How to Play American Mahjong

Four players, four walls, and one dealer. Here's the order of operations before the first tile is ever discarded.

1. Find your East

All four players roll the dice. The highest total becomes East — the dealer for this hand. Everyone else takes their seat from there; the other three positions are simply the players to East's right, across, and left.

2. Build and break the wall

Shuffle every tile face-down and build four walls of stacked tiles, one in front of each player. East rolls the dice a second time and counts that many stacks in from the right end of their wall — that's where the wall is "broken," and where dealing begins. Most racks have a pusher on the back edge to slide your wall forward when it's your wall's turn to be drawn from.

3. Deal

Starting at the break, tiles are dealt four at a time around the table until everyone has twelve, then one more each to finish. East takes an extra tile, ending with 14; everyone else has 13. Stand them on your rack facing you — nobody should see your tiles.

4. And after the hand?

The next game gets a new dealer: East passes to the right. Many groups let East deal again if East won the hand, and treat a wall game the same way. There's no single universal rule here — it's worth settling with your table before the first deal so nobody's surprised.

Playing with three or five? Mahjong is built for four, but a fifth player can sit out as a "bettor" and rotate in between hands. With three, you'll need to agree on house adjustments — four is much simpler while you're learning.

The Charleston is the trading round before real play begins. Every pass is exactly three tiles, face-down, and all four players pass at the same time. Here's the full sequence:

First Charleston — required

Second Charleston — optional, and it reverses

The second Charleston only happens if everyone agrees to it. Any player who's happy with their tiles can stop the Charleston after the first one is finished — but say so before anyone looks at the tiles from pass 4.

The courtesy pass — last, and across

Whether you played one Charleston or two, you finish with an optional courtesy pass to the player across from you. This one doesn't have to be three tiles: it can be 0, 1, 2 or 3. You and your opposite player each say how many you'd like to pass, and the smaller number is what you both pass.

The blind pass

On the last pass of each Charleston — pass 3 going left, and pass 6 going right — you're allowed to send along tiles you haven't looked at. Take 1, 2 or all 3 of the tiles you just received, slide them straight through face-down, and they count toward your three. It's the escape hatch for when you genuinely have nothing left you're willing to give away.

Two things you can never do: pass a Joker, or pass fewer than three tiles in any pass except the courtesy pass.

The National Mah Jongg League card is your recipe book — every hand you're allowed to build is printed on it, grouped into themed sections. It looks like secret code at first, but it's really just four things working together:

So the example above reads: two Flowers, then 2-4-6-8 in one suit, 2-4-6-8 in a second suit, and four matching Dragons. Your goal is to collect tiles until your hand matches one printed line exactly.

The card is grouped into sections

This is what makes it far less intimidating than it looks — you're not scanning 60 random lines, you're picking a neighborhood. Recent cards are organized into sections like the year (2026), 2468, Any Like Numbers, Addition Hands, Quints, Consecutive Run, 13579, Winds and Dragons, and Singles and Pairs. The exact line-up shifts a little each year, but the shape of the card stays familiar.

"C" or "X" means concealed

A hand marked concealed has to be built entirely behind your rack — you can't call discards and make exposures along the way. You can still win a concealed hand on someone else's discard; you just have to get there without showing anything first. Concealed hands are usually worth more, which is exactly why they're harder.

Joker limits are printed too

Watch for notes beside a hand. Every hand in the Singles and Pairs section is played with no Jokers at all (there are no groups of three or more to put one in), and some other hands cap them with a note like "Max 1 Joker."

Beginner tip: at the start of each game, scan the card for a hand that already matches a few tiles in your rack — then commit to building toward it.

You'll need the card itself. Every player uses the current year's official card, published each spring by the National Mah Jongg League — so be sure to have this year's on hand before your first game.

A full turn. On your turn you draw one tile from the wall, then discard one you don't need — so you always come back to 13 tiles behind your rack. Say your discard out loud, and play moves to the player on your right.

