The Basics of Learning Hong Kong Old Style Mahjong

Mahjong is a game for four players, although a few variants exist to play with fewer. In both the Hong Kong Old Style and Japanese Riichi rulesets (which are the ones we play with at McGill), the object of the game is to be the first player to complete a winning hand. In order to understand what a winning hand is, let's look at the material we'll be playing with.

MAHJONG TILES

Picture taken from Wikipedia.

There are three main suits in mahjong: The bamboo tiles, the character tiles, and the dot tiles. The dot tiles are likely the easiest to recognize: Just count up how many dots are on each tile. The bamboo are similarly easy to recognize. A tile with four bamboo sticks on it is the 4-bamboo. The only two likely to trip you up are the 8-bamboo (which has its eight sticks arranged in the shape of an M and a W), and the 1-bamboo (which is traditionally represented by a bird instead of a stick). If you can remember these exceptions, those two suits are simple.

The characters suit might seem more random and unintuitive. In reality, the bottom half of each character tile reads '10,000' in Chinese, and the top half counts from one to nine in Chinese. Fortunately, at the McGill Students' Mahjong Club, we have at least one set that numbers its tiles with Arabic numbers, so you don't have to know Chinese to play.

In addition to the three suits, there are two special groups of tiles called the 'honor tiles'. The wind honor tiles are written in Chinese, but again, we have a mahjong set at the McGill Students' Mahjong Club that includes the letters E, S, W, N on these tiles so you can recognize them. The dragon tiles are among the easiest to recognize: The Chinese word in red ink is the red dragon, the Chinese word in green ink is the green dragon, and the tile with a blue box around nothing is the white dragon.

Finally, we have the eight bonus tiles. You don't really need to pay attention to them since they aren't a big part of the rules (They're about as important to mahjong as the jokers are to playing poker), but I include them for the sake of clarity.

So, with the exception of the bonus tiles, there are four copies of every tile in a mahjong set. That means there are four 1-dots, four 7-characters, four red dragons, and so on.

(4 tiles) x (3 suits) x (9 values in each suit) = 108 suited tiles

(4 tiles) x (4 winds) + (4 tiles) x (3 dragons) = 28 honor tiles

108 suited tiles + 28 honor tiles + 8 bonus tiles = 144 tiles total

So there you have it, those are the 144 tiles that we'll be using to play mahjong. Now for the most important part: How to play?

HOW TO PLAY MAHJONG

Mahjong is a game similar to gin in America. Players will shuffle all the tiles together and use them to build a wall (comparable to the deck in card games). After cutting the wall, three players are dealt 13 tiles to form their starting hands, with the dealer taking 14 tiles to form his starting hand. The dealer will start the game by discarding one tile he doesn't want, then the next player will draw a tile. That player then discards one that she doesn't want, and the next player draws a tile, and so on. In this way, during your turn you should always have a hand of 14 tiles (from drawing), and during your opponents' turns, you should always have a hand of 13 tiles (from discarding).

This is important because a winning hand must contain 14 tiles arranged into four 'melds' of three tiles and a pair of two tiles. There are three types of melds: Runs, triplets, and quads (Though we use these terms for the sake of clarity in this guide, the official terms used by the McGill Students' Mahjong Club are respectively 'chows', 'pungs', and 'gongs').

• Runs, also called sequences, can only be made with suited tiles. A run is any three consecutive tiles in the same suit. For example, a 2-3-4 in the dots suit is a run, as is 7-8-9. On the other hand, a 9-1-2 would not be a valid run.
• Triplets are any three identical tiles.
• Quads are any four identical tiles. Since having a quad would otherwise make it impossible to have four melds and a pair (the fourth tile in the quad would have to come from one of your other melds), your hand size increases by one tile for every quad you make. So if you have one quad, instead of having 14 tiles during your turn, you would have 15.

Seems simple, doesn't it? One thing to quickly add is that bonus tiles are not used in melds or pairs. Instead, immediately after drawing a bonus tile, set it aside and draw another tile to replace it. Bonus tiles can never stay in your hand or be discarded, and only contribute to points.

Now we can get to the heart of the matter: Calling tiles. You are permitted to take the tile a player discards and add it to your hand if and only if one or more of the following conditions are met.

