How to Play Mahjong: A Beginner's Guide to Tiles, Rules and Scoring

Mahjong basicsOct 16, 2026 · 9 min read

Mahjong looks intimidating the first time you see it: a wall of carved tiles, Chinese characters, four people calling out words at speed. But the core idea fits in one sentence, and once the tiles stop looking like a puzzle the game is easy to pick up. This guide explains Chinese mahjong the way it is played in casual tuīdǎo hú (推倒胡, "push down and win") games, which is also the default mode in our browser game Bamboo Table. We'll note where the competitive Guobiao rules differ, and remember that mahjong has many regional variants, so the table you sit down at may use slightly different house rules.

What you need

• Four players. Mahjong is built for four. (Online, the computer can fill empty seats.)
• A 144-tile set. Some regional styles use fewer tiles, but the full Chinese set has 144.
• Two dice to decide where the wall is broken. Many home games skip this.
• A way to keep score: chips, coins or a notepad.

The 144 tiles

The set has three suits numbered 1 to 9, two kinds of honor tiles, and eight flowers. There are four copies of every suit and honor tile, but only one of each flower.

A few tips for reading them. A Characters tile shows a Chinese numeral above the character 万: 一 is 1, 五 is 5, 九 is 9. Dots tiles show that many circles, and Bamboo tiles show that many sticks (in many traditional sets the 1 of Bamboo is drawn as a bird instead). The White Dragon is often a blank or framed tile. The 1s and 9s are called terminals; terminals and honors together are the tiles that can't sit in the middle of a run.

Flowers are not part of your hand at all. When you draw one, you put it face-up in front of you and draw a replacement from the back end of the wall. Each flower is worth a bonus at the end.

The goal: four sets and a pair

You normally hold 13 tiles. You win by drawing or claiming a 14th tile that makes your hand complete, which almost always means:

4 sets of three + 1 pair = 14 tiles.

The pair (sometimes called the "eyes", 将 jiàng) is any two identical tiles. The sets are explained next. Two special hands break this pattern and are allowed in Bamboo Table's casual mode by default: seven pairs (七对 qīduì) and thirteen orphans (十三幺 shísānyāo), which is one of every terminal and honor plus one duplicate.

Melds: chi, peng and kong

A set is called a meld. There are three kinds.

Chi (吃 chī): a run

Three consecutive numbers in the same suit, like 3-4-5 of Bamboo. Honors can't form runs, and runs don't wrap around (8-9-1 is not a run). You can only claim a discard for a chi from the player on your left, the one whose turn comes right before yours.

Peng (碰 pèng): a triplet

Three identical tiles, like three Red Dragons or three 7 Dots. You can claim a discard for a peng from any player, even if it isn't your turn next.

Kong (杠 gàng): four of a kind

All four copies of one tile. A kong still counts as one set, so after you declare it you draw a replacement tile from the back of the wall to keep your hand size right. There are three ways to make one:

• Concealed kong: you draw the fourth tile while holding three. It stays face-down.
• Exposed kong: you hold three and claim the fourth from someone's discard.
• Added kong: you already have an exposed peng and draw the fourth tile yourself. Careful: if another player needs that exact tile to win, they can "rob the kong" and win on it.

When you claim a discard you must lay that meld face-up on the table. Melds you build entirely from your own draws stay hidden, and a hand with no exposed melds is called concealed (门清 ménqīng), which scores a bonus.

How a turn works

1. Draw one tile from the front of the wall. If it's a flower, set it aside and draw a replacement.
2. Check: does it complete your hand? If so, declare the win. Otherwise you may declare a concealed or added kong.
3. Discard one tile face-up into the middle of the table. You're back to 13 tiles.
4. Claims: the other players get a moment to claim your discard. If nobody does, the next player draws.

Play moves counter-clockwise. When more than one player wants the same discard, the priority is: win beats peng or kong, which beats chi. If someone claims a peng out of turn, play jumps to them: they discard (no draw), and play carries on from their seat, skipping anyone in between.

Dealing and seat winds

The tiles are shuffled face-down and built into a square wall. Each player takes 13 tiles; the dealer takes a 14th and starts by discarding. Anyone dealt flowers sets them aside and draws replacements before play begins.

The dealer sits in the East seat, and the other seats are South, West and North in turn order. Each seat has a wind, and the game as a whole has a prevailing wind that starts at East. In competitive rules, a triplet of your own seat wind or the prevailing wind earns extra points. In Bamboo Table the dealer passes to the next player every hand, and you can play a short East round (4 hands) or a full game (16 hands, one round for each wind).

If the wall runs out before anyone wins, the hand is a draw and nobody scores.

How a hand wins

When your hand is one tile away from complete, you are ready (听牌 tīngpái). There are two ways to finish:

• Self-draw (自摸 zìmō): you draw the winning tile yourself. This is worth more, and every other player pays you.
• Win on a discard (点炮 diǎnpào, "lighting the cannon"): another player discards your winning tile and you claim it. Only the discarder pays. You can claim a discard to win even if it would only finish a run and the discarder isn't on your left.

If two players could win on the same discard, Bamboo Table gives it to the first one in turn order after the discarder.

