152 tiles, and what each family does
An American mahjong set is larger than a Chinese set. Count it once and the night gets quieter: three suits, four of every number from 1 to 9, make 108 suit tiles. Four winds, four of each, make 16. Three dragons, four of each, make 12. Eight flowers. Eight jokers. 108 + 16 + 12 + 8 + 8 = 152.
- Craks are the character suit. The Chinese numeral is black, 萬 under it is red, and a small red index sits in the corner. Players also say characters.
Craks. A black numeral, then a red 萬. - Bams are bamboo. Count the green sticks. Players also say bamboos.
Bams. Count the sticks. - Dots are circles. Count the pips. A red pip often marks the center of 1, 5, 7, and 9.
Dots. Count the circles. - Winds are East, South, West, and North. Your seat wind does not pay a bonus by itself. Winds are tiles a printed line might ask for.
East, South, West, North. - Dragons are Red (中), Green (發), and White. The white dragon is often a blue rectangle, and tables call it Soap.
Red, green, and white. The white one is Soap. - Flowers are eight picture tiles. In American play they are interchangeable: any flower matches any flower a line asks for.
Flowers match each other in American play. - Jokers are wild only inside groups of three or more identical tiles. The joker lesson is the place to test that.
Eight of these are in the set. This is one.
What a rack is holding
Deal 13 tiles to each player. Sort them. Suits together, honors together, jokers at one end where your hand will not pass them by mistake. The Charleston happens while everyone still has 13. After it, East draws one tile. A winning hand is 14 tiles, counting anything exposed on the rack.
How a line is read
A line is a recipe for those 14 tiles. It is not an invitation to build any four sets and a pair. If the recipe says two flowers and pungs of 2, 4, 6, and 8 in one suit, tiles outside that recipe are passengers. Our coached hand uses this original practice line, written for teaching:
That is 2 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 = 14. It is not a National Mah Jongg League hand. At a real table you follow the current card instead, and you follow the section rules printed on it, including whether a line may be exposed.
Names you will hear
A pung is three identical tiles. A kong is four. A quint is five, which is why jokers and the extra tiles exist. A pair is two, and a joker cannot sit in a pair. “Soap” means the white dragon. “The card” means the year’s list of winning lines. “Dead” is what players call a hand that has exposed a group the card cannot use. Learn the exposures slowly; the first night is for naming tiles and passing them.