How to Play Mahjong – For Westerners.

When I was a kid, I was already well versed in the game of mahjong. My parents would host mahjong weekends, or we'd go to our relatives houses with mom and dad and a mahjong set in hand. I guess mahjong weekends in the western world would be akin to bridge playing. I wouldn't say it's like a poker weekend because even though poker has gone mainstream, it's still regarded as gambling. But don't get me wrong, in mahjong play money is still won or lost, but I think there's a more respected appeal for the older generation in exercising the mind.

So us kids would go along with mom and dad at their mahjong weekends. While they played, we'd hang with our cousins. When the adults broke for lunch, we'd scramble to the mahjong tables. The older kids soon taught me how to play.

There are variations in mahjong play and how you score. The best way I can compare this is that it's the same in poker as well, but no matter what rules you play by, the fundamentals are the same. I also won't go into how you start a mahjong game of "breaking the wall" as that's more of a ritual. Instead, let's focus on the basics of mahjong so we spread the word of how to play mahjong. To help westerners out, there are even American mahjong sets so they can read the tiles.

The game of mahjong is played by four people. Each person has thirteen tiles in his hands except for the person whose turn it is. He draws from the "wall" making it fourteen tiles. The object of the game is to have four melds of three tiles and a pair of the same tiles. The melds can be three of the same tiles or three tiles of a suit in numeric sequence. So 4 melds x 3 tiles + 2 tiles = 14 tiles.

If the person whose turn it is does not have this winning combination after drawing the tile, he will have to decide if he wants to keep the tile or discard it face up into the court yard for community play. If he keeps the tile in order to build his hand, he will have to choose another tile in his hand to discard.

Following the discard, the next player's turn to his right can pick up this tile if he can make a "Chow". That is, using that tile to make a meld of a numeric sequence in the same suit. If he can, he will lay his two tiles down face up in from of him and add the discarded tile. This will build toward his winning hand of 14 tiles. He must then also discard a tile from his hand since he inherited that discarded tile.

What takes precedence above this Chow is if any other player can make a "Pung" with the same discarded tile. That is, make a meld of 3 identical tiles. If any player can, he'll call it and display it face up in front of him. Again, because he inherited this tile, he needs to discard one out.

The play continues to the next person to his right and he draws from the wall if no other Chow or Pung is made. The whole process continues in turns.

Again, the object of the game is to make a winning combination of 4 sets of Chow or Pung (with or without help from the community yard) plus a pair for "Eyes". It should be noted that when a player is only missing one tile for the win, his win will take any precedent of a Chow or a Pung. Or he can win by himself with a draw from the wall.

In a nutshell, that's how you play mahjong. It might seem complicated and intimidating for beginners but it really is quite easy. I'd recommend buying a mahjong set and just try it out. It's a fun social game and it exercises the mind by calculating the odds. You can even disrupt other player's chances of winning with your tile discards. It really takes a lot of strategy. I'd highly recommend checking this great game we've inherited from the Orient.