How to play American mahjong

This guide follows the common National Mah Jongg League (NMJL) way of playing. Many groups have house rules, so ask your table before you start. The League's own rulebook, Mah Jongg Made Easy, settles disputes.

What you need

An American set with at least 8 jokers and 8 flowers. Check yours here.
Four racks with pushers, one per player.
A current card for each player. The National Mah Jongg League publishes a new one every year, and you can only win with a hand on it. More about the card.
Two dice and something to keep score with, such as coins, chips or a notepad.

The tiles

There are three suits, each numbered 1 to 9, with four copies of every tile.

Dots (also called circles or balls), bams (bamboo) and craks (characters): 36 of each.
Winds: North, East, West and South, four of each, 16 in all.
Dragons: red, green and white, four of each. The white dragon is called a soap and can also stand for a zero in year hands on the card.
Flowers: 8. All flowers count as the same tile.
Jokers: 8. They stand in for other tiles, with limits explained below.

Each dragon is paired with a suit: red with craks, green with bams, and the soap with dots. The card uses this pairing in many hands.

Setting up and dealing

In more detail: how to set up and deal. Fewer than four players? See 3 players or 2 players.

Turn every tile face down and shuffle.
Each player builds a wall two tiles high and 19 tiles long in front of their rack.
Roll the dice. The highest roller is East and deals first.
East rolls again to decide where to break the wall, then players take tiles in turn until everyone has 13 and East has 14.
Sort your tiles on your rack where others cannot see them, and look at your card for hands that fit.

The Charleston

Before play starts, everyone swaps unwanted tiles. This is the part most beginners find confusing, so it has its own guide and a practice tool. In short:

First Charleston (required): pass 3 tiles right, then across, then left.
Second Charleston (optional): left, across, right. It only happens if every player agrees.
Courtesy pass (optional): you and the player across may swap 0 to 3 tiles, the same number each.
You can never pass a joker.

A turn

East starts by discarding one tile face up in the middle and saying its name.
Play moves to the right. On your turn, take a tile from the wall, then discard one, so you always end with 13.
When you discard, say the tile's name out loud, for example "four bam".

Calling a discard

When someone discards a tile you need, you can call it, even if it is not your turn, but only in two cases:

To complete a group of 3 or more identical tiles (a pung, kong or quint), which you then lay face up on top of your rack. This is called an exposure.
To win, if that tile completes your hand.

You cannot call a discard to make a pair or a single unless it wins you the game. After you call and expose, you discard and play continues to your right, so players in between lose their turn.

Jokers

Jokers can replace any tile in a group of three or more identical tiles. They can never be used in a pair or as a single tile. A discarded joker is dead and cannot be called. If you hold the real tile that a joker is standing in for in any exposed group, you can swap it for the joker on your turn. Joker rules in full.

Winning

You win by completing, exactly, one of the hands on the current card, using your concealed tiles and any exposures. Call "Mah Jongg", lay your tiles face up, and let the other players check the hand against the card before anyone touches the tiles.

If someone exposes tiles that cannot fit any hand on the card, or declares Mah Jongg wrongly, their hand can be called dead. Another player calls the hand dead; the player stops picking and discarding but still pays whoever wins. If the wall runs out before anyone wins, it is a wall game and nobody pays.

Paying

Each hand on the card has a value. Many groups play for small change, and the usual rules are:

How you won	Who pays
Off someone's discard	The discarder pays double the hand value; the other two pay the hand value
By drawing the winning tile yourself	All three pay double
With no jokers in the hand	All payments double again, except for singles-and-pairs hands, which never use jokers anyway

Scoring with examples and a payment calculator.

Some groups add extra rules, such as the discarder paying for everyone when the winner had three exposures. Agree on money before you start.

Where to go next

Common questions

How many tiles are used in American mahjong?

A standard game uses 152 tiles: 108 suit tiles (dots, bams and craks), 16 winds, 12 dragons, 8 flowers and 8 jokers.

How many tiles does each player start with?

Each player starts with 13 tiles. East, the dealer, starts with 14 and opens the game by discarding.

Do I need the National Mah Jongg League card?

Yes. In American mahjong you can only win with a hand printed on the current year's card, which the League publishes every year. Each player needs their own card.

Which way does play go?

To the right, counter-clockwise around the table. The deal also passes to the right after each hand.

What do you say when you win?

Call "Mah Jongg", then lay your whole hand face up so the other players can check it against the card.

What is an exposure?

A group of three or more identical tiles you made by calling a discard, laid face up on your rack for everyone to see.

Can you pick up a discard for a pair?

Only if it is the last tile you need to win. Otherwise you can only call a discard to complete a pung, kong or quint.

What happens if two players want the same discard?

A call for Mah Jongg beats a call for an exposure. If both calls are the same kind, the player next in turn after the discarder usually gets it.

What is a dead hand?

A hand that can no longer win, for example because its exposures do not fit any hand on the card. The player stops picking and discarding, and still pays the winner.

Can five people play?

Only four play each hand. With five, players commonly take turns sitting out.

How long does it take to learn?

One or two sessions for the basics, and a few weeks of regular play to feel comfortable with the card.

Sources: Wikipedia: American mahjong; Tom Sloper's American mah-jongg FAQ; The Mahjong Line on scoring and money.