Mahjong tiles explained

The 152 tiles at a glance

Every tile except the flowers and jokers comes in exactly four copies. This is why a set of five matching tiles always needs a joker.

Dots

Dots are circles. Count the circles, or read the number in the corner. The 1 Dot is one large circle.

Some players call them Circles or Balls. On a card, any color can stand for Dots.

Bams

Bams is short for bamboo. Each tile shows bamboo sticks, so you can count them. The 1 Bam is usually a bird, not a stick. It still counts as 1.

Some players call them Sticks or Bamboos.

Craks

Craks (short for characters) show a Chinese numeral above a red character. You don't need to learn the characters. American sets print the number in the corner, so you read the corner.

Some sets spell it Craks, others Cracks or Characters. They are the same suit.

Winds

There are four winds: North, East, West and South. Each shows a Chinese character, and most American sets add the letter N, E, W or S in the corner.

Winds are not a suit and have no numbers. On the card they are written as letters, so NEWS means one of each wind.

Dragons

There are three dragons, and each one goes with a suit. This matters when a hand on the card asks for a dragon in the same color as a suit.

The white dragon is called Soap. On many sets it is a plain or framed white tile. Soap has a second job: on the card, a 0 means Soap. That is how hands spell out a year.

Flowers

There are 8 flowers. The pictures often differ: some show flowers, some show seasons. In American mahjong they are all the same tile. Any two flowers make a pair, and any three make a pung.

On the card, a flower is written as F. Because there are 8 of them, flowers are the only tiles that can make a set of five without a joker.

Jokers

There are 8 jokers. A joker can stand in for any tile, but only in a set of 3 or more. It can't be part of a pair or used as a single tile.

Jokers are the most useful tiles in the game. The joker guide covers every rule, including swapping a real tile for a joker on someone's rack.

Tips for telling tiles apart

• Read the corner first. Numbers mean a suit tile. Letters mean a wind.
• If it has circles, it is a Dot. Sticks or a bird, a Bam. A red character, a Crak.
• A plain or framed white tile is Soap, not a blank.
• If a set has extra blank tiles, they are spares. They are not used in the game.
• Sort your rack by suit as you play. It makes hands much easier to see.

If you are buying a set, get one with numbers in the corners. It makes learning much easier. See how to choose a mahjong set.