What is American Mahjong?

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American Mahjong, sometimes called Maahj, is an offshoot of the traditional Chinese game of Mahjong. In the 1920s, Joseph Park imported Mahjong sets into the US, and Americanized the classic ruleset with tailored modifications. These rules went on to be the American standard for decades to come, even resulting in the formation of the National Mah Jongg League (NMJL). Now, American Mahjong is played in households and tournaments across the globe, even having a cult following in certain provinces of China.

How to play American Mahjong?

American Mahjong is a 4-player game. All modifications to the rules of classic Mahjong seek to streamline the more complicated parts of Mahjong, resulting in a more fast-paced game.

American Mahjong is a game for 4 players, seated around asquare table. All you need to play American Mahjong are:

• AnAmerican Mahjongset
• 2dice
• 4scoring cards
• Scoringsticks, coins or chips

The Tiles

The American Mahjong tiles, split across the following 4 groups:

Tiles fromthe Dots, Bamboo and Character suits are described by their rank and suit. MostAmerican Mahjong sets have a number on a corner of the suited tiles forsimplicity. The ranks are the number shown on the tile, so the ‘3 Bamboo’ tileis the Bamboo tile of rank 3; and the ‘5 Character’ tile is the Character tileof rank 5.

The Windand Dragon tiles do not have ranks. The Wind tiles describe the 4 cardinaldirections in Chinese characters, 東 for East, 南 for South, 西 for West, 北 for north. The Dragon tiles are described bytheir color, and include the Red 中 (center), Green 發 (wealth) and White tiles, sometimes illustrated with a blue frame, knownas the 板.

The Flowerand Season tiles are the only tiles without duplicates in the set, andillustrate one of the 4 seasons or the 4 gentlemanly flowers from classicChinese literature.

Finally,the Joker tiles are the most distinct difference in American Mahjong. The jokers act similarlyto how they work in Poker, and can act as a substitute for any other tile inPungs (3 identical tiles), Kongs (4 identical tiles), Quints (5 identicaltiles) and Sextets (6 identical tiles).

The Pre-game

Thepreliminary stages of the game involve the preparation of the board anddetermination of turn order. This is summarized below:

1. All152 tiles are placed face down and shuffled.
2. Eachplayer builds a wall of 38 tiles, arranged 19 tiles across, 2 tiles high. Eachwall is placed in front of the building player.
3. Eachplayer throws two dice, and the player with the highest number becomes the EastWind player (the dealer).
4. Startingfrom the East Wind player in anticlockwise order, the players are assigned theWinds of South, West and North.
5. TheEast Wind player rolls two dice and counts the number from the right end ofhis/her wall. The player then breaks the wall by taking 4 tiles (2 stacks fromthe broken end of the wall).
6. Inanticlockwise order, each player takes 4 tiles until each player has 12 tiles.
7. Eachplayer then draws 1 tile in order, the East Wind player draws an additionaltile.
8. TheEast Wind player has 14 tiles, and the other players have 13 tiles.
9. Eachplayer arranges their hand to match winning hands from the score cards.

The Charleston

Before theactual gameplay commences, AmericanMahjong includes a mulligan stage known as The Charleston. This compulsorystage offers players the opportunity to swap tiles with the other players.

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The FirstCharleston proceeds as follows for each player:

1. Pass3 tiles face down to the player on their right.
2. Pass3 tiles face down to the player at the opposite end of the table.
3. Pass3 tiles face down to the player on the left.

Players can‘blind pass’ up to 3 tiles, which is to take the tiles received and immediatelypass them without looking at them.

TheCharleston can be repeated a second time if all players agree, and proceeds likethe First Charleston, but in reverse order. Finally, one may make a ‘courtesypass’ at the end of the second Charleston, where two players sitting across thetable agree to exchange up to three tiles.

The game ofMahjong now begins.

