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American Mahjong guides

Plain-English answers to the questions beginners ask, free, no signup, written by the school.

These are free plain-English guides to American Mahjong, the National Mah Jongg League game. A new player should start with the complete rules, then the beginner's guide to a whole game, the tiles, the set-up, a single turn, and how to read the card. The rest are grouped by question: the rules one at a time, the Charleston, jokers, playing better, players and game night, and the card and its history. Each one answers a single question in full, and none of them reproduce any year's card.

New to the game? Lesson 1 of the free course covers all 152 tiles and what each is called at the table, and you tap and build with them yourself. The first three lessons are free and need no account.

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New to the game? Start with what is hard and what is not, then read these in order: the rules, a whole game start to finish, the tiles, the set-up, a single turn, and how to read the card.

1Is American Mahjong Hard to Learn? What to Learn First, in OrderThe turn is simple and the card takes practice. What to learn first and in what order, how long it takes, and what you can learn free online.2American Mahjong Rules: The Complete Plain-English ReferenceEvery rule of American Mahjong in one place: players and tiles, the deal, the Charleston, drawing and discarding, calling, jokers, dead hands, winning, and scoring. Plain English, with links to the detailed guide for each.3How to Play American Mahjong: The Complete Beginner's GuideLearn American Mahjong step by step: the tiles, the deal, the Charleston, jokers, calling, and winning. A plain-English guide for total beginners.4American Mahjong Tiles, Explained: All 152, Suit by SuitEvery tile in an American Mahjong set: the three suits, winds, dragons (including the Soap), flowers, and jokers, what they look like and how they're used.5How to Set Up an American Mahjong Game: Wall, Deal, and SeatsEverything before the first discard: seating, choosing East, building the wall, breaking it, and dealing thirteen tiles. The setup, step by step.6What Happens on Your Turn, in OrderDraw, decide, discard. The details that decide arguments: your turn begins the moment you touch the wall tile, which also ends your chance to claim the discard, and the claim window closes when the next player racks or discards.7How to Read the Mahjong Card: The Notation, DecodedThe National Mah Jongg League card looks like code until someone decodes it. Here is what the numbers, colors, letters, and spacing actually tell you.

The rules, question by question

One rule each, answered in full, for the moment a question comes up at the table.

Pung, Kong, Quint, and Pair: The Sets That Make Up Every HandA pung is three identical tiles, a kong four, a quint five and a pair two. Jokers can fill all but the pair, and a quint needs at least one unless it is flowers.Calling and Exposing in American Mahjong: When, How, and When Not ToWhen you can call a discarded tile, how to expose it correctly, what calling costs you in information, and when to let a tile go by.Concealed Hands in American Mahjong: What the C on the Card MeansA concealed hand is built entirely in your own rack, and only the winning tile may be called. What C and X mean on the card, jokers, wrong calls and how it scores.How a Hand Ends: Mahjong, the Wall Game, and the Last DiscardA hand ends when someone declares mahjong or the wall runs out. What each ending pays, the final-discard exception worth knowing, and what to agree before you play.Dead Hands and Wrong Mahjong Calls: What Happens NextWhat makes a hand dead, what happens when someone calls mahjong incorrectly, who pays, and how a wall game ends. The rules for when things go wrong.American Mahjong Scoring: Who Pays What, and WhyHow American Mahjong hands are valued, who pays the winner, when payments double under League rules, and what a table still agrees before the first hand.Flowers in American Mahjong: What They Do and How to Use ThemWhat the eight flower tiles are for in the American game, how they appear on the card, whether they can be passed or called, and how to judge a lone flower.Dragons in American Mahjong: Which One Goes With Which SuitRed dragons go with craks, green with bams, white (soap) with dots. Dragons are never interchangeable, and a soap only becomes a zero when the card says so, at which point it stops being a dot.Winds in American Mahjong: The Seat and the Tile Are Two Different ThingsSixteen wind tiles, four each of North, East, West and South. Your seat wind decides who deals and the order of play. The card decides which wind tiles a hand needs, and those are separate questions.What Are the Blank Tiles in a Mahjong Set? Spares, the Soap and the House RuleThe League's rules have no blank tiles. Why a set comes with spares, how a blank differs from the soap, how the blanks house rule works, and what a table has to agree before it plays with them.Mahjong Rules Arguments, and What the Rules SayCan you take back a discard? Who gets the tile when two people call? Can you pass a joker? The questions tables argue about, with what the League's rules say on each.Tournament Rules vs Your Kitchen Table: What Actually ChangesThere is no single tournament rulebook: each director publishes their own. What changes most is the clock, a scoring system that penalises feeding the winner, and procedure that is enforced rather than negotiated.American Mahjong Terms: A Plain-English GlossaryCharleston, kong, soap, courtesy pass, wall game, dead hand. Every piece of table vocabulary a new American Mahjong player hears, in plain English.

The Charleston

The passing before play: the order, what to pass, the blind pass, stopping it, and the courtesy pass.

The Charleston in American Mahjong: Rules, Order & StrategyThe rules of the Charleston, from the pass order and the optional second Charleston to blind passes, the courtesy pass, and what you may never pass.What to Pass in the Charleston: A Method, Not a GuessPass the tiles that serve none of the directions you are still keeping. How to choose on each pass, what never to pass, and how to read what arrives.The Blind Pass in the Charleston: What It Is and When to Use ItA blind pass sends on tiles you received without looking at them. It is allowed only on the last pass of each Charleston, for one, two or all three tiles.Stopping the Charleston: Who Can Say Stop, When, and Whether You ShouldThe first Charleston is mandatory. Any one player can stop the second before it starts. The courtesy pass is still available either way. Here is how and when to use it.The Courtesy Pass: The Last Chance to Fix Your HandAn optional exchange with the player across from you after the Charleston ends. Each of you names a number from zero to three and the lower one is used. No joker may be passed in it.

