How to play Hong Kong mahjong

What you need

You need four players, a set of 144 tiles and two dice. There are no jokers and no card of hands. Most players stand their tiles up in a row in front of them; racks are optional.

Most sets sold for Chinese styles have exactly these 144 tiles. An American set works too if you take out the 8 jokers.

The tiles

There are 144 tiles. Three kinds are suits numbered 1 to 9: Dots, Bams (bamboo) and Craks (characters). There are four of each suit tile.

• Suits: Dots, Bams and Craks, 1 to 9, four of each. 108 tiles.
• Winds: East, South, West and North, four of each. 16 tiles.
• Dragons: Red, Green and White, four of each. 12 tiles.
• Flowers and seasons: 4 flowers and 4 seasons, each numbered 1 to 4. 8 tiles.

Winds and dragons are called honor tiles. Flowers and seasons are bonus tiles: they never stay in your hand, but they can add to your score.

The goal: 4 sets and a pair

A winning hand is 4 sets and a pair. A set can be:

Honor tiles have no numbers, so they make pungs and kongs, never chows. A kong has 4 tiles but counts as one set.

There is no card. Any 4 sets and a pair can win, as long as the hand scores at least 3 faan. Faan are points for things like a pung of dragons, a hand in one suit, or drawing the winning tile yourself. One rare hand, thirteen orphans, isn't 4 sets and a pair at all.

Seats, walls and the deal

Each seat has a wind. East is the dealer. Play goes counter-clockwise, so the player on your right goes after you: East, then South, West and North.

1. Turn all the tiles face down and mix them.
2. Each player builds a wall in front of them, 18 tiles long and 2 tiles high.
3. East rolls the dice to choose where to open the wall.
4. Players take 4 tiles at a time, three times around, then 1 more each. East takes one extra.

East starts with 14 tiles. Everyone else has 13. If you were dealt any flowers or seasons, put them face up beside you and take a replacement tile from the back end of the wall.

The last 14 tiles of the wall are kept back. Replacement tiles for flowers and kongs come from that end, but no one takes a normal turn's tile from those 14. Tables vary on how many they keep back.

A turn

East starts by discarding one tile. After that, each turn goes like this:

1. Take the next tile from the wall. Now you have 14.
2. If it's a flower or season, put it face up beside you and take a replacement from the back end of the wall.
3. Discard one tile face up in the middle of the table and say its name.

Between turns you always hold 13 tiles, not counting bonus tiles. A kong adds one tile, so you take an extra tile for it (see below).

Calling a discard

When someone discards a tile you need, you can call it. Say what you're making ("chow", "pung" or "kong"), take the tile and put the finished set face up in front of you. Then discard. Play carries on from you, and anyone in between is skipped.

• Chow: only from the player on your left, the one who plays just before you.
• Pung or kong: from any player.
• To win: any tile, from any player, for any set or for your pair.

If two players want the same tile, a win beats everything, and a pung or kong beats a chow. If two players can both win with it, the one who would play next gets it. Some tables let both win.

A set you call is exposed. It stays face up for the rest of the hand. A hand with no called sets scores 1 more faan, so calling makes your hand faster but costs a point.

Kongs

There are three ways to make a kong:

• Call a discard when you hold the other 3.
• Draw all 4 yourself and lay them down on your turn. This is a concealed kong.
• Add a tile you drew to a pung you already showed.

After any kong, take one extra tile from the back end of the wall, then discard. If that extra tile wins your hand, it scores 1 more faan.

When a player adds a tile to a pung, another player can take that tile, but only to win. This is called robbing the kong. The kong isn't made, and the robber scores 1 more faan.

Winning

When your hand is one tile from finished, you are waiting. You can win with a tile you draw (self-drawn) or with any discard. Say "Mahjong" and lay all your tiles face up, with your bonus tiles beside them.

Then count the faan. If the hand scores less than the minimum, usually 3, it can't win. Our faan scoring guide shows how to count them.

If no one has won when only the kept-back tiles are left, the hand is a draw. No one scores, and the tiles are mixed for the next hand.

Paying

The more faan, the more the other players pay. In our game, each faan doubles the payment, up to a top score called the limit (10 faan in our game; some tables use 8 or 13).

• Win on a discard: the player who threw it pays double. The other two pay single.
• Self-drawn win: all three other players pay double.

Some groups have the discarder pay for everyone, or use a smaller table for big hands. Agree before you start.

The next hand

If East wins, or the hand is a draw, East deals again. If anyone else wins, the deal moves to the player on East's right, who becomes the new East. Some tables pass the deal after a draw too.

The game starts in the East round, so East is the round's wind (the prevailing wind). A pung of the round's wind scores 1 faan for anyone. Once every player has been East, the South round begins, and so on. A full game has four rounds, but many groups play fewer.

Where to go next

• Learn it with tiles on the screen: the free Hong Kong mahjong course, 9 short lessons.
• Look up any score in the faan table.
• Know American mahjong already? Read Hong Kong vs American mahjong.
• Try a full game: play Hong Kong mahjong against the computer, with a coach if you want one.