Mahjong FAQ: 40 Quick Answers

136 without flowers, 144 with them, and 152 in an American set that includes eight Jokers. The wall is built from all of them.

Thirteen, except the dealer, who starts with fourteen because they take the extra tile and discard first. Taiwanese play starts with sixteen.

The player seated east, who is the dealer and throws the dice to decide where the wall is broken.

No. A flat surface with room for four walls is enough. An automatic table speeds up shuffling and wall building but changes no rule.

Four of every numbered tile, every wind and every dragon. That limit is why a kong is only four tiles, and why tile counting works at all.

Yes in Chinese, Hong Kong, Taiwanese and riichi play. No in American mahjong, and only once per hand in British play.

Win first, then kong, then pung, then chow. If two players can win on the same tile, the nearest player anticlockwise takes it unless the table uses an all-pay rule.

No. A claimed tile becomes a fixed set and cannot be returned or rearranged.

It becomes an illegal claim. At most tables the tile goes back and you are not allowed to claim again that hand; in tournament play the penalty is stricter.

Yes. Silence is not a win. Say "mahjong" or the local equivalent, clearly, before the next player draws.

Four sets and a pair, with seven pairs and thirteen orphans as the special exceptions. Taiwanese play uses five sets and a pair.

In Chinese Official and riichi, yes, inside a seven-pairs hand. Those tiles cannot also score as a pung.

One. That is why a kong requires a replacement tile: without it the hand would be one tile short of a complete shape.

Either it did not split into four sets and a pair, or it failed the style's minimum. Check the shape first, then the value.

In riichi, no — that is furiten. In Chinese styles the restriction does not exist and the win is legal.

Eight. A hand below eight fan cannot be declared and is treated as a false win.

No. Each flower is worth 1 fan on its own, but flowers are excluded when checking the minimum.

On a discard, the discarder pays the full value alone. On a self-draw, all three opponents pay.

Fan counts named patterns; fu counts structure, such as whether a pung was concealed or claimed. Riichi uses both; Chinese Official uses fan alone.

Base points are fu multiplied by 2 to the power of han plus 2. From five han upward the score stops doubling and falls into fixed tiers, starting at mangan.

A declared win that does not meet the minimum. In tournament play it carries a penalty; at casual tables it usually costs you the hand.

It declares that you are closed and one tile from winning. You gain 1 han and a deposit of 1,000 points, and you may not change your wait.

No. Any claim opens the hand permanently and riichi requires a fully closed hand.

Only a concealed kong, and only if it does not change your wait. An added kong is not allowed.

Being one tile from winning but unable to win on a discard, usually because that tile is already in your own river.

The tile immediately after the flipped indicator is dora, one han per copy. Ura dora is revealed under the indicator and only counts for a riichi hand.

No. Dora adds han but is not a yaku, and a hand with no yaku cannot be declared.

Yes, it is a hard requirement. You must discard every tile of one suit before you can win, and the hand continues after the first win.

Five. Flowers add one tai each and are collected as they are drawn rather than counted at the end.

Five sets and a pair, from sixteen tiles. This is the one structural difference between Taiwanese and every other common style.

Only east, south and west matter as winds. Japanese three-player play keeps the north tiles in the set but treats a drawn north as a bonus tile you set aside; many Chinese three-player games remove the north wind entirely.

No. A Joker may only stand in for a tile inside a group of three or more identical tiles, never for a pair or a single tile.

Once per hand. Pung and kong remain unlimited, and kong replacements come from a reserved kong box at the end of the wall.

A per-hand score cap agreed by the table. It is not the same as the rating figure used in European tournament play.

Yes, and in front of you. The river is shared information; scattering tiles is treated as hiding them.

No. You may look at the river, but moving or straightening another player's discards is not acceptable at any table.

Say so immediately, before the next discard. Most clubs allow a retraction; if the next tile has been played, the claim usually stands and may be penalised.

Only if it is habitual. Most tables expect a decision within about thirty seconds, and silent slow play is more disruptive than a mistake.

Yes, and you should. A disputed rule is settled before the next hand, not by the player who benefits from it.

The turn sequence and the four-set shape. Everything else is a variation on those two things, and both are covered on the rules and winning-hands pages.

Hong Kong mahjong, because it allows chow, has a low minimum and is the version most English-speaking households already play.