Mah Jong Rules

Mah Jong Rules

There are many different kinds of mah jong rules to play by. The one you pick will probably have a strong impact on the overall feel of the game.

mah-jong-5Of the many different kinds of mah jong instruction, the most popular Eastern versions are:

  • Hong Kong Old Style
  • Chinese Classical
  • Zung Jung
  • Japanese
  • Taiwanese
  • Singaporean/Malaysian

In America, mah jong became very popular in the mid-1930s. The most popular version of mah jong played in America is by something called the National Mah Jong League.

Please visit the NMJL page for more details on this version of mah jong. Please note that clicking on this link will open a new browser window.

Eastern/Chinese Mah Jong

A lot of the Chinese and Eastern-style mah jong rules share a majority of the rule set.

Essentially, the game is about collecting sets of tiles to make a legal hand.

On your turn, you draw from the wall and see if you can go out or make a valid meld. If you can, you either declare “Mah jong”, to win, or show your meld. Then you discard.

Depending on the ruleset, players will continue to play until

  • the tiles run out
  • a player makes a certain number of points
  • a player declares “Mah jong”

A player can only claim the last discard. Any discard left on the table becomes dead and unable to be used when building sets.

Hong Kong Old Style (HKOS)

mah-jong-6Most players in North America are likely to be introduced to the Hong Kong Old Style of mah jong rules. This is quite popular and it is easy to pick up.

Unfortunately, when introduced to these rules, players will not know that there are other ways to play this game.

The HKOS scoring system consists of making certain “point value” hands. The goal is to collect particular tiles in certain patterns which give the greatest number of points.

A simple scoring system for HKOS is here:

  • Pung/Kong of Dragons: 1
  • Pung/Kong of Seat/Prevailing Wind: 1
  • Seat Flower/Season: 1
  • All Flowers/Seasons: 2
  • No Flowers/Seasons: 1
  • All Chow Hand: 1
  • All Pung Hand: 3
  • One Suit + Honours: 3
  • One Suit: 6
  • Win on Self-Draw: 1
  • Out on Last Tile of Wall: 1
  • Out on Last Discard: 1
  • Out by Robbing a Kong: 1
  • Out on Supplement Tile: 1
  • 7 Pairs: 4

Even though the heading says “Simple Scoring”, scoring any hand is a tricky business unless you have had some experience with it.

Maximum Point Hands

  • Hidden Treasure
  • 3 Great Scholars
  • Little 4 Winds
  • Big 4 Winds
  • All Honours
  • All Terminals
  • 9 Gates
  • 13 Orphans
  • All Kongs
  • Heaven’s Blessing
  • Earth’s Blessing

Payout/Penalties

  • Only winner is paid.
  • Self-Draw: Everyone pays double.
  • Win on Discard: Discarder pays double, other two pay value of hand.
  • False Declaration of Mah Jong: Declarer pays everyone minimum value (includes going out with less than minimum points)

Miscellaneous

  • Dead wall is 14 tiles long.
  • Break wall using the values from 3 dice