Introduction to Mahjong

A complete mahjong set consists of 136 tiles. 4 sets of the following tiles.

The 3 styles

- 1 to 9 Character aka MAN

- 1 to 9 Circle aka BALL

- 1 to 9 Bamboo aka STICK

The Dragons

- Honor the 4 winds (east, south, west, north)

- Honor the 3 Dragons (Chung, Fat, Pak)

Before we go to the playing rule, let's mention some terms that we will use in this document.

A Pair - any pairs of tile. e.g. , ,

A Triplet - 3 equal tiles. e.g. , ,

A Quad - 4 equal tiles e.g. ,

A Sequence (aka SEQ), not applicable to Honor tiles. e.g. ,

A Winning Hand usually has 4 segments and 1 pair. A segment can be a Triplet, a Quad or a SEQ. e.g.

Some combination of Trip or SEQ will have higher FAN (score), we will go into further detail in Winning Pattern of Pocket Mahjong.

A Terminal Tile is 1 and 9 of each styles, the 3 dragons and the 4 winds.

To play Mahjong.

Mahjong is a 4 players game, requiring both luck and wit. Some real good players can predict what the other players are doing, it is real fun.

To begin with, 1 of the player will be the STARTER of the Round, and the very first round of the game is always the EAST wind. At the end of a round, if the Winner is the STARTER himself or there is a DRAW game, he can keep his STARTER right, otherwise, the STARTER right pass to the next player (counter-clockwisely). After some rounds, every players have played the STARTER ROLE once and the STARTER right goes back to the very first player, in this case, the Round WIND will change from EAST to SOUTH. (i.e. EAST->SOUTH->WEST->NORTH->EAST...).

In every round, each players has his/her own SEAT WIND. The way of determining a player's SEAT WIND is very simple. The player with STARTER right is EAST, next player (right of STARTER) is SOUTH, next after next (sitting opposite to the STARTER) is WEST, last player (left of STARTER) is NORTH.

When we mention NEXT Player, we always the next player counter-clockwisely. (The one who sit on your right hand side). The Previous Player is the one who sit on your left hand side).

Having understood all these ROUND WIND and SEAT WIND assignment, we start the round of game.

Each of the players is given 13 tiles from the random Pool, the STARTER has 1 extra tile making a total of 14. The STARTER will discard the 1st tile, then each players take turn to get a tile and discard a tile.

A Concealed tile is tile with face down (hidden, unknown to other). An opened tile is a tile facing up, everybody can see it. (e.g. discarded tile on the table, or tiles opened after a CHOW, PONG, KONG).

In order to win, a player must collect a Winning Hand. Besides getting a tile in a orderly manner, you may get the tile just discarded by some players when some special condition is met. There are 3 special conditions, CHOW, PONG and KONG.

(a) TO CHOW...When a player discards one piece, only the next player has the chance to "chow". the one who takes in the discarded piece to form a sequence lays those three pieces on the table facing upward (unless the same piece is required at the same time by either one of the other 2 players "pong" or "kong"), and then discards one piece maintaining always 13 tiles in his/her hand altogether. The next draw from the wall will come in turn to the player sitting on the next turn of the one who just "chowed" or "ponged".
(b) TO PONG...If a player prossesses a pair he/she can pong the same piece which corresponds the one just discarded (by any of the 3 players and places this said pair with the discarded piece of the same kind in front of him/her facing upward and discards one from him/her as the game goes on. But if another player requires the same piece to complete a hand then the privilege of pong (or chow) is totally deprived. Suppose a player discards one piece and the same piece is required for completing a hand by 2 or 3 players the same time, the player who sits nearest the next turn has the right to take and complete the hand.
(c) TO KONG...If a player has three of a kind in his/her hand he can declare "Kong" when the 4th/last piece discarded by others (except when the piece is required by another player to complete a hand). A kong formed by a tile discarded by others is called "Open Kong" and that formed by a tile drwn by him/herself is called "Close Kong". Again, when a player has already ponged a set on the table and draws one more of the same kind from the wall by himself, it's treated as an Open Kong; but no one is allowed to kong the 4th of a kind which is diacarded by others when he/she has ponged already (except drawn by himself). For Open Kongs the player should lay the 4 tiles on the table all facing up, while for the Close Kongs one only lays 2 of them up and 2 down on the table showing the distinction. In the case of Close Kong, even if the same piece is required by another to complete a hand, the drawer only has the right to keep it. Any player who has konged must draw one tile more from the pool at the end of the wall to recover the correct number (13 pieces) in hand (4 of a kind is treated as a set of three). To do a "Close KONG" in Pocket Mahjong, press the middle "G" box.

Winning rules and Patterns of Pocket Mahjong.

Basic Pocket Mahjong operation.

After you run Pocket Mahjong, you will see the following screen Figure 1. If your version is not registered, you will see a 10 second counter. If you have just registered and received the registration code, you may input the code on the line above "Let's Play" button. It will bring you to Figure 2.

Figure 1

Figure 2

When you see the "Press MENU", just press the lower-left Silk Button (namely the MENU button).

You may toggle the game setting any time by press the MENU button and select "Setting...". Figure 3 is the setting screen.

Figure 3

In order to see things in Chinese, you must install any add-on Chinese OS (e.g. CHOS, CJKOS which support Big-5 encoding). There are two kind of table Layout. Layout 0 and Layout 1, please see Figure 4 and Figure 5 respectively.

Figure 4 Figure 5 Figure 6

The very small triangle is the middle of the screen is the STARTER mark. It means that left hand side player is the STARTER (Seat Wind EAST).

Normally the game play counter-clockwisely. So the next player is the BOTTON one, 3rd player is the RIGHT, 4th player is the TOP. The STARTER position will change from round to round, depending on who won the last game. The East in the middle of the screen tells you the ROUND WIND. Now it is EAST. The little 'G' square in the screen is the button for "Self" Gong. The "R:82" tells you that there are 82 tiles remaining.

At times, you may be able to SHENG (To CHOW), PONG, GONG (except self-Gong or Concealed Gong) or WIN, a screen will popup asking you, simply choose TICK or CROSS. In Figure 6, the LEFT player just discarded 8 BALL, and on your HAND (You are always the BOTTOM player), you have 6 BALL and 7 BALL, so system will you whether you want to SHENG in this case. Please note that you may only SHENG (CHOW) the previous player, the LEFT player. While PONG, GONG and WIN and be any players.