Quick answer
One of four players is East, the dealer, and for the first hand the highest roll of the dice decides who. Each player builds a wall nineteen tiles long and two high, 152 tiles in all. East rolls the dice to choose where the wall breaks. Players take four tiles at a time, East first, until each holds twelve, then one more each, and East takes an extra to start with fourteen. East goes first, with the first discard once the Charleston is over.
Setup is easy to miss at a real table, because the players there already know it and their hands move faster than their explanations. Here is the whole sequence, slowly, so you can do your share instead of watching.
Seats and who is East
Four players sit around the table. One is East, the dealer, and the other three are South, West, and North going counterclockwise to East's right. Play moves to the right.
For the first hand, each player rolls the dice and the highest roll is East, as in the standardised tournament rules. Some groups draw wind tiles from a face-down group instead, or simply agree on it. After that, the deal passes to the player on East's right after every hand, whether or not East won. Some other styles of mahjong keep a winning East in the seat, but League rules do not. The deal moves on after a wall game too. A group that keeps East in the seat after one is playing a house rule, so agree that before the first deal.
Shuffling and building the wall
Turn all tiles face down and swirl them around the table with both hands. This is called washing the tiles, and everyone takes part.
Each player then builds a wall in front of their rack, nineteen tiles long and two tiles high. That is thirty-eight tiles per player, 152 in all in an American set. Push the finished wall forward with the rack's pusher bar if yours has one, so the four walls form a square.
Breaking the wall
East rolls the dice. The total tells you where to break. Count that many stacks from the right end of East's own wall, and the break happens there. Some groups roll twice, once to pick which player's wall to count from and once for the position. Rolling conventions vary, so ask your table which they use.
Once broken, the wall is dealt from the break point going right, and the same direction becomes the draw order for the rest of the hand.
The deal
Deal in blocks of four. East takes four tiles, then South, West and North take four each, and the round goes three times. That gives everyone twelve tiles. Then each player takes one more single tile in turn, bringing everyone to thirteen, except East, who takes an extra so East starts with fourteen.
In American Mahjong that fourteenth tile does not get discarded right away, because first comes the Charleston. The passing ritual happens before any normal play begins.
How many tiles are left
After the deal, 99 tiles are left in the wall. The deal takes 53 of the 152 tiles, thirteen for each of the four players and one more for East. Every draw after that comes from those 99, and if the last one is drawn and no one has declared mahjong, the hand is a wall game.
Under League rules, three or two players still build all four walls, so fewer tiles are dealt and more are left. With three players the deal takes forty tiles and leaves 112 in the wall. With two it takes twenty-seven and leaves 125.
Who goes first
East goes first. East starts with fourteen tiles and makes the first discard once the Charleston and any courtesy pass are over, without drawing, because East already holds the extra tile. Under the standardised tournament rules the game does not begin until East throws that first tile.
Play then moves to the right. The player on East's right, South, takes the next turn by drawing from the wall. If someone calls East's discard instead, that player discards next and the turn passes to their right. For the first hand the highest roll of the dice decides who is East, and after every hand the deal passes to the right, so each player takes a turn going first.
What happens next
After the deal comes the Charleston, the passing sequence that gives everyone a chance at a workable hand. Only after the Charleston (and the optional courtesy pass) does East make the first real discard and normal play begin.
The game begins with that discard. Under the standardised tournament rules, a player who discards before East has made it takes the tile back into their rack and is not penalized.
If your group is teaching a beginner, deal the setup slowly once and let them build a wall themselves.
Put it into practice
New to the game? Start the course at Lesson 1, Meet the Tiles. The first three lessons are free and need no account.
Already play? Have the coach read a real dealt hand for you, free. It names the direction the hand goes for, what to keep, what to pass, and the reasoning behind each call.
Setting up takes a few minutes. Reading your rack once the deal is done is the part that takes practice. Mei, our AI coach, reads a dealt hand tile by tile, names the direction it goes for, and says what to keep and what to pass, free.