The set: 152 tiles
- 108 suited — dots, bams and craks, 1–9, four of each
- 28 honors — 16 winds (N/E/W/S ×4) and 12 dragons (red, green, white ×4)
- 8 flowers — four designs, two of each. Ordinary tiles that satisfy an “F” on the card; no replacement draw
- 8 jokers — the only wild cards in the game
The Charleston
Required: right → across → left- Three tiles each pass, and everyone passes at the same moment
- Never pass a joker
- Optional second round immediately after, with the direction reversed: left → across → right
- The second Charleston is a table decision — settle it out loud before the deal
Jokers: three or more, or nothing
- A joker fills a group of three or more — a pung, kong or quint
- It may never stand in for a required pair or a required single
- A joker may never be passed during any Charleston or courtesy pass
- Exchange order: pick → rack → exchange → discard. Exchanging before your turn kills the hand
- You may only reclaim a joker from someone else's group by a legal exchange
Legal as a pung:
Illegal as a pair:
Concealed (C) vs exposed (X)
- The card marks every line with a C or an X beside its point value
- X — exposed: you may call discards at any time to build pungs, kongs and quints
- C — concealed: the hand stays in your rack. The only discard you may claim is the winning tile
- Exposing any part of a (C) hand makes it dead
- Playing a (C) hand, a joker exchange on your own turn is still allowed
Scoring, in points
- Read the value printed beside your line on the card — that is the hand's point value
- Self-pick (you drew the winning tile): all three other players pay double the card value
- Off a discard: the player who discarded pays double, the other two pay single
- No jokers in the winning hand: doubles again. This is an official rule, not a house rule
All values here are points. Most groups simply keep score in points.
Dead hand: the eight causes
- 1. Wrong tile count — 13 in play, 14 only to declare
- 2. Erroneous Mah Jongg call
- 3. Unwinnable hand — the tiles you need are all visible
- 4. Invalid exposure — a pung exposed as a kong, a joker in a single or pair, or exposing a hand that must stay concealed
- 5. Hand not on the current card
- 6. Exposing a concealed (C) hand
- 7. Joker exchange out of turn
- 8. Picking or racking incorrectly
Full detail on each cause: see Dead hands in the footer.