American Mahjong

What is American Mahjong?

American Mahjong is the 152-tile game played at kitchen tables and clubs across the United States, and here you can play it free in your browser, at an online table with friends or against three computer players. You start with 13 tiles (14 if you are East), swap tiles with the other players in the Charleston, then draw and discard until someone completes one of the hands on the card. Jokers fill in for missing tiles, discards can be called to expose a pung or kong, and the first player to make a hand from the card calls Mah Jongg and collects.

The game plays from the Rocket Card, our own card of 56 hands in the familiar American style: year hands with 2026, 2468, like numbers, addition hands, quints, consecutive runs, 13579, winds and dragons, 369, and singles and pairs. Every hand is marked concealed or exposed and has a point value. Open the card at any time to read every line, and the closest-hands panel shows which hands your tiles are nearest, with the tiles you still need. Scores add up over a session, and the hand in progress is saved on your device, so you can close the tab and come back to it.

How to play American Mahjong

1. Each player gets 13 tiles and East, the dealer, gets 14. Look at the card and think about which two or three hands your tiles suit best.
2. To play with friends, tap the globe button (Play online). Invite friends gives you a link for up to three people; Quick match seats you at the next open table. The host picks how strong the computer players are and starts the game, and computer players fill any empty seats.
3. The Charleston: choose 3 tiles you don't want and pass them right, then across, then left. Anyone may stop the Charleston there; if nobody does, a second Charleston passes left, across and right. On the last pass of each Charleston you may pass some tiles blind. Finally you can swap up to 3 tiles with the player across in the courtesy pass. Jokers can never be passed.
4. East discards first. On your turn you draw a tile automatically. Tap a tile and tap it again, press Discard, or drag it onto the table to throw it away.
5. When another player discards a tile you need, you may call it to expose a pung (3), kong (4) or quint (5) that fits an exposed hand on the card, or to declare Mah Jongg. You have a few seconds to decide before the game passes for you. You cannot call a tile for a single or a pair unless it completes your hand.
6. Jokers stand for any tile in a group of 3 or more, but never in a single or a pair. On your turn, if you hold the real tile that a joker stands for in any exposure, tap the glowing exposure (or the Swap button) to take the joker.
7. When your 14 tiles match a hand on the card exactly, press Mah Jongg! The other players pay you the hand's value; the player who discarded your winning tile pays double, everyone pays double if you drew it yourself, and a hand made without jokers doubles again.

American Mahjong tips and strategy

• Before the first pass, pick two or three possible hands rather than one. The Charleston brings in nine or more new tiles, and the hand you finish is often not the one you started with.
• Keep jokers and pass away tiles that fit none of your target hands. Flowers and soaps (white dragons) fit many hands, so think twice before passing them.
• Watch the closest-hands panel on the card: it counts the tiles still out there, so a hand that needs a tile everyone has thrown away drops down the list.
• Exposing early tells the table what you are making and gives others jokers to redeem from your rack. Call a discard only when it really moves your hand forward.
• Late in the hand, look at the other players' exposures before you discard. A player with three exposures is close to Mah Jongg, and throwing their tile costs you double.
• If a player has a joker in an exposure and you hold the tile it stands for, take the joker on your turn: a joker is worth more to you than any single tile.
• Stuck? Press Hint for the move the Expert computer player would make, and compare it with your own idea.

The Rocket Card: 56 hands in ten sections

American mahjong is always played from a card: a printed list of the only hands that can win. Clubs and tournaments in the United States use a new card each year from a national organization, and that card is copyrighted, so this game uses its own: the Rocket Card. It follows the same conventions American players already know. Each line is written in groups such as FF 2026 2222 6666, where each color is a suit: one color means one suit, and different colors mean different suits of your choice. F is a flower, 0 is the soap (the white dragon used as a zero), D is a dragon, and N, E, W and S are the winds.

The card has ten sections: 2026 (year hands), 2468, Like Numbers, Addition, Quints, Consecutive Run, 13579, Winds and Dragons, 369, and Singles and Pairs. Next to every hand is X or C and a value. X hands may be exposed: you can call discards to build their pungs, kongs and quints. C hands are concealed: you build them entirely from your own draws and may only call a discard for Mah Jongg. Values run from 25 points for the most common hands to 60 for the hardest singles and pairs.

In American mahjong a dragon belongs to a suit: the red dragon goes with craks, the green dragon with bams and the soap with dots. When a card line says D in the same color as a group of numbers, it means the dragon of that suit. Notes under each line say which suits and numbers are allowed, such as any like number, any three consecutive numbers, or one suit only.

