How to Play American Mahjong: Rules & Beginner's Guide

American mahjong (also spelled mah jongg, the National Mah Jongg League's spelling) is a four-player tile game in which you draw, discard, and swap tiles to build one of the winning hands printed on that year's official card — before anyone else does. It's the version played with jokers, a tile-passing ritual called the Charleston, and a card that changes every year, which sets it apart from Chinese, Hong Kong, and Japanese mahjong.

If you've ever heard a table shout "Charleston!" or watched someone lay down their tiles and call "Mahjong!", this guide walks through exactly what's happening, from setup to scoring, so you can sit down and actually play. It covers the standard four-player game; playing with two or three people has its own section near the end.

The Game in 60 Seconds

1. Each player is dealt 13 tiles (the dealer gets 14).
2. Players pass unwanted tiles to each other in the Charleston.
3. On your turn, you draw a tile and discard one, naming the discard out loud.
4. You can call another player's discard to complete a set of three or more identical tiles, or to win.
5. The first player whose 14 tiles match a hand on the card declares "Mahjong!" and gets paid by the other players.

What You Need to Play

• A mahjong set: 152 tiles (breakdown below). Some sets ship with spares such as blank tiles; the standard game uses 152.
• Four racks (often with pushers): to hold and hide each player's tiles
• Two dice: to choose the dealer and break the wall
• The current year's card: each player needs their own. The National Mah Jongg League (NMJL) card is by far the most common. It's sold separately from tile sets and updated every year, so the winning hands change annually.
• A mahjong mat (optional, but worth it): cushions the tiles, keeps them from sliding, cuts down on noise, and protects your table

Shop mahjong mats

Know Your Tiles

Together, that's the full 152-tile set.

How to Read the Card

The card is what makes American mahjong tick. Every line is a complete 14-tile winning hand, and your goal is to build one of them. You don't need to memorize it; you need to know how to read it.

• Groups are always identical tiles. Two identical tiles are a pair, three are a pung, four are a kong, five are a quint, and six are a sextet. There are no sequences: a "run" on the card means groups of identical tiles at consecutive numbers (a pung of 3s next to a kong of 4s, say), never three different tiles in a row.
• Letters stand for special tiles. F = flower, D = dragon, N / E / W / S = the winds, and 0 = a White Dragon (soap).
• Colors mean "same suit" or "different suit," not a specific suit. The card uses blue, green, and red. Tiles printed in the same color must all be in the same suit; tiles in different colors must be in different suits. If the 2s and 4s in a hand are one color and the 6s and 8s are another, the 2s and 4s go in one suit and the 6s and 8s in a different one. Which suits is up to you.
• X or C. Most hands are marked X (exposed), meaning you can call discards to complete groups. Hands marked C (concealed) can't have anything exposed: you can only call a discard if it's the tile that wins the game. Concealed hands are harder, but they tend to be worth more.
• Read the notes in parentheses. They add rules the colors can't show, such as "any 3 suits" or which dragons are required. The back of the card explains its conventions.
• Every line lists its point value. That's what you get paid for winning with it (see Scoring & Winning).

Setting Up the Game

1. Wash the tiles. Turn all 152 tiles face down in the center of the table and mix them thoroughly. This is called "the wash."
2. Build the walls. Each player stacks 19 tiles in a row, two tiles high (38 tiles) in front of their rack. The four walls come together as a square in the center of the table. Some groups push them all in at once; others push each wall out as the deal and draws reach it.
3. Choose East (the dealer). Everyone rolls the dice, and the highest total is East for the first game. Moving to East's right, the other seats are South, then West, then North. That's just the order of play.
4. Break the wall. East rolls the dice again and counts that many stacks from the right end of their own wall, right to left, and breaks the wall at that spot.
5. Deal the tiles. Starting at the break and moving counterclockwise, each player takes four tiles (two stacks) at a time until everyone has 12. Then East takes two more tiles and every other player takes one. East ends up with 14 tiles and everyone else with 13.
6. Arrange your rack. Sort your tiles by suit and number so patterns jump out, and keep flowers, winds, dragons, and jokers together. Keep your rack hidden from other players.

If East's 14 tiles already make a hand on the card, East can declare Mahjong right away, before the Charleston. It's rare, but it happens.

