Traditional Mahjong

01Discover the game

The traditional Mahjong is a game of tiles for four people, different from the computer solitary where one removes pairs. There are several incompatible traditional rules. This chapter chooses the Hong Kong described by Mahjong Time, with flowers and seasons and no minimum fan imposed. This is neither the Japanese riichi nor the international regulation MCR. Regional variants should not be added in the middle of a game.

02Equipment

Uses 144 tiles: 108 numerals, four copies of each of the numbers 1 to 9 in three families, Bambous, Circles and Characters; 16 Winds, four East, four South, four West and four North; 12 Dragons, four Reds, four Greens and four Whites; 4 Flowers and 4 Seasons, one of each number 1 to 4. It also takes three dice, one score sheet and one pencil. Possible replacement tiles remain in the box.

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03The goal

Form a winning hand before the others, usually four bands and a pair. Groups are followed by three numerals from the same family, identical brelans or identical squares. Fans measure the value of your victory, then give the points exchanged. In the chosen version, an ordinary hand with zero fan can win: the threshold of three fans often used elsewhere is not applied.

04Seats, wall and distribution

To simplify only the drawing of seats, mix one copy of each of the four Winds, face down, and pull one each. This short procedure replaces the ritual of placing the booklet. East is the donor. In the order of play, which is inverse in the direction of the hands of a watch, come South, West and then North. These are not the directions of a compass placed on the table.

Put back the Winds drawn from among the tiles, mix all the hidden faces. Each one built before himself a wall of eighteen piles of two tiles, 36 tiles. Bring the four walls together to form a square.

Is throw three dice. Count their sum around the four walls, starting with East for 1, then South for 2, West for 3 and North for 4, and continue in loop. On the designated wall, count the same number of piles from its right end. Open the wall at this point. The seven piles, fourteen tiles, to the right of the breach, form the dead wall, reserved for replacements. The tiles on the left form the beginning of the living Stock. You take the top and bottom of each pile, continuing around the square.

Distribute lots of four tiles, from East then South, West, North, three times: each has twelve. East then takes two tiles; the other three take one each. East begins with fourteen, the others with thirteen. Line your hands up to hide them.

If you have a Flower or a Season, expose it next to you and replace it from the dead wall; repeat if the replacement is still a bonus tile. The dead wall is kept at fourteen tiles by reserving tiles at the end of the living wall. It does not constitute an additional ordinary Stock.

05One trick, the ads and the hands

Spike and discard

It starts directly by undoing a tile visible in the center, since it already has fourteen tiles. Then, in your turn, take the first tile of the living wall, examine your hand and then discard a visible tile. Without a square or bonus, you therefore go from thirteen to fourteen then to thirteen. Flowers and seasons are not part of these thirteen: expose them immediately and replace them from the dead wall.

Announces a claim immediately after a waste, before the next stock. Only the last damaged tile is available. An older tile in the center cannot be recovered.

The four groups

• Chow, or sequel : three consecutive numbers of the same family, for example 3-4-5 Bambous. You can claim the defeat only of the person immediately to your left, the one who normally just played before you. Show the two tiles of your hand with the one claimed, then defeat without plucking.
• Pung, or brelan : three strictly identical tiles. You can claim the last defeat of anyone if you already have the other two. Expose the group and then waste, without ordinary picket. The game resumes to the next person in the sense of play from you: some tricks have been jumped.
• Kong, or square : four identical tiles. With three in hand, you can claim a waste to form a exposed square. During your turn after a Stock, you can also declare four identical hidden tiles, or add the fourth tile you have in your hand to a previously exposed brelan. A declared square requires a replacement from the dead wall, then a waste. Without this replacement, you would miss a tile to finish the hand.
• Pair : two identical tiles. You cannot claim a defeat only to expose a pair; you can use it if it immediately completes all your winning hand.

The exposed groups are fixed and can no longer be dismantled. A declared hidden square also remains fixed; two outer tiles can be laid to show its status. Four identical ones simply kept in hand, without declaration of square or replacement, can still be used otherwise, for example in suites.

The Winds and Dragons, called honors, do not form any suites: East-Southwest is never a chow. Values 1 and 9 are the terminal ones. Flowers and Seasons are separate bonuses; they do not replace a joker.

Priorities and Victory

An announcement from Mahjong to win passes before pung, kong and chow. Pung or kong passes before chow. If several people claim the same defeat to win, the first in the game order from the defeater wins; we do not distribute several wins on the same tile in this rule.

