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Logic Games

Tabletop guide

How to play Mahjong

Build melds at a four-player tile table.

Play four-player Hong Kong-style Mahjong with a clearly defined simple-scoring house variant. Draw from a 136-tile wall, discard carefully, and claim tiles to complete your hand. There are no flowers or minimum fan requirement, and the dealer rotates each hand.

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01 / The essentials

Mahjong rules

  • This table uses 136 tiles, no flowers, and no minimum fan requirement. It is Hong Kong-style practice with fixed scoring, not a tournament fan-scoring ruleset. The dealer rotates each hand.
  • Build four melds and a pair, seven distinct pairs, or thirteen orphans (all thirteen terminal and honor types plus a duplicate). On your turn, draw one tile and discard one. A chow is three consecutive suited tiles, a pung is three identical tiles, and a kong uses four.
  • Everyone gets a chance to respond. A winning claim has priority over pung or kong, and those take priority over chow. Only the next player can chow. Pass to let play continue.
  • Winning from a discard earns three points from the discarder. A self-drawn win earns one point from each other player. Wall exhaustion is a draw. Kong replacement tiles come from the wall’s tail; there is no separate dead-wall reserve.

02 / Build the habit

Mahjong strategy

Build connected groups

A normal winning hand contains four melds and a pair. Consecutive suited tiles can form a chow; identical tiles can form a pung or kong. Honor tiles do not form sequences. Keep related tiles together before choosing what to discard.

Check a claim before passing

A winning claim outranks other claims. Pung and kong outrank chow, and only the next player after the discarder may chow. The table offers legal combinations so you can choose the exact sequence you want.

Read the discards

Each player’s discarded tiles remain visible. They provide information about which tiles have already been used, while opponents’ concealed tiles remain private. Avoid assuming a tile is safe simply because it is an honor.

03 / Worked example

A chow opportunity

Suppose the player immediately before you discards a 3 of bamboo and your hand contains 1 and 2 of bamboo. You may claim the 3 to expose a 1–2–3 chow, then discard a tile. If another player claims that discard to win, their winning claim takes priority.

04 / Put it into practice

Learn with your table

  1. Create a four-seat table and add three bots to learn the draw and discard flow.
  2. Look for a pair and potential melds before discarding; compare the claim options when another player discards.
  3. Play four hands to experience each dealer position and review the scoring at the end of each hand.
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A common mistake

This table does not use tournament fan scoring. A discard win transfers three points from the discarder; a self-drawn win earns one point from each opponent. A kong needs a replacement tile, drawn from the tail of the wall.

Is this Riichi or Mahjong Solitaire?

Neither. It is a four-player Hong Kong-style tile game with simple house scoring. The rules shown at the table explain the exact variant.

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Guide updated . Rules describe the version on Logic Games.