American Mah Jongg is the outlier of the mahjong family, and the one most likely to trip up someone who learned the game anywhere else. Everything below is how it is actually played at a table — and every rule here is one More Mahjong enforces, because the app was built to be correct rather than forgiving.
1. The one rule everything else hangs off
You are not free-building sets. You are building one specific hand printed on a card. Fourteen tiles that make four perfectly good sets and a pair are worth nothing if that pattern is not a line on the card. Choosing your line, and knowing when to abandon it, is the game.
2. What you need
- Four players. The passing ritual assumes four seats.
- 152 tiles — the usual three suits, winds and dragons, plus eight flowers and eight jokers.
- A card for each player. Ours is free to read and print.
3. The deal
East breaks her own wall — an American quirk; in most traditions the dice send you to somebody else's. Tiles come off in blocks of four, four, four, then one apiece, and every player ends with 13 tiles. East takes a fourteenth and the hand begins with her discard.
Flowers are ordinary hand tiles here. Nothing is set aside and nothing is replaced, which is the second thing that surprises a Chinese-rules player.
4. The Charleston
Before a single tile is drawn, tiles move around the table in a fixed sequence of passes — three at a time. This is the most social ritual in any mahjong variant, and it is where a hopeless deal becomes playable.
- Three right, then three across, then three left — and that third pass is blind: you pass on tiles you have not looked at.
- Then, only if all four players agree, a second set of three going the other way: left, across, and right blind.
- Finally a courtesy pass across the table — nought to three tiles, exchanged at the lower of the two players' offers. If you want three and your partner offers one, you each pass one.
Seven passes in all when the table votes for the second round. Pass away what your line cannot use, and watch what comes back — a tile you are handed twice is a tile nobody wants.
5. A turn
Draw a tile, then discard one, calling it out loud as you do. Play moves to your right. That is the whole loop — the game lives in what happens between turns.
6. Claiming a discard, and exposing
Any player may claim the tile just discarded if it completes a block their line needs. You take it, and you must then expose the whole block face-up on the table for everyone to see. Two consequences follow, and they are the strategic heart of the game:
- An exposure is public information. The table now knows something about your line — and good players read exposures to work out which tiles are safe.
- An exposure is a commitment. It has to map onto a whole block of a real line. Expose your way into a corner and you can end up with a hand that can no longer reach anything on the card.
A line marked C is concealed: you may not claim a discard for it at all, and must draw every tile yourself. That is why concealed lines pay more.
7. Jokers
Eight of them, and they are wild — but only inside a block of three or more identical tiles. Never a pair, never a single, never a mixed block like 2468. Beginners assume a joker fixes anything; it does not, and knowing which lines it cannot touch is most of what separates a second-year player from a first-year one.
You can also exchange for one. On your turn, if an exposed block anywhere on the table has a joker standing in for a tile you hold, swap your real tile in and take the joker. It is the single best value move in the game and beginners forget it exists.
8. Winning
When the tile you need appears — drawn, or discarded by someone else — you call Mah Jongg, lay your hand down, and show it matches a line. Take the value printed beside that line. A hand that reached the end with no joker in it is worth double, which is a real reason to pick the harder road.
The five mistakes everybody makes first
- Falling in love with a line. When your exposures kill it, it is dead. Switch.
- Hoarding jokers. A joker you never spend is worth nothing, and it cannot rescue a pair anyway.
- Exposing too early. It tells the table where you live and locks in a shape you may want to leave.
- Forgetting the joker exchange. Free value, every single time.
- Not reading the card mid-hand. The right line often changes twice before the wall runs out.
Common questions
How many tiles do you need for American Mah Jongg?
152. The standard 136-tile set — three suits of 1 to 9, four winds, three dragons — plus eight flowers and eight jokers. The jokers are what make it American; no other mahjong tradition uses them.
Can you play American Mah Jongg with three players?
It is written for four, and the Charleston in particular assumes four seats. Three-player house rules exist, but the card, the passing and the settlement are all designed around a full table — which is the honest reason a solo app is useful at all: it gives you the other three.
Do you have to say what hand you are going for?
No, and you should not. Your line is private until your exposures give it away. That is the whole tension of the game: every tile you claim tells the table something about what you are building.
What happens if nobody wins?
The wall runs out and the hand is a wall game. Nobody pays, and the dealer deals again.
Is American Mah Jongg the same as mahjong solitaire?
No. Mahjong solitaire is a one-player tile-matching puzzle that borrowed the tiles and the name. American Mah Jongg is a four-player game of claims, exposures and scoring. See the difference, side by side.
Where to practise
More Mahjong deals this card against three opponents that play it properly, walks you through your first hand, ranks every line by how close you are, and will not let you win on a hand the card does not allow. It is a one-time unlock with no ads and no subscription, and it works on a plane. Then print the card and go find three people.
