American Mahjong Rules: A Beginner's Rulebook

This is the rulebook version of American Mahjong — every rule, organized by phase, kept short. If you want the game explained as a story, read our complete how-to-play guide; if you want to look something up, you're in the right place.

The objective

Be the first player to collect 14 tiles that exactly match one hand printed on the current year's NMJL® card. The card defines every legal hand — you can't invent your own combinations.

What you need

• 4 players (3 works with adjusted rules)
• An American Mahjong set — 152 tiles: 108 suit tiles, 16 Winds, 12 Dragons, 8 Flowers, 8 Jokers
• The current year's NMJL® card, one per player
• Racks, dice, and something to score with

Setup and the deal

Mix all 152 tiles face-down and build four walls, each 19 tiles long and 2 high. Roll dice for East, who breaks the wall and takes tiles first. The deal moves counter-clockwise until East has 14 tiles and everyone else has 13.

The Charleston

Before play begins, players pass unwanted tiles — three at a time — in a set sequence. The first Charleston (right, across, left) is required. A second (left, across, right) is optional, but once started it must be finished. Jokers can never be passed.

Taking a turn and calling

On your turn: draw a tile from the wall, then discard one face-up, naming it aloud. Any player can call the most recent discard to complete an exposed group of three or more identical tiles — the called group goes face-up on their rack, the caller then discards, and play continues to their right (anyone skipped in between loses their turn). The one exception: any discard — even a single tile or the other half of a pair — can be called if it completes your entire hand for Mahjong.

Jokers

Jokers stand in for any tile in a group of three or more identical tiles — a pung, kong, or quint. They can never fill a pair or a single, and they can't be passed in the Charleston. On your turn, you may swap a matching real tile for a Joker in any exposed group.

Winning

When your 14 tiles exactly match a complete line on the card, declare Mahjong and expose your hand. The table verifies it against the card. A hand that can no longer legally win is dead; if nobody wins before the wall runs out, it's a wall game and nobody pays.

Scoring basics

Each hand's value is printed on the card. In a win off a discard, the discarder pays double and the others pay the printed value. Self-draw and jokerless wins double payments further — the full system fits on one page.