If you’ve never held a Mahjong tile before, you’re exactly where you should be. Don’t worry about rules, strategy, the Charleston, or building a winning hand yet. For now, we’re simply going to get comfortable with the tiles.
American Mahjong is normally played by four people using tiles instead of cards. Players work toward completing one of the hands shown on the current Mahjong card. You don’t need to understand how a hand works yet. We’ll get there.
A set includes numbered suits plus special tiles. The seven groups you’ll learn to recognize are Dots, Bams, Craks, Winds, Dragons, Flowers, and Jokers.
Dots, Bams, and Craks are the three numbered suits. Each runs from 1 through 9. The 1 Dot and 1 Bam can look different from the rest of their suits, and Craks use Chinese characters along with an Arabic number.
The four Wind tiles are East, South, West, and North. They don’t have numbers and they aren’t part of the three numbered suits. For now, simply learn to recognize E, S, W, and N.
There are Red, Green, and White Dragons. A White Dragon may look blank or show a rectangular frame depending on the tile set. Dragons have relationships with the suits, but you don’t need to memorize those yet.
American Mahjong uses eight Flower tiles. Their artwork and numbering can vary. For the basics, the important thing is simple: recognize that a tile is a Flower rather than trying to memorize each individual design.
Jokers are special tiles that can substitute for certain tiles in certain groupings—but they are not wild everywhere. We’ll learn the exact Joker rules later. For now, learn to recognize them.
A Joker can substitute in certain groupings, but it cannot be used everywhere. We’ll cover the exact rules later.
A standard American Mahjong set used for play has 152 tiles: four each of the numbered suited tiles, four of each Wind, four of each Dragon, eight Flowers, and eight Jokers. Some sets may include extra replacement or spare tiles.
You’re ready for the next chapter.