• It is your winning tile. If you are only one tile away from having four melds and a pair, you may declare "mahjong" and win if someone discards your winning tile.
• You already have a pair of tiles in your hand, and someone discards a copy of that tile. You may declare "pung" and take that tile. However, in return you must reveal that triplet and set it aside. That triplet is now considered an 'open meld'. Even if it wasn't your turn, the turn order skips to you, and you must now discard a tile in exchange for the one you took.
• You already have a triplet of tiles in your hand, and someone discards the last copy of that tile. You may declare "gong" and take that tile. You must then reveal that quad and set it aside, making it an 'open meld'. You may not declare "gong" like this with an open triplet, only with a closed triplet in your hand. Since your hand size increases by one for each quad you make, draw an additional tile. The turn order skips to you immediately, so you must then discard a tile to end your turn.
• You have two tiles in your hand to make a run, and the player to your left discards the third tile for that run. You may declare "chow" and take that tile, revealing your run and setting it aside as an 'open meld'. Since runs are easier to make than triplets or quads, you may only declare "chow" like this if the player on your immediate left discards the tile. Discard a tile to end your turn.

Alright, so we've got a lot of information there. New players very commonly misunderstand calling tiles, so let me clear up a few misconceptions about this right away.

• You have no obligation to call tiles if you don't want to. If you'd rather try to draw better tiles yourself, feel free to.
• You may not call a tile to form a pair, only to form a run, triplet, or quad. The only exception to this is if the tile you need to form your pair is your winning tile (That is, as soon as you put that tile in your hand, you've just completed your hand entirely).
• You may not take a tile from the discard pile unless you're calling a tile for a meld. You can't just add a tile to your hand because you want it. If you can't call a tile for a meld, you have to draw your tile instead.
• You do not have to reveal any melds that you draw on your own. Even if you draw a triplet of the red dragons, you should not reveal them. They are considered a 'closed meld' as long as you draw all the tiles for it on your own.
• You can only take a tile as it's discarded. If someone discards a north wind tile, and four turns later you get a pair of north wind tiles in your hand, it is too late to take that tile from the discard pile to make a triplet. You have to hope that either you can draw the last north wind tile, or that someone else will discard it later (at which time you *may* take it).

It does come up often that multiple people might all try to call on the same tile at once. Mahjong rates tile priority in the following way: If you're calling a tile for the win, "mahjong", then you get the highest priority. If you're calling the tile for a triplet or quad, then you get the next-highest priority. If you're calling the tile for a run, you get the lowest priority.

So no matter how bad you want to make that run, if anyone else can use that tile to make a triplet or a quad, they get first dibs on it (Since there are only four copies of every tile, it is impossible for two people to make a triplet/quad of the same tile). On the other hand, a winning hand trumps all. Whether you're using the tile to complete your last run, or a pair, or anything else, as long as it's your winning tile, you always get priority, no matter who discards it. And if more than one player tries to declare "mahjong" off of the same discarded tile, the winner is whoever is closest to the discarding player's right (That means whoever would take the next turn after the discarding player).

MORE SPECIFIC RULES

So you know the general idea of the game now, so let's explain exactly how it works. Before starting a game, randomly assign all four players their starting seat. The easiest way to do this is to shuffle one copy of each of the four wind tiles, and have each player randomly pick one. The dealer is absolutely ALWAYS the East seat. The South player always sits to the dealer's right, the West play sits across from the dealer, and the North player sits to the dealer's left. Keep in mind that this is the opposite way that these directions are arranged on a compass.

For starters, turn all the tiles face-down and set them all on the table. All four players manually shuffle the tiles together by pushing them around and around until they're all mixed. Once you think the tiles are adequately shuffled, grab 18 tiles at random and stack them side by side to form your side of the 'wall'. Then take 18 more tiles and stack them on top of your side of the wall. When everyone's done, the wall should be a square with all four side being 18 tiles wide and 2 tiles high.

The dealer rolls the dice and, starting with himself as one and going counter-clockwise, counts the players until he reaches the rolled number. So, on a roll of 5, 9, 13, or 17, the dice would select the dealer himself. Rolling a 6, 10, 14, or 18 would select the South player. A 3, 7, 11, or 15 would select the West player. And finally, a 4, 8, 12, or 16 would select the North player.

