By calling “chow”
Only the player whose turn it is may form a chow by using the last discarded tile. To do so the player must call chow then lay the 3 tiles face up on the table in front of him and discard an unwanted tile.
A player can only claim one chow in a session.
By calling “pung”
Anyone who can make a pung from the last discarded tile may do so by calling pung, laying the 3 tiles face up on the table then discarding an unwanted tile.
The turn then passes to the player on right of the one who has punged. So any intervening players miss a turn.
By calling “Mah-Jong”
Anyone who can make Mah-Jong from the last discarded tile can do so to end the game.
(Of course, Mah-Jong may also come from someone picking a tile from the wall).
When there is contention
It is possible that more than one player may want to claim the same tile. The rules of precedence are as follows:
An exposed chow
An exposed pung
A pung or kong takes precedence over a chow.
Mah-Jong takes precedence over a chow, pung or kong.
If more than one player can make Mah-Jong with the discarded tile, then the nearest player to the right of the discarder (i.e. going in an anti-clockwise direction) takes precedence.
Obtaining a New Tile
The most common way in which the game proceeds is by the player whose turn it is picking up a tile from the start of the live wall. It may be discarded or kept in hand and another discarded.
The player should describe the discarded tile, for example “Red Dragon”.
This routine is only interrupted when a player claims the discarded tile by a chow, pung or kong (or by going Mah-Jong ).
By calling “kong”
Anyone who can make a kong from the last discarded tile may do so by calling kong then laying the tiles on the table (3 face-up and an outer one face-down).
Because an extra tile is required for a kong the player must now pick up a tile from the kong box and discard an unwanted one.
The turn then passes to the player on right of the one who has konged and any intervening players miss a turn.
An exposed kong
(a run of 3 tiles in the same suit)
(3 identical tiles)
(4 identical tiles)