The Mahjong Guide

Rules & Gameplay

American mahjong procedures, card use, the Charleston, exposures, jokers, calling, winning, and table etiquette.

Use the sections and guides below to explore this subject in a clear, practical order.

Separate fixed procedures from house preferences

American mahjong has a recognizable flow: setup, deal, Charleston, optional passing decisions, then repeated drawing and discarding until someone declares mahjong or the wall is exhausted. Within that flow are precise rules about tile counts, calls, exposures, jokers, concealed hands, and invalid hands.

Some groups also develop table customs about pace, teaching, betting, or how errors are handled. Those customs should never be confused with the governing rules. Each guide in this section identifies the standard procedure first and labels optional practices clearly.

From mixed tiles to a completed game

  1. Prepare the table. Mix the tiles, build four walls, determine East, and deal the correct starting hands.
  2. Complete the Charleston. Pass tiles in the required directions while observing restrictions on jokers and blind passes.
  3. Begin normal turns. Draw or claim a legal discard, then return the hand to the correct tile count by discarding.
  4. Expose carefully. A called discard creates a visible group that must match the hand being pursued.
  5. Declare mahjong correctly. The completed hand must match a current-card hand and satisfy concealed or exposed requirements.

Rules can change with the annual card

The structure of American mahjong remains familiar from year to year, but the official hand card changes annually and governing organizations may clarify procedures. Players should use the current card and the rule source followed by their group. Older examples remain useful for learning patterns, but they should not be treated as the current list of winning hands.

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