Scoring: casual play vs Guobiao

Casual (推倒胡)

In casual push-down mahjong, any complete hand can win. There is no minimum, which makes it ideal for learning. Scoring is short and simple. Here is the table Bamboo Table uses in casual mode:

On a discard win the discarder pays the total; on a self-draw each of the other three pays it. Casual tables often add house rules (家规 jiāguī), such as "no chi", "self-draw only" or "your hand may use at most two suits". Bamboo Table lets you switch these on before a match; they're all off by default.

Guobiao (国标)

Guobiao, also called Mahjong Competition Rules (MCR), is the official Chinese competition standard. It uses the same 144 tiles and the same claims, but it has 81 scoring patterns called fan (番), and a hand can only win if it is worth at least 8 fan. Flowers score a fan each but don't count toward the 8. A "cheap" hand of four random sets usually isn't enough, so you have to plan for specific patterns from the start. Bamboo Table has a Guobiao mode and will tell you when a hand is complete but short of 8 fan, which makes a gentle way to learn the patterns.

A sample winning hand

Here is a 13-tile ready hand. Every tile is concealed (no claims):

• 1-2-3 Characters (一二三万)
• 4-5-6 Characters (四五六万)
• 7-8 Characters (七八万)
• East East East (东东东)
• White White (白白): the pair

What does it wait for? A 9 Characters obviously works (7-8-9). But so does a 6 (making 4-5-6 and 6-7-8) and a 3 (rearranging into 1-2-3, 3-4-5, 6-7-8). That's a three-sided wait, and spotting waits like this is half the fun of the game.

Say you draw the 9 Characters yourself. Complete hand: 一二三万 · 四五六万 · 七八九万 · 东东东 · 白白. Casual score: basic win 1 + self-drawn 1 + concealed 1 + half flush 2 (one suit plus honors) = 5, plus 1 for each flower you collected. Each other player pays you 5. If instead someone had discarded the 9 and you claimed it, you'd score 4, paid by the discarder alone.

Common beginner mistakes

• Claiming every tile you can. Each chi or peng exposes your hand, costs you the concealed bonus and locks those tiles in. Claim when it clearly speeds you up.
• Forgetting the pair. Four sets with no pair is not a win. Keep a likely pair in mind from the start.
• Hanging on to lonely honors. A single wind or dragon can only become a pair or triplet. Early on, discard isolated honors (especially ones already discarded by others) before middle tiles like 4, 5 and 6, which can join many runs.
• Ignoring the discards. If three 6 Dots are already on the table, waiting on the fourth is nearly hopeless. Discards also tell you which tiles are safe to throw late in a hand.
• Chasing a flush too early. Big hands are tempting, but in casual play a fast cheap win often beats a slow expensive one.
• Building a hand that can't legally win. In Guobiao, a complete hand under 8 fan doesn't count; under house rules, check the rule before you commit.

Practice without a table

Gathering four people is the hardest part of learning mahjong. Two of our free browser games can help, with nothing to install.

Bamboo Table 竹林雀局: play real mahjong

Bamboo Table is full four-player Chinese mahjong. Choose Play vs AI to practice against three computer opponents at your own pace, or open a room and share the link to play online with friends, with AI taking any empty seats. Casual push-down scoring is the default, and Guobiao is one switch away. The built-in Rules page lists the casual scoring, house rules and the Guobiao fan table, and the interface comes in English and 简体中文.

Bamboo Pairs 竹林雀消: learn the tiles by matching

Bamboo Pairs is not mahjong itself. It's a relaxing tile-matching puzzle that uses the same tile art. You click two identical free tiles (nothing on top, and open on the left or right) to remove them, and clear the board to pass. Larger boards include flowers, where any season matches another season and any flower matches another flower. It's a calm way to get the 万, 筒 and 条 tiles and the honors into your head before your first real game. Start with Beginner mode's big tiles, or try untimed Free play.

FAQ

How is this different from American mahjong?

American mahjong (as played under the National Mah Jongg League) uses jokers, starts with a tile-passing phase called the Charleston, and requires your hand to match one of the specific patterns printed on a card that changes every year. Chinese mahjong has no jokers and no card: any hand built from sets and a pair can win.

How is it different from Japanese riichi mahjong?

Riichi uses 136 tiles with no flowers, and a hand needs at least one scoring pattern (yaku) to win. It adds rules like declaring riichi when you're ready and the furiten rule, which stops you from winning on a discard if you've already discarded one of your winning tiles. The basic shape, four sets and a pair, is the same, so skills carry over.

Is mahjong solitaire the same as mahjong?

No. Mahjong solitaire (the genre Bamboo Pairs belongs to) is a single-player matching puzzle that borrows the tiles. Real mahjong is a four-player game of drawing, discarding and building hands. Solitaire is still a nice way to get comfortable with the tiles.

How long does it take to learn?

Most people can play a casual hand after one sitting with this guide and a few practice games. Scoring patterns, especially Guobiao's 81 fan, take longer, but you don't need them to start having fun.

Next read: once you know the rules, our mahjong strategy guide for Bamboo Table covers which tiles to keep, when to claim and how to discard safely.