American mahjong vs other styles
If you learned mahjong from an American card, sitting down at a Hong Kong or Riichi table can feel like a different game. In many ways it is.
The big difference: the card
In most styles, a winning hand is any four sets and a pair (five sets in Taiwanese). Then you score what you made. American mahjong turns that around. You must complete one of the specific hands printed on that year's card from the National Mah Jongg League, and the hands change every year. The card tells you the shape of every legal hand and what it's worth.
Side by side
| American | Hong Kong | Japanese Riichi | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tiles | 152, including 8 jokers and 8 flowers | 144, including flowers and seasons | 136, no flowers |
| Winning hand | Must match a hand on this year's card | Four sets and a pair | Four sets and a pair, with at least one yaku |
| Jokers | Yes, in groups of three or more | No | No |
| Calling discards | Only to complete a pung or larger group, or for mah jongg; no chows | Pung, kong or chow (chow from the previous player only) | Pon, kan or chii (chii from the previous player only) |
| Biggest groups | Quints and sextets, using jokers | Kongs | Kongs |
| Before play | The Charleston: rounds of tile passing | None | None |
| Scoring | Fixed value printed on the card; discarder pays double | Faan (doubles), with a table minimum | Han and fu, with riichi and dora |
What carries over
The tiles are mostly the same: three suits numbered 1 to 9, winds and dragons. Pungs and kongs work the same way, and so does reading which tiles are left in the wall. If you play American mahjong, you already have the hardest habit in any style: keeping track of discards.
What you'll need to unlearn
- Runs matter. In Hong Kong, Riichi and Taiwanese, chows (three in a row in one suit) are a basic building block, and the next player can claim a discard to make one.
- No jokers. Every set has to be built from real tiles.
- No card. You choose the shape of your hand yourself, then score it. In Riichi, a hand needs at least one scoring element (a yaku) to win at all.
- No Charleston. The hand starts with your first draw.
Two more styles worth knowing
Taiwanese mahjong uses 16-tile hands and needs five sets and a pair to win. See how to learn Taiwanese mahjong. Indian mahjong is the closest cousin to American mahjong: it has jokers, and it adds two melds of its own, the Mixed Chow and the Crochet.
Try another style
American mahjong is coming soon to Mahjong Live. Meanwhile you can play Hong Kong, Riichi, Taiwanese and Indian mahjong there free, against AI opponents or friends. For American players, Indian Mahjong is the gentlest step, because the jokers will feel familiar.
Try a new style free
Hong Kong, Riichi, Taiwanese and Indian mahjong in your browser, against AI or friends.