To win, announce Mahjong and show your hand with the tile that completes it. Four groups and one pair represent fourteen places, but each square physically adds a tile: a hand with a square contains therefore fifteen tiles, excluded bonus. The winning tile can come from your Stock or from the last waste from anyone, even to complete a suite. You can also steal the tile that an opponent adds to an exposed brelan to transform it into square, only if it makes you win immediately. We don't fly to make just one group.

Two special forms are allowed: seven pairs of distinct values, entirely hidden before the winning tile; and the thirteen Orphans, the six terminal ones, the four Winds and the three Dragons, one copy of each, plus one duplicate of one of these thirteen tiles.

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06An example to understand

You have 2-3-4 Bambous, 5-6-7 Circles, three Red Dragons, two Winds East and two 8 Characters. You wait for the third East: it will form the fourth group and will leave the pair of 8. Any opponent who throws East can make you win; you are not limited to the left neighbour for a victory.

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If the right-hand neighbor rather defeats a 4 Bambous, you cannot claim it just to form a suite with 2 and 3 : an ordinary chow is allowed only on the defeat of the left-hand neighbour. The Mahjong priority changes this case only if the tile actually finishes a winning hand.

07Count, turn the winds and win the game

Calculating fans

The winner alone calculates his hand. Adds the fans of the present elements, avoiding recounting a form already included in a more complete form:

• Each brelan or square of Dragon : 1 fan. Each brelan or square of your Wind : 1. Each brelan or square of the Wind dominant of the handle : 1 ; if your Wind is also dominant, this group therefore returns 2.
• Four runs and a pair: 1. Four triplets or quads and a pair: 3. One numbered suit with honors: 3. One suit without honors: 6 instead of the previous 3. Seven pairs: 4, in addition to other compatible patterns.
• No bonus Flower or Season: 1. Otherwise, each Flower or Season corresponding to your seat earns 1, with East = 1, South = 2, West = 3, North = 4. Owning the four Flowers earns 2; the four Seasons also 2.
• Piocher yourself the winning tile: 1. Win on the last tile of the living wall: 1 ; on its last waste: 1. Steal the addition to a square: 1. Win on a replacement after square: 1.
• Two brelans or squares of Dragon and the third Dragon pair, "small three Dragons": 4 for this form, with fans of both Dragon bands.

Some forms directly reach the limit value of 64 basis points: four hidden brelans with a picked victory; three groups of Dragons; three groups of Winds with a pair of the fourth; four groups of Winds; one hand only of honours; one hand only of terminal; four squares; thirteen Orphans; victory of East from his hand distributed; victory of another on the very first defeat of East.

The New Doors Also reach the limit: hand hidden in a single family, composed of 1112345678999 plus another tile of this family, without square. Three forms of the chosen scale are also limited: all groups in brelans or squares of a single family accompanied by the corresponding Dragon, with Bambous-Vert, Characters-Rouge or Circles-Blanc; the pair must belong to these same tiles. These limits are not added between them: the base remains 64. Do not give this value to a resembling hand that does not fill the same tiles. All conditions.

Convert to exchange points

Zero fan gives a base of 1; one fan, 2; two, 4; three, 8; four to six, 16; seven to nine, 32; ten and more, 64. A limit form gives directly 64.

On one defeat, the one who threw her pays twice the base; each of the other two losers pays once the base. On a punctured win, each of the three losers pays twice the base. Note these gains and losses on paper, without money; the totals remain balanced. Example: a base of 8 won on defeat gives +32 to the winner, -16 to the defeater and -8 to the other two. A punctured win on the same basis gives +48 and -16 to each of the other three.

The rounds and the end

If the living wall is exhausted without victory, the deal is zero: no payment. If is won, or in the event of a null grant, the seats remain the same. Otherwise, the next player becomes East and all change from Wind of seat. The dominant wind starts in East; after a complete turn of donors, it becomes South, then West, and then North. So a complete game has at least sixteen points, more when East is maintained. The best total after the North cycle wins; equality can remain shared.

A false announcement by Mahjong stops the deal in the Mahjong Time scale and imposes 64 points on each of the other three, with double payment to the defeater if a tile was claimed. For a discovery, check the structure together before applying this sanction; this pedagogical tolerance must be announced before playing.

08Frequent errors

Don't play solitaire pairs with these rules. Don't do any straight between families or with honors. Don't get an old waste. After a square, take the replacement to keep the right number of tiles. Don't mix fans of riichi, RCM or any other table at the scale chosen here.

09Start well

Start by recognizing the three families and the seven honours. Set the numerals by family and value. First look for four groups and a pair, without pursuing all the great limits. Claiming a brelan accelerates your hand but shows your intentions and reduces possible reorganizations. Look at the waste before throwing a tile that someone seems to be waiting for.