How to play American Mahjong
A plain-language walk through one game, from the deal to Mahjong.
Updated November 9, 2026
The tiles
A standard set has 152 tiles:
- Three suits, numbered 1 to 9, four of each tile: Dots, Bams (bamboo) and Craks (characters). That's 108 tiles.
- Winds: North, East, West and South, four of each, 16 in all.
- Dragons: Red, Green and White, four of each, 12 in all. Each dragon goes with a suit: Red with Craks, Green with Bams, White with Dots. The White Dragon is often called Soap.
- Flowers: 8.
- Jokers: 8. They stand in for other tiles, with limits. See joker rules.
The card
Every hand you can win with is printed on the card the National Mah Jongg League publishes each year. Hands are grouped into sections, and each line shows its value and whether it may be exposed (X) or must stay concealed (C). The card changes every year, so part of the fun is learning the new hands each spring. To play at a real table, each player needs their own card, which you buy from the League.
At the start of a game you don't commit to a hand. You look at your tiles, pick two or three hands they could grow into, and narrow it down as the game goes.
The deal
The dealer is East. East starts with 14 tiles and everyone else with 13. East begins play by discarding a tile, without drawing.
The Charleston
Before the first discard, players pass tiles to each other in a set pattern called the Charleston: three tiles to the right, three across, three to the left. A second round and a small courtesy pass can follow. It's how you trade away tiles you don't want for tiles you might. Jokers can never be passed. The Charleston, pass by pass.
A turn
Play moves counterclockwise around the table. On your turn you draw a tile from the wall, then discard one face up and name it. Your hand stays at 13 tiles between turns; you only hold 14 at the moment you win.
Calling a discard
When someone discards, any other player can call the tile if it completes a group they're building: a pung (3 of a kind), a kong (4), a quint (5) or a sextet (6). The caller places the finished group face up on their rack, where everyone can see it. That's an exposure, and it can't be taken back. Then the caller discards, and play continues from them.
You can't call a discard to make a pair or a single tile, unless that tile finishes your whole hand for Mahjong. The same goes for a set of one of each wind (North, East, West, South): callable only for Mahjong.
If two players want the same discard, a call for Mahjong wins over a call for an exposure. If both calls are the same kind, the player whose turn comes next after the discarder gets it.
Concealed hands
Hands marked C on the card must be built entirely from tiles you draw. You can't expose anything along the way. The only discard you may call is the last tile, for Mahjong.
Jokers
Jokers fill in for any tile in a group of three or more. They can't be used in a pair or as a single. If another player has exposed a joker standing in for a tile you hold, you can swap your tile for it on your turn. Joker rules.
Dead hands
A hand is dead when it can no longer become any hand on the card, for example because what you've exposed matches nothing on it, or when a player has the wrong number of tiles. A dead hand can't win, and the player still pays the winner. Tables differ on whether a dead player keeps drawing and discarding.
Winning and paying
When your 14 tiles match a hand on the card, call Mahjong and show your hand. The hand's value is printed on the card. If you won on someone's discard, the player who threw it pays you double and the others pay single. If you drew the winning tile yourself, everyone pays double. A hand won without any jokers is worth double.
If the wall runs out before anyone wins, it's a wall game. Nobody pays, and the next hand is dealt.
How it works in Mahjong Alley
The app builds the wall, deals, and keeps score in points. It plays by these rules, so you can't make an illegal pass or call by accident, and the Mahjong button only works when your hand really matches, so there's no false Mahjong.
The Hands list tracks how many tiles you are from each hand, and you can pin up to two you're chasing and sort your rack toward them. If your exposures stop fitting any hand, the Hands bar tells you it's a dead hand. You play on to the end, but you can't win it.
Practice against three computer opponents at four levels: Easy, Medium, Hard and Expert. They only use what a person at the table could see: exposures, discards, and what they were passed. When you call Mahjong, your rack lines up in card order, one group at a time, the way you'd show your hand at a real table.