Calling a discard. The instant a tile is discarded, any player who needs it may call it — before the next player draws — to complete a pung, kong, or quint. When you call, you don't draw from the wall: you take the discarded tile, place the finished group face-up for everyone to see, and then discard. Play then continues to your right.

You can't call for a pair or a single — with one big exception. Calling is only for groups of three or more, so a discard can't be claimed just to finish a pair or fill a single. But if that tile completes your entire hand, you may absolutely call it and declare Mahjong — pair, single, or anything else. This is the rule new players trip over most, in both directions: claiming a tile they can't have, or letting their winning tile go by.

If a call jumps over you. When someone further around the table claims a discard, the players in between simply lose that turn — nobody gets a make-up draw. Play picks up again to the caller's right and carries on as normal.

Exposures commit you. Once you've placed a group face-up, you're locked into a hand on the card that fits it — you can't quietly switch to a hand those tiles don't belong to. So only call when you're sure of the hand you're building toward.

Winning. When your 14 tiles exactly match a line on the card, call "Mahjong!" You can win on a tile you drew yourself or one another player just discarded. Flip your hand face-up to show the match.

If no one wins. If the wall runs out of tiles before anyone declares Mahjong, the hand is a draw — a "wall game." Nobody wins; simply reshuffle and deal again.

Keeping score. Each hand is worth the points printed beside it on the card. In the most common house rules, whoever discarded the winning tile pays the winner double while the others pay the listed value; on a self-picked win, everyone pays double. Plenty of casual groups skip scoring altogether and just play for fun — perfectly fine while you're learning.

Jokers do more of the heavy lifting than anything else in the game, and they come with a tidy set of rules worth knowing before your first hand.

Where a Joker can go

Inside any group of three or more identical tiles — a pung, kong or quint. Never in a pair, never as a single, and never anywhere in a Singles and Pairs hand. Some other hands print their own cap, like "Max 1 Joker."

Redeeming a Joker from an exposure

If a Joker is sitting face-up in someone's exposure and you hold the real tile it's standing in for, you can trade for it. Do it on your turn, before you discard — whether that turn came around naturally or because you just called a tile. Hand over the natural tile, take the Joker into your hand, and the exposure stays valid. This works on your own exposures too.

What you can't do with a Joker

• You can't pass one during the Charleston, in any pass.
• You can't claim a discarded Joker — once it's thrown, it's out of play.
• You can't take a Joker from a discard pile or from someone's rack. Only from a face-up exposure, and only by trading the real tile for it.
• You can't redeem one while your own hand is dead.

A small courtesy: when you swap for a Joker, say what you're doing out loud and let the table see the trade. It keeps everyone's read on the exposures accurate, and saves arguments later.

A "dead hand" is one that can no longer legally win the round. It sounds dramatic, but it's usually just a bookkeeping mistake — and knowing the four causes means you'll almost never hit one.

What makes a hand dead

• The wrong number of tiles. You should hold 13 between turns and 14 in the moment before you discard. Drawing twice or forgetting to discard will do it.
• An impossible exposure. If the groups you've placed face-up can't belong to any single hand printed on the card, there's nothing left for you to complete.
• A Joker where one isn't allowed. In a pair, as a single, or anywhere in a Singles and Pairs hand.
• Declaring Mahjong in error. If you call it and your tiles don't match a line on the card, your hand is dead for the rest of the round.

What happens next

Under most house rules you stay in your seat and keep picking and discarding so play keeps flowing — you simply can't win the round, make new exposures, or redeem Jokers. Some tables prefer the player sit the hand out instead. Either is fine; just agree which one your group uses before you start.

On calling someone else's hand dead: any player may point it out, and it's meant to be a neutral observation, not an accusation. In casual games most tables are generous with beginners — if the mistake can be undone before it affects anyone, undo it and carry on.

If nobody wins. When the wall runs out before anyone declares Mahjong, the round is a "wall game" — no winner, no payment. Reshuffle and deal again.