How to play mahjong
Four players, a wall of tiles, and one hand card. This is American mahjong as Light Mahjong deals it — the version that opens when you sit down here — from the first roll to the moment someone declares Mah Jongg.
Play one hand
Take a seat
Four people play. Empty seats can be computer players, and a friend can join with the table code. Nothing is installed.
Name East and break the wall
Dice choose East for the first hand. Each player builds a wall of 38 tiles. East’s roll breaks that wall, and the deal starts at the break.
Deal the hands
Tiles come off the wall in sets of four, three times around. East then takes two tiles and each other player takes one. East holds 14 tiles. Everyone else holds 13.
Pass tiles in the Charleston
Everyone passes three tiles to the right, then three across, then three to the left. The table may agree to a second Charleston in the opposite direction. A courtesy pass then exchanges up to three tiles with the player across. Jokers cannot be passed.
East discards, then everyone draws
East discards first and does not draw before that discard. Play continues to the right: draw one tile, then discard one. There is no timer.
Call a discard only when the card allows it
You may take a discarded tile to finish a pung, kong, quint, or sextet that belongs on a line of the hand card. You cannot call a discard to build a sequence. A discarded joker cannot be called. Declaring Mah Jongg outranks a call for an exposure.
Declare Mah Jongg
When your tiles match one complete line on the card, declare Mah Jongg. Concealed lines are not allowed to have any exposed groups. Open Card at the table to read the line beside your rack.
Settle the hand and deal again
The number printed on the line is its value. On a discard win, the player who threw the tile pays double and the other two pay single. On a self-pick, each of the other three pays double. East then moves one seat to the right and the scores carry forward.
What you are trying to build
The aim is one exact line from the hand card, not “four sets and a pair” in the abstract. A line is a recipe of groups. A group may be a single tile, a pair, a pung of three, a kong of four, a quint of five, or a sextet of six. The card prints the groups with spaces between them, and the number beside the line is its point value.
Two lines show the shape of the card. Garden steps is a pair of flowers plus four pungs of consecutive numbers in one suit — 2, 3, 4, and 5 Bam, for example — and it is worth 25. Dragon lights is a flower pair, a pung of each dragon, and a pung of any one number, worth 30. Most lines may include called groups. Four lines are concealed: Quiet path, Three-suit pairs, Quiet crossroads, and Dragon thread. Expose a group while you hold one of those and that line is no longer available to you.
Jokers and flowers do special jobs, and they are easy to misread if you know another version of the game. Eight jokers may stand in for a tile inside a group of three or larger. They never complete a pair or a single, and they are never passed in the Charleston or the courtesy exchange. The eight flower and season pictures are all called Flower at this table, any flower matches any other, and they stay in the rack. They are not lifted out for bonus points. That bonus-flower habit belongs to the Hong Kong game, which is a separate choice in the lobby.
The Charleston, without the folklore
Before anyone draws, the table passes tiles so a hopeless deal can become a plan. The first Charleston is three tiles right, three across, then three left. Players then vote on a second Charleston. One decline skips it. If everyone agrees, the second Charleston runs left, across, then right. After that, each player may offer up to three tiles to the person sitting across. Only the smaller offer is exchanged, and offering nothing is allowed.
On the last pass of each Charleston — left the first time, right the second — you may blind-pass: send fewer than three of your own tiles and let the rest be tiles you are about to receive, forwarded onward. If all four players blind-pass the entire three, the passing stops there. East discards next, and any courtesy exchange still ahead is skipped. The rules page spells the passes out, including what a blind pass is allowed to do.
A turn, once the passing is over
East begins with 14 tiles and discards one, with no draw first. From then on, a turn is a draw and a discard, moving to the right. There is no clock. When someone throws a tile, each other player may pass, call it for a legal exposure, or declare Mah Jongg if it finishes a line. Mah Jongg wins that contest. If two players want the same discard only as an exposure, the player closer in turn order takes it.
A call has to finish a pung, kong, quint, or sextet that the card can still use, together with any groups already exposed. You cannot take a discard merely to make 4-5-6 in one suit. Sequences on this card are collected in the rack, from the deal and the passes. Calling a kong or a larger group does not earn a replacement tile from the wall. Those tiles are already part of the fourteen.
On your own turn you may also trade a natural tile from your rack for a joker sitting in an exposed group, yours or someone else’s, when the natural tile is the one that joker stands for. The scoring page explains why a joker taken from another player can be paid as a self-pick, and why a joker taken from your own exposure cannot rewrite a discard win.
When the hand is over
Mah Jongg ends the hand and the table pays the value on the line, with the doubles described under scoring. If the wall runs out and nobody has declared, the hand is a draw: nobody pays, and the scores stay where they were. The next hand gives East to the player on the right. Points from earlier hands remain.
The names on the tiles, and how many copies exist, are on mahjong tiles explained. Once the order of a hand feels familiar, strategy tips cover which tiles to pass and when a call gives too much away. To sit at a table with three computer players, use the button above — or read how free online play works if you want friends at the same table.
Questions
Which mahjong is this how-to for?
American mahjong, played with the Light Mahjong Card 2025. The same site also has Hong Kong, Riichi, and solitaire, and those follow different rules. The steps on this page are the American table.
Do I need a printed annual card?
No. Winning hands come from Light Mahjong’s own card, which is original to this game and is not an NMJL or other publisher’s annual card. A hand you remember from a yearly printed card may not be a winner here. Open Card during the game to read the lines that count.
Can I learn the game without three friends online?
Yes. A practice table fills the other seats with computer players, and the coach can suggest a move. One-minute lessons also cover the Charleston, calling a discard, and taking a joker back.