MAHJ — Lesson 4

Setup & Dealing

From a pile of tiles to "Charleston, ready?"

Goal: Confidently set up a fresh game from scratch — mix the tiles, build the wall, roll for East, break the wall, and deal

Estimated time: 8–11 minutes

Prerequisite: Lesson 3

Unlocks: Lesson 5

Why it matters: Setup is where new players feel the most lost. After this lesson you'll be able to set up the table — something even some intermediate players get wrong.

Step 1 of 12

🪑 Where We're Going

Before you can play a hand, four things have to happen:

  1. Mix — shuffle all 152 tiles face-down
  2. Build — arrange the tiles into 4 walls
  3. Pick the Dealer (East) — roll dice to decide who deals first, or pick by group convention (some groups make the host East by default)
  4. Break & Deal — break the wall, each player takes tiles (13 each, 14 for East)

Sounds like a lot, but each step takes seconds once you've done it. We'll walk through them one at a time.