Starting the Game
East Wind chooses one tile from his hand and discards it by placing it face-up inside the walls.
A discarded tile is dead (plays no further part in the game) unless it is claimed immediately.
Turns move in an anti-clockwise direction (to the right), so it’s normally South Wind’s turn next to obtain and discard a tile.
However, to appreciate what can happen next you need to understand what is involved in collecting sets, claiming a chow, pung or kong, and declaring Mah-Jong.
Collecting Sets
You build up sets by obtaining and discarding one tile at a time. The discarded tile is placed face up inside the walls. You can, of course, discard the tile you’ve just acquired.
Chows
A chow does not score, so it is only useful in that it may allow a player to call “Mah-Jong”.
Only one chow is allowed in a hand and it’s not allowed when there are only 3 players.
There are a number of special hands which, because they are unusual, score 500 or 1,000 points.
1,000 points is the maximum that can be scored in any one hand so, not surprisingly, a lot of luck is required to go out with such a hand.
Some of these special hands do not conform to the 4 sets and a pair described above but, nevertheless, allow you to declare Mah-Jong. Collecting such hands is risky because, if you are not successful, you could end up with a hand which is worth no points.
Chow
Pung
Kong
Types of sets
There are 3 types:
Chow - a run of 3 tiles in the same suit
Pung - a set of 3 identical tiles
Kong - a set of 4 identical tiles
Sets and “Mah-Jong”
The aim is to arrive at 4 sets, plus a pair of identical tiles – this is Mah-Jong.
There is no discard after the final tile is acquired to make a Mah-Jong.