Jokers

What a joker can and cannot stand in for, how the exchange works, and when to hold or spend one.

Joker Rules in American Mahjong: What Jokers Can and Can't DoThe joker rules of American Mahjong: where jokers work, why they can't fill pairs, when League rules allow a joker exchange, and why a discarded joker is dead.The Joker Exchange in American Mahjong: How Redeeming a Joker WorksWhen you can take a joker from someone's exposed set, exactly how the exchange works on your turn, what you can do with the joker afterward, and the mistakes that make an exchange illegal.Joker Strategy in American Mahjong: Holding, Spending, and StealingJokers are the only wild tiles in American Mahjong. When to spend one, when to hold, and how to protect them from redemption.

Playing better

How a hand is won, then choosing a hand, sorting the rack, switching, defence, and the mistakes new players make.

How to Win at American Mahjong: Strategy and Tips for BeginnersHow a hand is won, and the decisions that win more of them: choosing a direction, the Charleston, calling, jokers, defense and when to switch.How to Choose a Hand in American Mahjong (After the Deal)Sort the deal, count which card category the most tiles already serve, find a pair prospect, and let the Charleston choose between your top two directions.How to Sort Your Rack: The Ten Seconds That Decide the HandSort by suit, then by number, honours to one side, jokers apart. A sorted rack answers the card's questions. An unsorted one hides them.When to Switch Your Hand, and When to StayHow to tell a hand that is merely slow from a hand that is dead, what you can and cannot take back once you have exposed, and how to change direction without wasting the tiles you already hold.What Not to Discard: Defensive Play in American MahjongHow to read opponents' exposures, spot the tiles that win their hands, and play out a hand you cannot win without handing someone else the game.An Opponent Has Two Exposures: How to Read Their Hand and Play SafeRead the two exposures for the card section they point to, count what the player still needs, name the hot tiles, and decide whether to keep attacking or throw safe.Seven Beginner Mistakes in American Mahjong, and How to Fix ThemChasing two hands at once, hoarding jokers, passing the wrong tiles, exposing too early. The habits that cost beginners hands, and what to do instead.How to Get Better at American Mahjong Between Game NightsImprovement comes from reading deals, not memorising the card. Practise one hand a day, name your direction before you check, keep a record of when you were wrong, and study the hands you lost.

Players, sets and game night

How many can play, how long a game takes, buying a set, finding a group, hosting, teaching, and table manners.

How Many People Can Play American Mahjong?Four is the standard. The League's rules also cover three and two players, with no Charleston. With five or six, the extra players sit out in turn, and the bettor gives the player sitting out a stake in the hand.American Mahjong with Two Players: What Works and What ChangesThe League's rules include a two-player game: four walls, the normal deal, and no Charleston. Here is the setup, what changes, and how to use two-handed play as practice.Playing American Mahjong With Three Players (or Five)Someone cancelled and you are three. How the League's three-player game is dealt, why it has no Charleston, and how a fifth player sits out or bets.Can You Play American Mahjong Alone? How to Practice by YourselfThe League's rules have no one-player game, and four is the standard. What you can practice alone with a set, what needs other players, and how to practice online against bots.How Long Does a Game of Mahjong Take? One Game, a Round and a NightOne game of American mahjong is one hand. The time limit in the tournament rules, what it works out to per game, why some games run long, and how many games fit in a night at home.Buying Your First American Mahjong Set: What Actually MattersTile counts, racks and pushers, materials, cases, and what to check on an inherited set. A practical buying guide for American Mahjong.How to Find a Mahjong Club Near You (and Survive Your First Night)Where American Mahjong clubs hide, how to get invited, what to bring, and the etiquette that makes a beginner welcome back.How to Host a Mahjong Game Night People Come Back ToTable setup, timing, food that does not touch the tiles, handling mixed skill levels, and the small hosting choices that turn one night into a standing game.How to Teach American Mahjong to a Beginner in One EveningTeach the tiles by touch, play one open-rack hand with no Charleston, add the Charleston on hand two, and save the card's fine print for another night.American Mahjong Etiquette: The Unwritten Rules of the TableNaming discards, pace, touching tiles, coaching, money, and phones. The table customs to know before your first game.

The card, the name and the history

When the new card comes out, how the American game differs from the Chinese one and from mahjong solitaire, how to spell and say the name, and where the game came from.

When Does the New Mahjong Card Come Out? The 2027 CardThe League has not announced a 2027 date yet. Group orders for the 2027 card are already open, and Sharsheret says the League will mail it around April 2027, as it did the 2026 card.American vs. Chinese Mahjong: What's Actually Different?Jokers, the Charleston, the yearly card, racks, the concrete differences between American Mah Jongg and Chinese or Riichi mahjong, explained.Mahjong vs Mahjong Solitaire: Two Different Games With the Same TilesMahjong solitaire is a one-player matching game, and mahjong is a table game for four. How each is played, where solitaire came from, and how to start on the real game.Mahjong, Mah Jongg, or Mah-Jongg? The Spelling, SettledMahjong, mah jongg, mah-jongg, mahjongg, every spelling is 'right' somewhere. Here's where each comes from, what the League uses, and what to type when you search.How to Pronounce Mahjong, and Mah Jongg With Two G'sHow to say mahjong in English, whether the j is a j or a zh, why Mah Jongg with two g's sounds the same, and how the name is said in Mandarin and Cantonese.What Does Mahjong Mean? The Name, the Myth, and How It Reached AmericaMahjong means sparrow. The game is a 19th-century Chinese invention, not an ancient one, and the Confucius story is 1920s marketing. The American game took its shape in the 1930s and added joker tiles in 1961.

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