AMERICAN MAH JONGG · DAY 1

Meet the tiles

You'll learn: Learn the three suits, special tiles and how many of each you have.
Time: 5 minutes
Builds on: None
Up next: Pairs, pungs, kongs and quints
Why it helps: You'll soon recognise the tiles you draw and hear their names around the table.

Welcome to mahjong. A set can look like a lot at first, but most of its tiles follow one simple pattern. Let's start there.

Three suits, numbered 1 to 9

Meet the three suits: Bams, Craks and Dots. Each runs from 1 to 9, with four copies of each tile.

Bams

Look for bamboo sticks. The 1 Bam is a bird.

2 Bam — Nine numbers, four copies of each tile.

Craks

Look for Chinese characters, with the number at the top.

1 Crak — Nine numbers, four copies of each tile.

2 Crak — Nine numbers, four copies of each tile.

Dots

Look for circles.

1 Dot — Nine numbers, four copies of each tile.

Try saying a few tile names as you look at them: 3 Bam, 7 Crak, 2 Dot. The number and suit tell you which tile you have. A 3 Bam and a 3 Dot are different tiles.

Winds, dragons, flowers and jokers

You also have four winds: North, East, West and South, with four copies of each.

North wind — Four wind names, four copies of each.

East wind — Four wind names, four copies of each.

The dragons each have a matching suit. There are three dragons, with four copies of each.

Red dragon — Each dragon goes with one suit.

Soap has a second use: it can stand for 0 in a year such as 2026. When you use it as zero, it has no suit.

Flowers and jokers are the exceptions to “four of each.” You have eight flowers and eight jokers. All flowers count as matching tiles, even when their pictures differ. A joker can replace a tile in a group of three or more matching tiles. We'll try that together in the joker lesson.