How to Play American Mahjong: A Complete Beginner's Guide

American Mahjong is a four-player game with one simple goal: be the first to collect 14 tiles that exactly match a hand printed on the National Mah Jongg League's annual card. Everything else — the tiles, the passing, the calling — serves that race. Here's the whole game, start to finish.

The tiles

An American set has 152 tiles: three suits (Bams, Craks, and Dots, numbered 1–9), four Winds (North, East, West, South), three Dragons, eight interchangeable Flowers, and eight Jokers. Jokers are the wild tiles — they can stand in for any tile in a group of three or more identical tiles, but never for a pair or a single.

The card

Every winning hand must match one complete line on the current year's NMJL® card. You can't invent your own combinations — the card defines what counts. The card uses a compact shorthand of colors, numbers, and letters, and learning to read it is the single most important beginner skill.

The Charleston

Before play begins, players pass tiles in a ritual called the Charleston. The first Charleston — three tiles right, three across, three left — is required. A second Charleston (left, across, right) is optional, but once it starts it must be completed. It's your chance to trade away tiles that don't fit your plan.

Taking a turn

Play moves counterclockwise. On your turn you draw a tile from the wall, then discard one face-up, naming it aloud. If another player's discard completes a group of three or more identical tiles for your hand — a pung, kong, or quint — you can call it, but you must expose that group face-up on your rack.

Winning

When your 14 tiles exactly match a line on the card, you declare Mahjong. The other players pay you based on the hand's printed value, and the discarder pays double if you won off a discard. Then the tiles go back in the middle and you play again.

Where to go from here

That's the skeleton — the fun is in the details. Our free lessons walk through each piece with interactive practice, from naming every tile to playing a full hand against the bots.