Mah-Jong - British Rules - Beginners

First, determine who is to be North, South, East and West Wind.

If there are 3 players they choose from 3 winds, which must include East.

If there are 2 players they choose from West and East winds.

Stage 2 - Introducing the Winds and some Scoring

The game is changed to introduce the Winds and the correct way to deal out the tiles.

Playing the game

Play is started by East Wind discarding one of his tiles. The game then continues as previously described until someone goes Mah-Jong. There is no scoring if the game is drawn.

Note that an exposed set is one that has been punged or chowed and placed on the table for the other players to see. A concealed set is one that remains in the hand until the end of the game.

After Mah-Jong has been declared each player places his hand on the table. The tiles of exposed pungs are all set face-up. A concealed pung has the middle tile turned face-down.

Scoring

Each player is given some paper to record his score. It should show two columns headed “Paid” and “Received”. Some more paper to add up the scores is also useful.

Pungs

Exposed Concealed

Minor tiles 2 points 4 points

Major tiles 4 points 8 points

Concealed minor pung 4

Concealed major pung 8

Chows

No points are scored for chows (exposed or concealed).

For the player who goes Mah-Jong

He receives 20 points. Another 2 points are given if the winning tile was drawn from the wall.

Pairs of Honour tiles

2 points are scored for a pair of Dragons, for a pair of East Winds (the prevailing wind) or for a pair of the player’s own wind.

A pair of Dragons

A pair of East Winds

A pair of the player’s own wind

Pung of the player’s own Wind

Pung of the East Wind

Pung of Dragons

First, work out the basic score for each player as follows:

Then, double each player’s basic score for each of the following types of honour tile pungs.

So if a player has a basic score of 10 points and gets 2 doubles, his final score is 40 points.

If the player who is East Wind collects a pung of East Winds then that counts as 2 doubles; one because it’s the player’s own wind and one because it’s the prevailing wind.

Doubling could take a player’s score over 1,000 points. However, the score awarded is never more than this amount. There is a limit of 1,000 points to avoid excessive scores.

Finally, settle up by exchanging points.

The player who goes Mah-Jong is paid first by each player. He should note of the number of points won in the “Received” column and the other players should note their losses in the “Paid” column.

The players who didn’t go Mah-Jong then exchange points based on the differences in their scores. When you’ve stop playing the columns can be summed.

Next session

If the player who was East Wind declared Mah-Jong, or the game was drawn, then he remains East Wind. If another player declared Mah-Jong, the winds rotate in an anti-clockwise fashion so that the player who was South Wind now becomes East Wind.

When there are fewer than four players, East Wind always exists.

A limited form of scoring is introduced. This changes the nature of the game. Rather than simply aiming to go Mah-Jong, the goal is to obtain more points than anyone else. It’s reckoned over one or more sessions. A session ends when someone goes Mah-Jong or the game is drawn.

These changes are added to the previous rules, replacing some as indicated.