The Goal

In American Mahjong, the goal is to assemble a winning hand as listed in the score book. These winning hands generally consist of combinations of sets, each consisting of 2 or more matching identical tiles. The accepted sets are listed below:

The Turns

Eastcommences the game by discarding a tile, and the turn then passes to the nextplayer in anticlockwise order. The next player the draws a card from the wall,continuing where the wall break left off. This turn sequence repeats unless aplayer claims a discarded tile with a call.

A playermay call a discarded tile if it can be used to complete a Pung, Kong, Quint, Sextetor any other combination of an exposed hand. Exposed hands are hands thatinclude sets that have been revealed. Due to the nature of calling in AmericanMahjong, a player must reveal the set completed with the claimed tile, exposingpart of their hand. Calls can also be used to win by completing a winning hand.The turn then passes to the calling player, skipping other players that may havehad a turn.

Once a setis revealed, those tiles cannot be changed or discarded for the remainder ofthe game, except for replacing jokers.

The Jokertiles can be used in place of any tile in a Pung, Kong, Quint or Sextetcombinations. Due to the lack of the ‘straight’ sets, or chow from other Mahjong variants, Joker tiles are necessary tocomplete sets. If another player has an exposed set that uses a Joker tile, youcan replace it with the corresponding substitute tile in the following process:

1. Drawa tile or claim a discard at the start of a turn.
2. Replacethe Joker with the substituting tile or tiles.
3. Discardtiles to maintain the right tile count of 13 at the end of a turn.

ManagingJokers is key in winning a game of American Mahjong.

Ending

The gameends when a player calls Mahjong after assembling a winning hand. Since winninghands consist of 14 tiles, that means one can only win at the start of theirturn during the draw or claiming discards.

In the casewhere all tiles have been drawn from the wall, once the final discard is madewithout a winning claim, the game ends in a draw.

On the nextgame, the player Winds and turn order rotate anticlockwise.

Rules

The American Mahjong rules follow those set by the National Mah Jongg League. The main rules cover winning hands and call priority. There are also specific rulings with regards to mistakes made during play.

Winning Hands

American Mahjong winning hands are updated annually and published by the National Mah Jongg League.

Call Priority

In the casewhere multiple calls are made on a discarded tile, the priority is as follows:

• Playerswho can win via the discarded tile wins the call.
• Ifno calls are to win, the player closest in turn order wins the call.

Penalties

When mistakes are made during the game, there are specific rulings for penalties. The list of standard guidelines are as follows:

• Accidental discard has touched the table: The tile cannot be recalled.
• A tile has been incorrectly announced: The tile cannot be claimed.
• A tile is claimed but an incorrect exposure is made: The exposure can be corrected.
• A player has the incorrect number of tiles: The player’s hand is deemed dead and the player is out of the current round. However, the player still needs to pay the winner.
• Three or more players have an incorrect number of tiles: The game is restarted.
• A player’s hand is impossible based on the tiles revealed on the board: The game is restarted.
• A player declares Mahjong incorrectly but has yet to reveal his: The game continues without penalty.
• A player declares Mahjong incorrectly and has revealed his hand: The player’s hand is dead.

Summary

In summary,the American Mahjong rules are:

1. Atthe start of the game, each player draws 13 tiles from the wall, the East Windplayer draws an extra tile.
2. TheCharleston stage commences.
3. Ifall players agree, the Second Charleston stage commences.
4. Iftwo players agree, they can do courtesy swaps of up to 3 tiles.
5. TheEast Wind player discards one tile.
6. Thediscarded tile can be called with Pung, Kong, Quint or Sextet to complete thecorresponding set.
7. Thecalling player must reveal the completed set.
8. Ifthe discarded tile is not called, the turn order follows in an anticlockwiseorder.
9. Aplayer wins when a winning hand is assembled as stated in the National MahJongg League score card.
10. Thewinning player becomes the new East Wind player and dealer.
11. Ifall tiles are drawn from the wall and no players have a winning hand, the roundis a draw.
12. Theturn order and Winds rotate anticlockwise for the next game.

