Tiles

Sets

CHOW... One type of "set" you can put together is called a Chow. This means a group of tiles (Characters, Sticks, or Balls) like the 3-4-5 of Sticks or 6-7-8 of Balls. Shown above is a Chow of the 1-2-3 of Balls. You can make a Chow from the fresh tiles you'll be picking up with each turn or from a tile discarded by the player on your Left IF (and only if) you are already holding 2 of the 3 needed tiles. Example - You are holding a 7 Balls and an 8 Balls. You may Chow the 6 or 9 Balls thrown by the player on your left.

PONG... A second type of "set" is called a Pong. This means a group of three identical tiles of any suit. Shown above is a Pong made up of the 5 Sticks. You can make a Pong from the fresh tiles you pick up, or from a tile discarded by ANY other player IF (and only if) you are already holding 2 of the 3 needed tiles. Example - You are holding a pair of the 9 Characters. You may Pong a 9 Character thrown by any other player.

KONG... The last type of "set" is called a Kong. This means a group of all 4 identical tiles of any suit. Shown above is a Kong made up of the 5 of Characters. You can make a Kong from the fresh tiles you pick up or from a tile discarded by any other player IF (and only if) you are already holding 3 of the 4 needed tiles. This "set" still counts as if it were only 3 tiles. Its purpose is to create a simple way of making use of a 4th matching tile rather than forcing a player to discard it.

Flowers

These are the Red and Blue Flowers. There is only one of each. When you pick one up, it is automatically set aside and replaced by a regular tile. When the hand is over, the winner gets one point if they have NO flowers at all, or one point for any flower whose value matches their Seat. For example, the South player hopes to get the '2' flowers. All 4 of the red-numbered or all 4 of the blue-numbered flowers are an additional point.

Seating

The four players sit around a square table, with each seat representing one of the four compass directions. This is often referred to as "facing the East (South, West, North) Wind". There is no small amount of opinion (even superstition) among some players as to which wind gives them the best luck in playing the game, so to be fair, the players need to find a mutually-acceptable method of determining who gets to sit in which seat.

(You'll notice that the "wind" directions don't correspond with the true compass directions--they are symbolic names for the four wind directions, and this arrangement of East, South, West and North is used consistently throughout Mahjong.)

Chinese Numbers

Scoring

Scoring can be complicated.  If a player went Mah Jong with a special hand or a player was Calling on a special hand at Mah Jong, the scores in the Special Hand table apply.  Otherwise, the value of each hand is calculated, bonus points are added and, if appropriate, any doubling then takes place.  The values of each hand is calculated as per the following two tables:

Once the basic scores have been evaluated, each player's score is doubled for each item in the following table:

Finally, there are some additional doubles that apply to the hand that went Mah Jong only.

The player who went Mah Jong is then paid by the other players the amount scored by his hand.  This means that the player who gets Mah Jong always wins the round, even if other players have scored greater amounts.  If East wins, the others pay double. If not, East pays double.  

Each losing player pays any other losing player with a greater value hand, the difference between the two hands, with East paying and/or receiving double the difference.

Special Hands

Special hands are alternative target sets of tiles that a player can go Mah Jong with.   The original Chinese game allowed only a few special hands but some Western derivatives controversially include many more.  

Traditional Sets

Additional Special Hands