Mahjong is a great game of chance and wits, but only if you learn how to play mahjong correctly.
Mahjong has a long tradition behind it, but it's still well adjusted to the contemporary world. If you have three more friends interested in spending some quality time together, it's a good idea for all of you to learn how to play mahjong.
Start by purchasing a set of mahjong tiles and familiarize yourself with their appearance. As you will probably find out, many sets are sold without full instructions on how to play mahjong. If you search online, you will see many options for playing a version called "solitaire" (single player mahjong), which is somewhat different from the actual game. Also, because of its long and troubled history from ancient China to present day Chicago, there are now many different versions and rules for how to play mahjong, we will just cover the basics here.
The basic Chinese mahjong set has 136 tiles, and all of them are included four times in the set. There are three suits, known as bamboos, characters and circles, which are numbered from one to nine. There are 12 cardinal tiles known as dragons and 16 tiles known as winds. The European set also has four flowers and four seasons, and so a total of 144 tiles.
Four players are usually needed for the game. The object of the game is to form certain combinations with the tiles. Each player can discard or take tiles, until all the tiles form combinations. As you have probably realized by now, it's a lot like gin rummy, but with pretty colored tiles. By the way, while it usually provides hours of fun for the players, mahjong is not recommended for those with poor eye sight, as some of the tiles can be really difficult to tell apart.
The combinations are called Pung (three of a kind), Kong (four of a kind) and Chow (three consecutive numbers in sequence) - most often, that is. There are various names, depending on the version of the game, but the point remains the same.
Using the racks included in the set, each player builds a "wall" of tiles, two layers of 18 tiles facing down for each, if you use an European set, which are then brought together to form a set - the Chinese Garden, if you like fancy names. Then, tiles are dealt, in an order agreed upon (again, rules vary considerably here), until each player has 13 tiles and a discard has been set as well.
A player can take the discarded tile if it helps to make one of the combinations mentioned above. If nobody claims a discarded mahjong tile, then it is put aside and it cannot be brought back into the game.
Mahjong scoring also varies considerably, depending on the system you play. It is a good idea to discuss the rules before starting the game, in every little detail, and to make sure that everybody is familiar and comfortable with them. Usually, any "open" combination is considered half the value of a "closed" one. Open means that it was formed by taking a discarded tile, closed, that it was obtained using only the tiles drawn by the respective player. The winning hand also gets additional points from other players and for the combination of bonus tiles (dragons, winds, seasons and flowers).
At all times, a mahjong player can have no more than 13 tiles. If, by accident, a player gets more tiles, he is out of the game, until the game is won or drawn - considered a dead hand. A game is drawn when the last 14 tiles (including any loose tiles) remain in the wall. In this case, there are no scores registered and the tiles are reshuffled for a new game.
