How to Play
Difficult? No. Captivating? Absolutely. Just wait until you win for the first time. Here we explain the 8 steps to the game.
STEP 1
WHAT YOU NEED
A Mahjong Set 152 tiles plus extra Jokers & Blanks - these are your tools. Whether it's the TMMC Classic Set or another quality set: what matters is that the tiles are clearly readable and feel good in your hands.
The current European Mahjong Card This little card is your key. It shows all valid hands for the year - your entire strategy is built around it. No card, no American Mahjong.
Four Players American Mahjong is a four-player game. No fifth at the table, no spectators - four minds, four strategies, one winner.
A Table Any regular table will do. But you'll need four racks to set up our tiles. Bonus points for a soft Mahjong mat (so the tiles don't clatter as much), but in the beginning, any table is your friend.
Patience for the First Few Rounds Not equipment, but essential. The first games are for learning - the Charleston, breaking the wall, recognizing the hands. Then comes the first win.
Optional, but nice: Good lighting - because telling tiles apart in dim light is no fun.
STEP 2
MIXING & BUILDING THE WALLS
All Tiles on the Table: 160 tiles (152 standard + 2 extra Jokers and 6 Blanks) land face-down in the middle of the table - a colorful, clicking pile of Dots, Bams and Cracks.
Mix with your Hands: Every player reaches in with both hands. Push, turn, shuffle. The sound is half the fun: the clattering rattle of acrylic on the table. Takes about a minute - or until someone complains their hands are getting tired.
Build the Wall: Each player now builds a wall in front of their rack. 20 stacks of 2 tiles, 40 tiles per wall (19 stacks of 2 if played with 152 tiles). If you are an advanced player and start paying without Blanks and subsequently maybe even without the extra Jokers, the walls will get shorter obviously.
Mixing and wall-building is more than setup. It's the transition from everyday life into the game. Your hands get busy, your mind shifts gears, and slowly everyone at the table feels it: something is about to begin. The first few times it might take five minutes. With practice, it's two. Eventually you'll notice you're already chatting about the weather or the last movie you saw while mixing - and that's exactly the point.
STEP 3
Rolling the dices & defining "East"
Before the first tiles are dealt, you need to know who is East - the player who opens the game, deals the tiles, and later breaks the wall.
Each player rolls two dice at once. The highest number determines East. In case of a tie, those players roll again.
East rolls again - for the wall:
East picks up the dice again and rolls. This number determines where the wall is broken.
Example: East rolls an 8. They count 8 stacks to the left from the right corner of their own wall. That's where the wall is opened - right between the 8th and 9th stack.
Why this matters:
The dice roll changes who gets which starting tiles. It's chance - but that chance determines your starting position. East themselves receives tiles first (14 instead of 13), which gives a small advantage with certain hands.
After East has rolled and the wall is broken, the starting tiles are dealt.
How to deal tiles:
East begins dealing - counter-clockwise (to the right, not the left):
- East goes first - taking 2 stacks (4 tiles) for themselves
- Then dealing to South - 2 stacks (4 tiles)
- Then to West - 2 stacks (4 tiles)
- Then to North - 2 stacks (4 tiles)
Repeat this 3 times - each player ends up with 12 tiles total (6 stacks × 2).
The last tiles to make it a total of 14 for East and 13 for each other player: The dealer, East, takes the first and the third tile from the top row and thereafter deals one additional tile to the other players.
STEP 4
reading the card
Reading a Mahjong card (like the European Mahjong Card) is all about decoding a secret shorthand for winning hands. Each line on the card represents a 14-tile combination:
Letters Stand for Specific Tiles: Whenever you see a letter, it tells you exactly which non-number tile you need.