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After each game, the dealer role passes to the player on East's right.

The Charleston: Passing Tiles Before Play Begins

Before anyone takes a turn, players trade unwanted tiles in the Charleston, a set sequence of three-tile passes that helps everyone steer toward a hand on the card. It's unique to American mahjong, and it's the part beginners find most confusing, so here it is at a glance:

The first Charleston is required. The second happens only if all four players agree, and any player can stop it. A few details make it work:

• Each pass is exactly three tiles, passed face down. You pass yours before you pick up the ones coming to you.
• Jokers can never be passed.
• Blind pass: on the last pass of each Charleston (the Left pass of the first, the Right pass of the second), you can pass along one, two, or three of the tiles you just received without looking at them, instead of tiles from your own rack. Each pass still totals three tiles. It's handy when you like your hand and don't want to break it up.
• Courtesy pass: after the Charleston, you and the player across from you can swap zero to three tiles. Each of you says how many you'd like to pass, and you exchange the lower number.
• When it's all done, East makes the first discard and regular play begins.

A popular memory trick is ROLLOR: Right, Over (across), Left, Left, Over, Right.

Charleston strategy in one line: pass tiles that don't fit any hand you're considering, hold on to pairs and tiles that fit several lines, and don't panic if your hand looks worse before it looks better.

(Playing with fewer than four people? The official rules skip the Charleston. See the 2- and 3-player section below.)

How to Play a Hand

The first turn. East starts with 14 tiles, so East doesn't draw. East discards one tile face up in the center and names it out loud ("Four Bam," "North," "Soap," "Flower").

Every turn after that moves counterclockwise around the table:

1. Draw the next tile from the wall, continuing where the deal left off.
2. Discard one tile face up in the center and name it out loud, or declare Mahjong if your 14 tiles complete a hand.

After your discard, you're back to 13 tiles.

Calling a Discard

You don't have to wait for your turn to take a discard. Any player can claim the most recent discard, but only in these two situations:

• It completes a group of three or more identical tiles in your hand: a pung, kong, or quint. Jokers from your rack can help fill out the group.
• It completes your hand and wins the game. This is the only time you can call a tile to complete a pair or a single.

Here's how a call works. Say "call" before the next player has racked the tile they drew, pick up the discard, and lay the completed group face up on top of your rack. This is called an exposure. Then discard a tile. You don't draw on a turn where you call, and play continues to your right, so anyone who would have gone in between loses their turn.

A few rules go with it:

• If two players want the same discard, Mahjong beats an exposure. Otherwise, the player next in turn order gets the tile.
• You can only call the most recent discard, and on a concealed (C) hand you can only call to win.
• Once you've exposed a group and discarded, it's locked in. Exposed groups can't be changed, and your final hand has to include them. Only call when it clearly helps.
• A discarded joker can't be called, not even to win.

How to Win (and How a Game Ends)

• Mahjong: the first player to complete a valid 14-tile hand, either by drawing the last tile they need or by calling a discard, declares "Mahjong!" and lays the hand out, in the order shown on the card, so everyone can check it.
• Wall game: if every tile in the wall has been drawn and nobody has won, the game is a draw. In most home games, nobody pays.

Joker Rules

Jokers are the most flexible tiles in the set, so use them wisely.

• Where they work: a joker can stand in for any tile in a group of three or more identical tiles (pung, kong, or quint), whether the group is exposed or still hidden in your rack. Jokers can also be used in concealed (C) hands.
• Where they don't: never in a pair, and never as a single tile. That includes year hands like 2026 and any hand made up only of singles and pairs.
• They can't be passed in the Charleston.
• They're dead if discarded. Nobody can call a discarded joker, not even for Mahjong. Most players hold on to them. The main exception is when you're chasing a jokerless hand (see Scoring & Winning).
• The joker swap: on your turn, after you've drawn or called and before you discard, if you hold the actual tile a joker is standing in for in an exposed group (yours or another player's), you can swap your tile in and take the joker. This is why many players keep jokers hidden in their racks as long as possible: exposing one gives everyone else a chance to steal it.

Scoring & Winning

Every line on the card has its own point value, generally higher for harder hands. Most fall between 25 and 50 points, and the toughest are worth more. Points are usually played as cents (25 points = 25¢), though plenty of groups play for chips or bragging rights.