Scoring

American Mahjong scoring is done based on the American Mahjong score cards.Certain hands are granted higher score values, and hence receive more duringthe payout after winning. Furthermore, depending on the conditions of the win,the losing players may need to pay double or even four times the value of thehand.

Thepayout for each Mahjong is listed below:

• Winning hand off a discard:
  • Discarding player pays the winnerdouble, and the rest of the players pay the normal value.
• Winning hand off a draw fromthe wall:
  • All players pay double.
• Winning hand off a discard,has no jokers, and not from the Singles and Pairs category of the score card:
  • Discarding player pays 4 times thevalue of the hand, other players pay double.
• Winning hand off a draw fromthe wall, has no jokers, and not from the Singles and Pairs category of the scorecard:

All players pay 4 times the value of the hand.

Hands

American Mahjong hands depend on the current NMJL scoring standards andis updated annually. One of the standards list of all winning hands is includedin the External Links section of the guide.

As a quick introduction, a few example winning hands from the 7 main hand-types are shown below:

Year hands – based on the current year:

All tiles are of rank 2, 1 and 8. The White Dragon tile acts as the 0.2

Even number hands – based on even numbers in suits:

All tiles are even numbered (2, 4, 6, 8) or from Honor tiles.

Seven hands – based on multiplication and addition of certain numbers:

The 1 and 6 tiles add up to 7, and the remaining tiles are numbered 7.

Quint hands – based on quints which require Joker tiles:

Contains 2 quints, one pung and two singles.

Consecutive hands – consists of combinations of consecutive numbers regardless of suit:

Valid regardless of suit, but cannot wrap around the terminal tiles (rank 1 and 9).

Odd number hands – based on odd numbers in suits:

All tiles are odd numbered (1, 3, 5, 7, 9) or from Honor tiles.

Wind hands – based on the Wind and Dragon combinations:

All tiles are from the Wind or Dragon tile groups. Flower and Seasons are also accepted.

369 hands – Hands based on multiplication of 3 in suits:

All tiles are multiples of 3 (1, 3,6, 9).

Singles and pairs – specific hard-to-assemble hands that do not allow use of Jokers:

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All tiles are pairs, with the finalpair completed with a called discard.

Strategy

• Focus on the Charleston stage, as it offers anopportunity to replace 3 tiles from your hand at a time. Once the game begins,you can only replace a single tile per turn.
• One of the best American Mahjong strategy tips is to think aheadbefore making moves, as skilled players can predict your hand based on yourdiscard and calls, allowing them to prevent your victory with careful discards.
• Manage your Joker tiles. Since Joker tiles cansubstitute any tile, do not hesitate to break up your pungs or quints to usethe Joker for another set.
• Take care before calling a discard. One your hand isexposed, you cannot re-conceal it. You have a smaller selection of tiles todiscard and you lock yourself out of many concealed-only winning hands.

Frequently Asked Questions

I don’t have a Mahjongset; can I still play AmericanMahjong?

Due to the unique properties of the Joker tiles, American Mahjong cannot be played with Chinese or Japanese Riichi Mahjong sets. The alternative is to use a simulator, which are freely available online. A popular simulator is linked in the External Links section of the guide.

How to play American Mahjong with 3 players?

American Mahjong was designed to be played by 4 players.However, the rules are adaptable to be played with any player count from 2onwards. It should be noted that games might be longer or shorter based on theplayer count.

Are there alternate rulesetsin American Mahjong?

Due to therapidly changing official ruleset, many players play with older, outdatedrulesets. Some players also prefer the special poker-Mahjong hybrid that uses thepoker cards on the tiles. This has found success in casinos across the world.

What is the difference between American andChinese Mahjong?

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Chinese Mahjong does not use the Joker tiles, and allows for the formation of the chow combination, which are straights of 3 tiles. Also, the Chinese version involves a more elaborate pre-game to determine the turn order and tends towards longer games.

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