- F = Flower
- D = Dragon (red, green or white/aka Soap)
- N, E, W, S = North, East, West, South
Character Length Equals Group Size: The number of times a digit or letter is repeated tells you the exact size of that tile group
- Single (e.g., 1 or F): exactly 1 tile
- Pair (e.g., 11 or DD): 2 identical tiles
- Pung (e.g., 111 or NNN): 3 identical tiles
- Kong (e.g., 1111 or SSSS): 4 identical tiles
- Quint (e.g., 11111): 5 identical tiles (this requires using Joker tiles)
Colors Represent Suits (Not Tile Colors): The text colors on the card (usually Red, Blue, and Green) do not mean you look for physical colors on the tiles. Instead, they tell you how many different suits you must mix to build that hand:
- One Color: The entire hand must be in any single suit of your choice (all Bams, all Cracks, or all Dots).
- Two Colors: You must use two different suits. For example, if a line shows 1111 2222 in green and 3333 44 in red, you could do the 1s and 2s in Dots, and the 3s and 4s in Bams.
- Three Colors: You must use all three suits (Bams, Cracks, and Dots) across that specific hand.
Status Symbols and Parentheses:
- X vs. C: Look at the right side of the line. An X means the hand is "Exposed" (you can call out for discards to complete your groups). A C means "Concealed" (you cannot call discards; the entire hand must be built privately in your rack until you declare Mahjong).
- Parentheses ( ): Always read the note at the end of the line. It clarifies the exact restrictions, telling you which specific suits or matching dragons are required for that hand.
- The Zero (0): The number 0 on the card specifically represents the White Dragon (Soap). It is often used as a placeholder for a zero in consecutive number runs (like 2026).
STEP 5
The Charleston
The players arrange their tiles on their racks and the Charleston begins, consisting of three passes: Right, Over, and Left. These are reversed for the second (optional) Charleston. A blind pass can be done at the first left and/or at the second right exchange of tiles.
First Charleston (required): 3 tiles are passed to the right, 3 to the opposite side and 3 to the left.
Second Charleston (optional): 3 tiles are passed to the left, 3 to the opposite side and then 3 to the right.
Courtesy Pass (optional): 0-3 tiles are exchanged with the opposite player by mutual agreement.
The Charleston may be stopped after the first complete Charleston round (R-O-L). The tiles are exchanged face down. Jokers may not be passed during the Charleston.
STEP 6
THE GAME BEGINS
East places a tile face up and names it aloud, e.g. “5 Bam” or “red Dragon”. For this very first turn only East does not pick up a tile. Moving counter-clockwise, each player either draws a tile from the wall or picks up a placed tile (if ready for exposure on the rack) and places a tile face up on the table, naming the tile.
STEP 7
Jokers, Pause, Expose...
Jokers may be discarded. Jokers can replace any number of tiles in a Pung, Kong, or Quint of identical tiles. A Joker can be claimed from an open tile in a rack if it is replaced by the exact matching tile during a player’s turn.
Jokers may not be used for
• A single tile or a pair.
• Groupings that represent NEWS (Winds), the year, or other non-identical groupings (runs).
A Mahjong without Jokers scores double points.
The only option of picking up a tile that has been discarded is to "call" it. “Stop! I want it!”. If you are unsure whether to call a tile, the game can be paused by calling “Hold.” If you decide against the tile, declare “Pass” or “Continue” and the next player picks a tile.
If two players want the same tile, the next player in line has priority; however, Mahjong declarations take precedence over everything else! When claiming, the tile must be shown in full exposure before the next tile is discarded.
You may only call a tile for a single number, a pair, NEWS (Winds), the year, or another non-identical group when declaring Mahjong. For more please visit our video section.
STEP 8
How to win!
If you picked up the last, missing tile for the line you've chosen and you have the full 14 tiles on your rack you call "Mahjong" in order to declare that you are the winner. Your co-players check that your line is fine. And that's it, congratulations, you won!
If a player declares Mahjong in error without revealing any tiles, the game continues without penalty.
A hand is considered “dead” if it contains errors, e.g., incorrect number of tiles, incorrect use of jokers, or if the hand cannot be completed based on the revealed tiles, etc.
The European Mahjong Card
The European Mahjong Card allows players of all different languages to play together. The basics like suits, winds or dragons are the same in all languages but rules and how to set up your lines are translated in an ever growing array of languages.