How to Play American Mahjong

If a friend has been trying to get you to her mahjong table, here is what you’d be walking into — the tiles, the rituals, and how a hand is actually won. No jargon first, promise.

What the game is

American Mahjong (often just “mahj”) is a four-player game of tiles. Each hand, you draw and discard tiles, trying to shape the fourteen tiles in front of you to match one of the winning hands printed on the card — exactly. First player to match a line and declare mahjong wins the hand.

Most tables in the United States play with the card published each year by the National Mah Jongg League. Every year the card changes, so every year the game feels a little new — that’s half the fun and most of the gossip.

The tiles

A full American set has 152 tiles:

• Three suits — Dots, Bams (bamboo), and Craks (characters) — each numbered 1 through 9, four of every tile.
• Winds — North, East, West, South.
• Dragons — Red, Green, and the white dragon everyone calls the Soap. Each dragon belongs to a suit: Red goes with Craks, Green with Bams, Soap with Dots.
• Flowers — eight of them, used in many hands.
• Jokers — eight wild tiles, with important rules of their own (below).

The deal

Tiles are shuffled face-down (“washing the tiles” — the best sound in the game) and built into walls. Each player takes thirteen tiles; the dealer, called East, takes fourteen. You arrange your tiles on your rack where only you can see them.

The Charleston

Before real play begins comes American Mahjong’s signature ritual: the Charleston, where players pass unwanted tiles around the table. It runs in a fixed order that players remember with the mnemonic ROLLOR:

1. First Charleston: pass three tiles Right, then three Over (across), then three Left. The last pass may be a blind pass — you may pass tiles you received without even looking at them.
2. Second Charleston (only if all four players agree): three Left, three Over, three Right, with the blind option on the final pass.
3. Courtesy pass: you and the player opposite you may exchange up to three tiles, if you both agree on the number.

One firm rule: jokers may never be passed in the Charleston.

Taking turns

Play moves counter-clockwise. On your turn you draw a tile from the wall, rack it (put it with your hand before deciding anything — a good habit), then discard one tile face-up in the middle, naming it aloud: “Two Dot.” Once the next player draws, that discard is dead and gone.

Calling a discard

Here’s where the table gets lively. When someone discards a tile you need, you may call it — and in American Mahjong, any player may call any discard, not just the next player in turn. The catches:

• You may only call a tile to complete a set of three or more identical tiles (a pung, kong, or quint) — and you must expose that set face-up on your rack for everyone to see.
• You may never call for a pair — with one glorious exception: you may call any tile that gives you mahjong.
• Calling jumps the turn to you; anyone between the discarder and you simply loses their turn.
• If two players want the same tile, the player whose turn would come first gets it — but a call for mahjong beats everything.

Exposing a set is a trade: you get the tile, but the table gets information about the hand you’re chasing. Experienced players call sparingly.

Jokers

Jokers are wild — within strict limits:

• A joker may stand in for any tile in a set of three or more (pungs, kongs, quints).
• A joker may never be used in a pair, as a single tile, or in hands built from singles (like NEWS or a year).
• The joker swap: if another player has a joker in an exposed set on their rack and you hold the real tile it’s standing in for, on your turn you may trade your tile for their joker. It is the most delightful legal theft in games.

Winning — and not winning

When your fourteen tiles exactly match a line on the card, you say “Mahjong,” lay your hand down, and the table checks it against the card. Hands are worth the point values printed on the card, with a bonus for winning without jokers.

Declare in error, or make your hand impossible, and your hand is dead — you sit out the rest of the round and let it sting for exactly one shuffle. It happens to everyone; good tables laugh and re-wash. And if the wall runs out before anyone wins, that’s a wall game — no winner, no shame, next hand.