Guide
How to play American mahjong
American mahjong is a four-player game played with a yearly card. You sit with three friends, each behind a rack of tiles, and try to complete one hand from that card. This page is the flow of a game: what to set out, the deal, the Charleston, a turn, jokers, and how someone wins.
This is the American game tables in the United States play with a National Mah Jongg League card. It is not Chinese classical mahjong, and it is not Riichi. Those games use different tiles and no yearly card. NowMahj does not reprint the hands. They change every year, so read them on the card you brought.
On this page
What you need
You need four people, four racks, and a standard American set of 152 tiles. The set has three suits, often called cracks, dots, and bams, numbered from 1 through 9, plus winds, dragons, flowers, and jokers. There are four copies of each suit tile, each wind, and each dragon. Flowers and jokers are their own groups. Mahjong tiles explained names each group without drawing the card.
Each rack hides the faces from the other players. Most sets include four racks and a tray or two for the wall. Any table that seats four will do. You also need this year's card from the National Mah Jongg League. One line on that card is one complete hand. This page will not copy those lines or imitate the look of the card. Get it from the League at nationalmahjonggleague.org. If the card still looks dense, start with American mahjong for beginners.
Setup and dealing
Shuffle the tiles face down in the middle of the table until nobody can tell them apart by touch. Each player then builds a wall, two tiles high, in front of their rack. The four walls make a square.
Roll the dice to choose East, the dealer, and to find where the wall breaks. East deals from that break until everyone has a starting rack. East's rack is a little larger, because East discards first and evens the count.
Sort only your own tiles: suits together, then winds and dragons, then flowers and jokers. Keep the faces toward yourself. If a tile flips up, or two tiles stick together, fix the wall before the deal goes on. When the racks are full, nobody draws yet. The Charleston comes first.
The Charleston
The Charleston is a required exchange before the wall is played. You pass three tiles at a time, so the hand you play is not the hand you were dealt. The pass is how a scattered rack moves toward one line.
The first Charleston goes right, then across, then left. Read the tiles you receive before you choose the next three to send. Many tables then play a second Charleston and a courtesy pass across, where you may pass zero tiles, or one, or two, or three. The courtesy pass is optional. The first right, across, and left are not. The full order is on How the Charleston works.
Aim at one section, then one line those tiles can reach. Pass tiles that do not fit. Keep jokers. A joker is a poor gift to the player on your right. Before the last pass, name the section you are keeping, even if you only say it to yourself.
A turn: pick, discard, and calling
East starts by picking one tile from the wall and discarding one tile, face up, in the center. Play moves to the right. A normal turn is those two steps: pick one, then discard one. You skip the wall pick only when you call a discard, or when you declare a win.
Take the next tile in the wall, in order. If your table names discards out loud, say the tile and set it where everyone can see the face. Pause so someone can claim it.
Calling takes another player's discard when that tile completes a group your card lets you expose. An exposure sits face up on the rack and stays there. You cannot put it back in your hand. You do not call just because three tiles match. The card says which groups belong on the line you chose. If the discard does not complete one of those groups, leave it.
If two players want the same discard, a player who can win on it usually has the claim. If nobody calls, the next player draws. An exposure shows part of your hand. That is the cost. The benefit is a finished group. Read the line before your hand goes up.
Joker basics
Jokers are the wild tiles in the American set. There are eight. A joker can stand in for a missing tile inside a group of three or more, when the card allows that group. It cannot fill a pair, and it cannot fill a single tile the line asks for by itself.
Do not pass jokers during the Charleston or the courtesy pass. A joker you were dealt stays with you. Once a joker is exposed, a player who holds the real tile may trade it for that joker on their turn. The natural tile goes into the exposure, and the joker goes to their rack. That trade is a redemption, not a pass and not a call. A flower is not a joker. It is its own tile. Joker basics goes further. If your line has no group of three or more, a joker cannot invent one.
How you win
You win by declaring Mahjong when your rack matches one complete line on the card. Say it on your turn, when the tile you picked completes the line, or when you claim a discard that completes it, if the card allows that line to finish on a call. Say it before you throw a different tile.
Show the rack. The table checks it against the card. A finished hand uses every tile the line asks for, including exposures, and no extra tile. If it matches, you win the deal. If it does not, the declaration is dead. Check the card before you speak. You do not win by collecting the most groups. The card is the only list of winning hands.
If the wall runs out and nobody has declared, the deal is a draw. Shuffle and deal again. If your group keeps score, read each section's value on the card. NowMahj does not reprint those values.
Mistakes beginners make
The common miss is playing with no section. If you are still waiting to see what comes halfway down the wall, every discard is a guess. Choose a section during the Charleston. Change it if the wall breaks the plan, not on every pick.
Do not pass a joker, and do not pass a pair your line still needs, just to send a tidier group. A single tile the line asks for beats a group the line never uses. Calling too early tells the table your hand and locks tiles you might have discarded later. Call only for a group on the line you are playing.
Before you discard, look across the table. Exposures and a short rack usually mean that player is close. A safer discard is allowed. And do not play from last year's card, or from a list saved off a forum. A hand that was legal last spring can be dead this year. Keep the current League card where you can read it.
Practice it free
The two decisions that decide most games are which three tiles to pass, and which tile to discard. NowMahj is a practice coach for those calls. A full table is not open on the site yet, so the button below opens the waitlist. Leave your email and you will hear when the coach is ready.
Until then, the short guides beside this one go further: American mahjong for beginners, the tiles, the Charleston, and jokers.
Common questions
Do I have to use the National Mah Jongg League card?
Yes, if you want to play the way tables in the United States play. The League publishes the card each year. NowMahj is not the League and does not sell the card. Get it at nationalmahjonggleague.org.
How is American mahjong different from other mahjong?
Other games build a hand from sets that stay the same. American mahjong matches one line on a card that changes every year. The Charleston and the jokers belong to this game.
What happens if I expose the wrong group?
The exposure stays up. If that group is not on your line, you need a different line that can use it, or you are playing for a draw.
Can I win on someone else's discard?
Often, yes, when that discard is the last tile your line needs and the card allows a call to finish it. Some lines must be won by a pick from the wall. The card tells you which.
Where should a new player start?
Learn the tiles, then the Charleston, then one section of the card. The beginner guide is that path. Then practice which tiles to pass and which tile to discard.