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What is Mah Jong?

Mah Jong is a Chinese tiles game which is similar to the card game Rummy... but much more exciting and exotic.

I've been playing Mah Jong since I was a child - on account of my maternal-grandparents returning from Malaya in the 1950s with a set. Since marrying in 1999 I have introduced Jane to the game. I love the game... and Jane!

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Jane playing Mah Jongobject of the game

Mah Jong is very similar to the card game Rummy.

Setting up
A wall of 18 tiles is built, stacked two high. Dice rolls decide who is East Wind, and respectively South, West and North. Each player takes 13 tiles from the wall into your hand; East takes an extra tile, being the first to discard.

Play
As in Rummy you take a tile then discard a tile, so that you always have 13 tiles in your hand. There are rules about claiming discarded tiles from other players, with wonderful terms such as 'chow', 'pung' and 'kong' (see 'groups' below).

Winner
The object is to collect four groups of three tiles and an identical pair. The first person to have done so is said to go "Mah Jong".

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What are these tiles?

At first glance a Mah Jong set may look quite bewildering, but with a little familarisation and a couple of games it quickly begins to make sense.

Suits

First of all there are three suits (Dots, Bamboos and Characters). These are numbered 1 to 9, and there are four of each tile, so four ones, four twos, four threes ... four nines. So each suit consists of thirty-six (36) tiles.

Ones and nines - also known as terminals - are considered the most valuable tiles in these suits.

    Dots (or Balls, or Circles)

    intro-dots.gif - 4kb

    Bamboos (or Bams)

    intro-bamboos.gif - 4kb

    Characters (or Crak, or Wan)

    intro-chars.gif - 4kb

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Honours Tiles

Besides the 3 suits, there are 4 Winds and 3 Dragons. These are collectively known as Honours tiles. Once again there are four of each tile, giving a total of 16 Wind tiles and 12 Dragon tiles.

    Winds

    std-mj-east.gif - 1kb std-mj-south.gif - 1kb std-mj-west.gif - 1kb std-mj-north.gif - 1kb
    These are shown in the order of play: East, South, West and North. Again there are four tiles of each.

    Dragons

    std-mj-drgwht.gif - 1kb std-mj-drggrn.gif - 1kb std-mj-drgred.gif - 1kb
    There are three Dragons: White, Green and Red - and again four tiles of each.

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Bonus tiles

An optional addition to the game is the use of Seasons and Flowers.

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Tell me about Grouping Tiles

The object of the game is to collect four groups of tiles, plus a pair of identical tiles. These can be a group of three (a chow or pung) or four (a kong).

    Chow

    intro-chow.gif - 2kb
    A sequence of three tiles of the same suit is called a Chow. This example shows a chow of 1, 2 and 3 circles (or dots, or balls).

    Pung

    intro-pung.gif - 2kb
    A set of three identical tiles is called a Pung. This example shows a pung of 8 bamboos.

    Kong

    intro-kong.gif - 2kb
    A set of four identical tiles is called a Kong. This example shows a kong of 9 characters.

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