considered an “open tile” and any combination formed using only tiles from the player’s hand is considered a “dark tile.” Dark tiles score higher. An open pong scores 2 points, an open kong scores 8 points, and an open chow scores 0 points. An unpong scores 4 points, an unkong scores 16 points, and an unchoose scores 0 points. A pair of wind or dragon scores 2 points, and four of flowers scores 4 points. Any other pair scores 0 points. After calculating the winning Mahjong points, shuffle the winning cards and play another round. Play 4 rounds in total. The player with the highest score after 4 rounds wins! To learn more about creating combinations, keep reading!