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Mahjong variants

Same tiles, six games

Ask five people from five countries how to play mahjong and you will get five games. They share the tiles, the wall, the draw-and-discard turn and the idea of four sets and a pair. They differ in what a hand must contain to be allowed to win, how it is scored, and a handful of rules about calling. This page is a map of the main ones, so that you know which game a book or a video is describing.

Hong Kong (Cantonese)

The version most Western beginners meet first, and the one the main rules page follows. 144 tiles with flowers and seasons. Any four sets and a pair may win, but most tables require a minimum number of scoring points (fan), typically three, so a plain hand of mixed chows and pungs is not enough. Scoring is by counting fan for patterns and converting to points with a doubling table that stops at a limit. Fast, sociable, and the scoring can be learned in a few sessions.

Chinese Official (MCR)

Written in 1998 by the Chinese sports authorities to give the game a standard for competition, and used at international tournaments since 2002. 144 tiles. The scoring list has 81 patterns, each worth a fixed number of points, and a hand needs at least eight points to win. The list rewards careful construction and punishes plain hands, so games are slower and more deliberate than Hong Kong. The rulebook is public and precise, which is why it is used across borders.

Japanese riichi

136 tiles, no flowers or seasons. The distinctive rule is riichi itself: a player whose concealed hand is one tile from winning may declare it, put down a 1,000-point stick as a bet, and from then on may not change the hand. In return the declaration is worth points and unlocks bonuses. Other features: a hand must contain at least one recognised pattern (yaku) to win at all; a dora indicator tile is turned up on the dead wall and every copy of the tile after it in the hand is worth an extra point; and a player who has at any point discarded a tile their hand is now waiting on is furiten: they may not win on anyone's discard, only by drawing the tile themselves, for as long as the wait stays the same. Scoring counts han and fu and reads off a table. It is the most codified form, the one with online ranked play, and the hardest to learn well.

American (NMJL)

The National Mah Jongg League publishes a card every spring listing the only hands that may win that year, roughly fifty of them, grouped by theme. The set has 152 tiles: the standard 144 plus eight jokers, which stand in for any tile inside a set of three or more. There are no chows; hands are built from pairs, pungs, kongs and larger groups of identical tiles as the card dictates. Before play starts, players pass tiles to each other in a fixed sequence called the Charleston, three tiles at a time, right, across, left and back again. It is a different game wearing the same clothes, with its own vocabulary and a large, organised community in the United States. The card is copyrighted and sold by the League, so it is not reproduced here.

Taiwanese

A 16-tile game: the hand is five sets and a pair, so 17 tiles to win, dealt 16 each. Flowers count and there are more of them in some sets. Scoring is by counting points (tai) with a base stake, and the dealer's bonus grows each time the dealer wins and keeps the deal. Longer hands mean more calling and more exposed sets, and the game feels more open than the 13-tile versions.

Singapore and Malaysia

Close to Hong Kong, with four animal tiles added (cat, mouse, rooster, centipede) that behave like flowers, and a handful of instant payouts for events during play, such as drawing a matching pair of animals, that are settled before the hand ends.

Which one to learn

If you have a group of friends and a set, Hong Kong rules with a low minimum and a short scoring list. If you want to play online against strangers, riichi, because that is where the players are; expect a longer climb. If you are in the United States and the people around you talk about “the card”, American, and buy the current card. If you want a rulebook that settles arguments, Chinese Official. Whichever you start with, the tile reading, the wall, the turn and the calls carry over, so the first one is the hardest and the second is cheap.

The scoring page goes through the Hong Kong system in detail, since it is the one most people start with.