American Mahjongg: Beginner's Guide & Rules - Play Like a Pro!

1. Y’all Wanna Play ‘Murican? A beginner’s guide to playing American Style MahJongg

2. BareNecessities Understanding the Basics American Mah-Jongg is very different from Asian styles;I cannot stress this enough! • There are more tiles • Jokers and Flowers are used to make hands • The official hand list changes annually based on tile patterns • Use Scoring Cards to build acceptable hands • The Charleston – tile swapping

3. Dots Bams Cracks Flowers Honors & Jokers There are 4 of each tile, EXCEPT there are 8 Flowers and 8 Jokers. * White Dragon is also known as the “soap” tile and can be used as a “0” in years, ie. 2014

4. ColourBlindTips You may not have noticeddue to colorblindness, The Redand Greendragons are identical! Simply discard all dragons in an angry rage to avoid any mishaps! N.B. We apologize to anyone we may offend; the red and green dragon issue in this game is a huge oversight on the part of the developer’s of this game. Tiles can be engraved with an R and G in the upper-left hand corner so all players may identify the tiles accordingly.

5. Setting Up Set up racks and shuffle all tiles facedown in the centre. Build walls: 19 tiles; 2 high Determine East – Highest roller becomes East Break Wall – East always takes from the wall in front of them N.B. Take tiles COUNTER-CLOCKWISE!

6. East starts by rolling the dice and taking from the wall directly in front of them. • Each player takes 4 tiles at a time (2 on top and 2 on the bottom) COUNTER-CLOCKWISE from east (count from left to right). • Last tiles are taken likeshown, East having 14tiles, all others have 13.

7. Picking a Hand • Hands are VERY different from other styles. • Stop trying to build riichi hands! I know your 13 terminals is very sexy, but it won’t do you any good here. • Match a hand with one on the scorecard. • Abandon all hope. • Yourfuture self if you do not comply.

8. How to Read the Score Card • 1-9 – Specific tile number (Does not include Flowers) • N,E,W,S – North, East, South, West • D – Dragon • R – Red Dragon • G – Green Dragon • 0 – White Dragon (Soap) • F – Flower

9. How to Read the Score Card • There are different sections: • Year:Patterns that make up a year, such as 2013. • 2468: Patterns that require even number tiles. • Change-up: This section varies. • Quints: Hands that require at least one quint (5 identical tiles) one of which must be a Joker. • Consecutive Run: Patterns of consecutive numbers. • 13579: Patterns requiring odd numbered tiles. • Winds/Dragons: Patterns requiring wind and dragon tiles. • 369: Patterns using multiples of 3 (3, 6, 9) • Singles and Pairs: Patterns with single and paired tiles. No Jokers may be used in these hands.

10. How to Read the Score Card • Suits are represented by different colours: • One colour = one suite; two colours = two suits; etc. • Value represents payout • Xmeans open hand; C means concealed hand • Dragons have suits: • RED – Cracks or Characters • GREEN – Bams or Sticks/Bamboo • WHITE – Dots or Balls/Coins • White dragon is also called “Soap” and represents “0” in year hands *This is important for hands that need matching dragons

11. Patriotism Break Obama riding a lion while wielding a light sabre. Yeah.

12. The Charleston • How that you have an idea of a few hands you might want to play, it’s time to Charleston! • Your hand might change during this process; keep an open mind! No Jokers may be passed during the Charleston

13. The Charleston • Passing 3 tiles at a time; • 3 to the right; 3 across; 3 to the left • If players agree, the Charleston can proceed again; • 3 to the left; 3 across; 3 to the right • A “blind pass” of up to 3 tiles is permitted. A blind pass is taking the tiles received and passing them without looking at them. • After the Charleston, players may exchange up to 3 tiles in a courtesy pass with the player across from them.

14. YOU MEAN WE GET TO PLAY NOW?!?

15. East starts by discarding a tile. • Moving counter-clockwise (to the right), each player takes a tile from the wall and then discards. • Players can call Pung, Kong, Quint or Sextet. Called sets must be exposed. • If multiple people call the same tile, turn order dictates who gets it, except if another player wins off of it. • Any winning tile can be called.

16. A full game of MahJongg consists of 4 rounds, East, South, West and North. The wind indicator placed at true East (the first dealer) indicates which round is being player. When true East becomes dealer again, they switch the indicator to show the next round. • Each round consists of each player being dealer once. • This makes for a total of 16 hands. • The game ends early if a player goes bankrupt and cannot pay the winner of a hand.

17. Joker Rules • Can substitute in pung, kong quint or sextet. • If a player discards a tile that is part of an exposed set in which a joker is used, that player may call that tile and switch out the joker, putting the joker in their hand. The player must then discard a tile to maintain the 13 tiles in their hand. • Exposed Jokers may be switched for the natural tile if it is self-drawn or discarded by another player.

18. Vocabulary Pair – Two identical tiles. Pung – Three identical tiles. Kong – Four identical tiles. Quint – Five identical tiles. Sextet – Six identical tiles. N.B. Jokers can only be used on 3 or more of a kind; no “natural” tile (actual tile) is needed.

19. Dead Hands A player may challenge another player’s hand and call it “dead” for the reasons below: • Invalid Hand – The current exposed tiles do not match with any of the possible hands. • Invalid Exposure – The current exposed tiles points out that the hand must be concealed. • Impossible to Win – The current exposed tile and dead tiles point out that it is impossible for the player to win. For example: a player needs to make a pair of two dots to win, however there are already three of two dots discarded on previous moves. • Breaking the Rules – such as, picking up tiles when it is not your turn, etc.

20. Challenging Dead Hands • A player states that another player’s hand is dead • A player with the questionable hand may responds as follows:– Admit that the hand is dead: this player stops playing and does not pick up or discard and pays the winner the full value of the hand. – Deny that the hand is dead: The game continues. At the end of the game, the hand in question is inspected. If the challenger is correct (the hand is dead), then the challenged pays the hand value to the challenger. Otherwise (if the hand is ok), then the challenger pays the hand value to the challenged. If no player catches the error, the play may continue. However, the player with the incorrect exposure cannot declare Mahjong.

21. FAQ • What’s the Flower for? • Flowers are standard tiles, represented by F on the scorecard. They do not have suits; jokers can substitute flowers following standard joker rules • Hands that do not state “Any Suit” or “Any Like/Consec No” must use numbers stated • There is no “Chii”.

22. Points/Scoring • Each player starts off with: • 1 yellow coin • 2 blue coins • 8 red coins • 10 green coins • Hand values are shown on the scorecard

23. Winning! *No payouts are made if the game ends in a draw

24. Additional Rules

25. Because it just wouldn’t be ‘Murica without it! Thanks for coming!