Mahjong 101: Making Mahjong

When all thirteen (13) tiles match a hand on the card, and you either pick the 14th tile needed to complete the hand, or someone discards it, you may declare “Mahjong” and you are the winner.

Scoring is as follows:

If you make Mahjong on a discard, you are paid the value of the hand. Discarder pays double.

If you pick your Mahjong tile, you are paid double the value of the hand.
If you make Mahjong on a discard and you were bet on, you get double, and you share your winnings evenly with the bettor.

If you pick Mahjong and are bet on, you get four times the value of the hand, and share your winnings evenly with the bettor.

Jokerless hands pay double. If a player picked her own Mahjong tile and her hand is jokerless, she gets paid four times the value of the hand.

Table rules can be added, depending on the preferences of the players. Some people like to “mush” all their unwanted tiles together at the end of the first Charleston. If you put in three tiles, you get to pick three tiles out. Other table rules may include using a “hot wall” where when the picking and discarding gets down to the last wall, no one can call a tile unless it’s for Mahjong.

If you are playing with a bettor, East leaves the table and the bettor sits in.

Back to Mahjong 101: The Rules