American Mahjong is a four-player tile game built around rack, dice, and one small paper document that changes every year: the official card published by the National Mah Jongg League (NMJL). If you can learn to read that card and follow a few structural rules, you can sit down at almost any American Mahjong table in the country and play. This guide walks through the whole game, start to finish, for someone who has never played before.
What you need to play
A standard American Mahjong set has 152 tiles: 108 suited tiles (dots, bams, and craks, numbered one through nine, four of each), 16 wind tiles, 12 dragon tiles, 8 flower tiles, and 8 jokers. Each player also needs a rack — American racks are the sloped, pusher-style kind that let you slide your tiles forward and hide them from other players at the same time. You’ll also need a pair of dice and, most importantly, the current-year NMJL Card, which lists every valid winning hand for that year.
For a deeper breakdown of what’s actually in the box and how the wall and racks get built, see our tile counts and table setup guide.
The basic goal
Each player is trying to assemble a hand of 14 tiles that exactly matches one of the hands printed on the current NMJL Card — not just any three-of-a-kind and pair combination like some other Mahjong variants, but one of the specific, published patterns for that year. You build toward a hand by drawing tiles from the wall, discarding tiles you don’t need, and occasionally calling a tile another player discards. The first player to complete a valid hand and declare Mahjong wins the round.
How a round starts
Play is counterclockwise. One player is designated East for the first hand (usually by a dice roll), and East acts as the dealer. All four players build a wall of tiles in front of their rack, the walls are pushed together into a square, and dice determine where the wall is broken to begin dealing. Each player ends up with 13 tiles, except East, who receives 14 tiles and discards first.
The Charleston
Before anyone plays a tile, every player takes part in the Charleston — a structured series of three-tile passes between players, done in a fixed pattern. The first three passes are mandatory; a second round of three passes is optional and can be skipped if any player prefers not to do it. After the Charleston, there’s often an optional courtesy pass between the players sitting across from each other. The Charleston exists to give everyone a chance to improve their hand before real play starts, since the tiles you’re dealt are rarely close to a finished hand on their own.
The Charleston has its own etiquette and a few sub-rules, like the blind pass, that trip up a lot of beginners. We cover it in full in our dedicated Charleston guide.
Playing the hand
Once the Charleston ends, East discards first, and play moves counterclockwise. On your turn, you draw one tile from the wall and then discard one tile, keeping your hand at 13 tiles between turns (14 right after you draw). You can also call another player’s discard out of turn if it completes an exposure — a Pung (three of a kind) or Kong (four of a kind) — or if it completes your entire hand for Mahjong. Calling a tile for an exposure means you lay those tiles face-up in front of your rack, which is why it’s called an “exposed” set; anyone at the table can see it, and it usually costs you some flexibility (and sometimes points) compared to keeping your hand fully concealed. We cover exactly how turn order and calling work in our turn order guide.
Jokers can stand in for almost any tile in an exposure, which is part of what makes American Mahjong feel different from other tile-matching games — you’ll sometimes see a Kong or even a Quint (five of a kind, only possible because of jokers) on the table. Certain sections of the NMJL Card, like Singles and Pairs hands, don’t allow jokers at all, so knowing which hands are joker-eligible is part of reading the card correctly.
Going Mahjong
You win a hand by completing a 14-tile combination that exactly matches one of the patterns on the current NMJL Card, either by drawing the final tile yourself or by calling another player’s discard to complete it. When that happens, you declare “Mahjong” and lay your hand down for the table to verify against the card. If nobody completes a hand before the wall runs out, the round ends in what’s usually called a wall game, and the tiles get reshuffled for the next hand.
We break down exactly what “going out” looks like, including concealed versus exposed hands and what happens in a wall game, in how a hand ends.
The card is the rulebook
Everything about what counts as a winning hand comes from the NMJL Card, and it’s reissued every year with different hands and scoring. We never reproduce the League’s actual hand list on this site — it’s their copyrighted work, and the only accurate current copy is the one you buy directly from them. What we do cover is how to read and use the card once you have it, in our NMJL Card Guide.
A quick example turn
Say it’s your turn and you draw a tile from the wall, bringing you to 14. You look at your rack and see that the tile you just drew doesn’t help any of the one or two hands you’re chasing from the current Card. You discard it face-up, announce it if your table follows that custom, and play passes to the player on your right. A few turns later, another player discards a tile you need to complete a Pung. You call it, lay the three matching tiles face-up in front of your rack as an exposure, discard a tile of your own, and play continues from your seat. That’s the entire rhythm of the game, repeated dozens of times per hand.
Common beginner mistakes
- Locking onto one hand too early. The Charleston will change your tiles significantly; keep two or three candidate hands in mind rather than committing after the first pass.
- Forgetting jokers aren’t universal. Some sections of the Card, like Singles and Pairs hands, don’t allow jokers at all — always check before you plan around one.
- Miscounting tiles. Losing track of whether you have 13 or 14 tiles is one of the most common ways a hand gets ruled dead. Recount periodically, not just at the end.
- Exposing too early. Calling a Pung feels productive, but it reveals information to the table and can lock you out of a higher-scoring concealed hand.
How scoring works, in general terms
Each valid hand on the NMJL Card carries a point value, and those values change from year to year along with the hands themselves. Broadly, harder-to-complete hands and fully concealed hands tend to score higher than easier or exposed ones, but the exact point values are printed on the Card itself and we won’t guess at or reproduce them here. Once you have your current-year Card in hand, our NMJL Card Guide walks through how to actually read those values.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to buy a new NMJL Card every year?
Yes. The card changes annually, and old cards don’t reflect the current valid hands or scoring, so you can’t play a current game with a prior year’s card.
Can beginners realistically learn this in one sitting?
Most new players get comfortable after a few real hands with a patient table. Understanding the Charleston and reading the card tend to take the longest to click.
Is American Mahjong the same as the Mahjong app on my phone?
Often not. Many mobile Mahjong apps use Chinese or solitaire-style rules. If you want to practice American rules specifically, look for an app that says so explicitly — see our roundup of legitimate American Mahjong apps.
How many players do I need?
American Mahjong is played with exactly four players. If you don’t have a regular table yet, see our guide to finding local groups.
Do I need to memorize the whole Card before my first game?
No. Most new players play their first several hands with the Card open on the table, referring to it constantly. That’s normal and expected, not a sign you’re behind.
