Mahjong 101: The Hands

The Mahjong Card is organized in categories but each year the specific hands are changed. They main categories of hands are:

YEAR – Year hands or other special hands are usually the current year.
These hands utilize tiles which make up the year: i.e., 1’s and 9’s.
for 1999, 2’s and 0’s for 2000. The white dragon represents a zero, as there is no tile with an actual zero.You cannot use a joker for any tile in a year; i.e., 2009.  They are considered singles and pairs.

2468 – Self-explanatory. Hands concentrate on even numbers.

MULTIPLICATION – These hands perform a type of multiplication, such as FFFF 5555 x 5555 = 25 . You would need four flowers, four fives of one suit, four fives of a second suit, and a 2 and a 5 of a third suit.  The colors only mean that it is a suit.  Green doesn’t mean it has to be a bam, for instance.  Three colors = three suits.  Two colors = two suits.  One color = one suit.

QUINTS – Quints (five of a kind) require the use of jokers, since there are only four of each number tile. However, a quint of five flowers is possible.

CONSECUTIVE RUNS – These hands require groups of number tiles in consecutive order, sometimes interspersed with flowers or dragons.

13579 – Again self-explanatory. Hands focus on odd numbers.

WINDS/DRAGONS – Hands made up primarily of wind and dragon tiles, sometimes interspersed with numbers or flowers. Winds and dragons may also be referred to as “honor” tiles.

369 – Guess which tiles you need for these hands!

SINGLES & PAIRS – Singles and pairs are the most difficult hands to attain, since you are not allowed to use jokers. The singles and pairs hands contain a representative sample of all the hands above; i.e., one wind hand, a consecutive run hand, a 2468 hand, etc.

Back to Mahjong 101: The Rules