Only the winner collects. How much each player pays depends on how the game was won:

Jokerless bonus: if the winning hand contains no jokers, double the amounts above. (Singles and Pairs hands can't use jokers, so they don't get this bonus. Their higher point value already accounts for it.)

Here's what that looks like for a 25-point hand:

These payout rules are printed on the card. What varies from group to group is the stakes: some tables cap each player's losses, and tournaments use their own scoring. Agree on the details before the first hand.

How to Play Mahjong with 2 or 3 Players

American mahjong is designed for four, but smaller groups can still play.

• Official rules: use the full 152-tile set and deal only to the players who are seated. With two players, you sit across from each other, the dealer gets 14 tiles, and the other player gets 13. Skip the Charleston. Everything else (drawing, discarding, calling, scoring) works the same.
• A common house rule: because the Charleston is such a big part of the strategy, many groups add it back by dealing a hand for the empty seat and passing to and from it. There's no single standard for this, so agree on how you'll do it before you deal.
• Don't remove tiles. Hands on the card can call for any of the winds, dragons, and flowers, so the full set stays in play.

Read our guide to 2-player mahjong

Mahjong Rules for Beginners: Common Mistakes

• Forgetting to sort by suit and number. It makes near-complete patterns much harder to spot.
• Passing a joker in the Charleston. It's not allowed.
• Calling a discard for a pair or a single. You can only do that when the tile wins the game.
• Calling without a plan. An exposure is locked in once you discard, and it commits you to a hand that allows exposures. Only call when the tile clearly helps.
• Trying to call on a concealed (C) hand. The only discard you can take is the winning tile.
• Misreading the card. Colors tell you same suit or different suit, not which suit, and the notes in parentheses matter. A near-miss doesn't count.
• Passing your best tiles in the Charleston. Pass tiles that don't fit the hands you're considering, not just the ones that look worst.
• Discarding a joker. It's dead, nobody can use it, and you've given up your most flexible tile.
• Miscounting tiles. Keep 13 tiles on your rack after each discard (14 for East before the first discard). A wrong count, or declaring Mahjong on a hand that doesn't match the card, makes your hand dead: you can't win that game, and in most groups you still owe the winner. Penalty details vary, so agree on them before you play.

Your first few games will be slow, and that's normal. Most players start by learning one section of the card at a time and building from there.

FAQ

How do you play mahjong?

American mahjong is played by four players who draw and discard tiles from a shared wall, aiming to build one of the winning hands on the current year's card before anyone else does. (Other regional versions of mahjong follow different rules.)

How many players do you need for American mahjong?

Four is standard. The official rules also cover two or three players: deal only to the people seated, use the full tile set, and skip the Charleston. Many groups use house rules to add the Charleston back.

What is the Charleston in mahjong?

The Charleston is the tile-passing phase at the start of each game. Players pass three tiles at a time: right, across, and left in the required first Charleston, then (if all four agree) left, across, and right in an optional second one, followed by an optional courtesy pass across the table. Jokers can't be passed.

Do you have to do the second Charleston?

No. Only the first Charleston is required. The second happens only if all four players agree, and any player can stop it.

Can you use a joker to complete a pair?

No. Jokers only work inside groups of three or more identical tiles (pung, kong, or quint), never in a pair or a single tile.

Can you play mahjong with 2 players?

Yes. Under the official rules, two players sit across from each other and use the full set. The dealer takes 14 tiles, the other player takes 13, and the Charleston is skipped. House rules vary, so agree on the format before dealing.

How do you win at mahjong?

You win by making a 14-tile hand that exactly matches a line on the current card, either by drawing the last tile you need or by calling another player's discard. Then you declare "Mahjong!" and lay the hand out so it can be checked.

What's the difference between American and Chinese mahjong?

American mahjong uses a card of specific winning hands that changes every year, plus jokers and the Charleston. Hands are built only from groups of identical tiles, and you can't claim sequences. Chinese variants generally use no card and no jokers: a hand is built from four sets and a pair (sets can be sequences), and scoring depends on the patterns you make. Flowers and winds also work differently. In American mahjong, flowers are tiles used in hands and winds carry no seat bonus.