An example of the dice rolling an 8, selecting the North player. Image taken from http://www.mahjonged.com

In this case, the dice rolled 8. So the North player would count eight stacks of tiles from the right side of his wall, and make a small gap in between the eighth and ninth stack of tiles. This is called 'breaking the wall' and is the equivalent of cutting the deck in card games. The tiles to the left of the break are considered the front/top of the wall, and the tiles to the right of the break are considered the end of the wall, called the backwall.

Now that the wall is broken, dealing begins. The East player always starts by taking the first four tiles at the front of the wall (in two stacks of two). Then the South player takes the next four, then the West player, then the North player. All four players repeat this two more times, so everyone has 12 tiles in their hand. Then, still in the East-South-West-North order, all players draw one more tile, bringing their total to 13. To start the game, East alone draws one final tile.

An example of the opening deal, if the dice rolled a 12. Image taken from http://mahjong.wikidot.com

Before any discards are made, all players should reveal any bonus tiles that they have drawn. First, if East has any bonus tiles, he replaces all of them. Then the South player, then West, then North. If any of the replacement tiles they drew were also bonus tiles, they replace these too immediately after everyone has replaced the tiles from their initial draw.

Keep in mind that whenever you replace a tile in your hand, whether it's from a bonus tile or for making a quad, you must draw your replacement tiles from the *end* of the wall, the opposite side you normally use for drawing tiles.

The next thing to go into detail about is the difference between an open meld and a closed meld. If you take someone's discard to make a run, triplet, or quad, you must reveal the meld that you made by taking the discard. You may never discard a tile from an open meld, but you are always allowed to discard tiles from closed melds in your hand. You may not take tiles out of open melds or rearrange them into different melds, even if you want to. Once you take a discarded tile, you are making a promise to use that meld in your hand, and that promise must be kept.

Another quick thing to go into detail on is the different types of quads you can make. There are three types of quads in total, though they all play identically in the end: Once you make a quad, you always draw a replacement tile from the end of the wall.

• An open quad. You have a closed triplet in your hand and someone discards the fourth copy of that tile, you may choose to call out "gong" and make your quad an open meld.
• A concealed quad. If you're lucky enough to draw all four copies of a tile, you may declare "gong" and set them all to the side, face-down, and draw a replacement tile. Though these tiles are considered closed for scoring purposes, they are treated like an open meld in that you may no longer discard any of them or rearrange them into any other forms. If you choose to make a concealed gong, you have to stick to that decision. Of course, at the end of the hand, you must reveal your concealed quad to prove that you weren't cheating.
• A promoted quad. If you have an open triplet and you personally draw the fourth copy of that tile, you may declare "gong" and set that tile to the side with the open triplet. Keep in mind that, in the incredibly unlikely chance that someone is waiting on that tile to complete their hand, they are allowed to declare mahjong when you make a promoted quad as if you had discarded that tile. It is worth bonus points to win in this way (Though in my entire mahjong history, I have seen it happen a total of one time).

Finally, there is one common exception to the 'four melds and a pair' rule of mahjong. If you can make a hand out of seven distinct pairs of tiles (that means no quads), that is also considered a winning hand. This one can be hard to make since, because you cannot take discarded tiles to make a pair, you must draw all of the tiles in this hand on your own (with the possible exception of the last winning tile, which can always be taken from a discard).

ENDING THE GAME

If a hand ends without any players winning (all of the tiles have been drawn and no one has successfully made a winning hand), the hand is considered a draw and redone. Regardless of whether the hand ends in a draw or someone declares "mahjong", all players work together to turn the tiles face-down, shuffle the tiles, and rebuild the walls like before.

If the round ended in a draw or the dealer wins, nothing special happens. But if any other player won, the winds shift counter-clockwise. The South player becomes the new dealer, the West player becomes the new South player, and so on. Once the winds shift four times, so that the starting dealer becomes the dealer again, something called the 'table wind' shifts. The table wind is only really important for scoring points, but also keeps track of how close the game is to ending. The table wind always starts as east, then shifts to south, then west, then north. Once the north table wind would shift again, the game is finished completely. In other words, a full game of mahjong last until the winds shift 16 times (so the players play 16 hands, plus one extra hand for every time there is a draw or the dealer wins a hand).