The Charleston explained

The Charleston is the tile exchange at the start of every American mahjong hand. In the first Charleston, which is required, every player passes three tiles to the right, then three across, then three to the left. After that any single player may stop the Charleston. If nobody does, the second Charleston passes three to the left, three across and three to the right. On the last pass of each Charleston a player who doesn't want to break up their hand may pass one, two or all three of the tiles coming to them blind, without looking at them.

After the Charleston comes the courtesy pass: you and the player across may each offer zero to three tiles, and you swap the smaller number. Jokers can never be passed at any stage. In this game you simply tap the tiles you want to pass and press the pass button; the computer players choose at the same time, and the tiles you receive are marked with a dot.

Jokers, calling and exposures

There are eight jokers. A joker can stand for any tile in a pung, kong, quint or sextet, so a quint, five of the same tile, always needs at least one. Jokers can never be used in a single or a pair, or in a group of different tiles such as NEWS, 2468 or 2026, which is why the Singles and Pairs section is so hard. A discarded joker is dead and cannot be called.

When another player discards, you may call the tile only to expose a group of three or more that fits a hand on the card, or to declare Mah Jongg. There are no chows (runs) in American mahjong. If two players want the same discard, Mah Jongg beats an exposure, and between two exposures the player next in turn wins. After you expose you discard without drawing. On your turn you may redeem a joker: give the real tile a joker stands for in any exposure and take the joker into your hand.

If the tiles everyone can see prove that your exposures can no longer make any hand on the card, your hand is dead. A dead player stops drawing and discarding for the rest of the hand but still pays the winner. Wrong calls are not possible here, because the game only offers moves the rules allow.

Scoring and settlement

When someone makes Mah Jongg, each other player pays the winner the value printed on the card. The player who discarded the winning tile pays double. If the winner drew the last tile themselves (self-picked), all three players pay double. A hand with no jokers in it at all is jokerless and doubles every payment again, except in the Singles and Pairs section, where jokers are never allowed anyway. If the wall runs out and nobody wins, it is a wall game and nobody pays.

The game keeps a running score for your session, with each player's total and number of wins, and the deal passes one seat to the right after every hand, so everyone takes a turn as East. Scores are kept on your device; you can reset them in Settings.

Play American mahjong online with friends

Tap the globe button above the table to play online. Invite friends creates a private table and a link to send by text or chat: up to three friends can sit down, the host chooses Beginner, Club or Expert computer players for any empty seats, and presses Start. Quick match puts you at the next public table that is about to start, and the open tables list shows tables you can join, including games already in play where you take over from a computer player.

Every move is checked on our server with the same rules engine as the solo game, and each player's device only receives that player's own tiles, so nobody can peek at another rack. Calls have a short countdown and turns have a time limit; if someone doesn't answer in time, or their connection drops, a computer player covers for them until they come back. Reloading the page or reopening the link puts you straight back in your seat. Scores for the session are kept at the table, and the deal moves one seat to the right after every hand. Your solo game against the computer is saved separately and is waiting when you leave the table.

Playing against the computer

The three computer players play the whole game by the same rules: they pass in the Charleston, vote on the second Charleston, offer courtesy tiles, pick target hands from the card, call discards, redeem jokers and declare Mah Jongg. Beginner plays loosely, with plenty of randomness in what it passes and throws, and pays no attention to what the others are collecting. Club keeps several target hands in view, counts the tiles that are still out there, blind passes when its hand is worth keeping and avoids discarding tiles that fit the other players' exposures, though it still makes the odd loose discard. Expert never plays loosely: it judges concealed hands more strictly because no called tile can help them, reads which tiles each opponent has already thrown away, and guards harder against feeding an exposed hand late in the wall. Over thousands of computer-against-computer hands, Club clearly beats Beginner and Expert wins more often and scores more than Club.

The computer players only ever see what a player at a real table would: their own tiles, everyone's exposures and the discards. The same rules engine runs on our server for online tables, so a computer player there plays exactly like the one on your device.

American mahjong compared with other mahjong

American mahjong grew out of the Chinese game in the 1920s and 1930s and changed in ways that make it a different game. It adds eight jokers and uses 152 tiles, has the Charleston before every hand, allows no chows, and wins only with the exact hands on the card instead of any four sets and a pair. Flowers are part of hands rather than bonus tiles, and a quint of five identical tiles is possible thanks to the jokers.

If you want a gentler game with the same tiles, try Mahjong Solitaire, which is a single-player matching puzzle rather than a game of hands.

American Mahjong FAQ