How to Play American Mahjong: A Beginner's Guide
What is American Mahjong?
American Mahjong is a tile-based game played with four players. Each player draws and discards tiles, working toward a specific winning combination called a "hand." The goal is simple: be the first player to complete a hand and call Mahjong.
What makes American Mahjong unique — and different from Chinese or Japanese versions — is that all winning hands are defined by the National Mah Jongg League (NMJL) card, a scorecard that changes every year. You're not inventing your own hand. You're matching your tiles to one of the hands printed on the card. Think of it like bingo, but with a lot more strategy.
What's in the box?
A standard American Mahjong set includes 152 tiles across several categories:
Suits (the numbered tiles)
- Bams — bamboo tiles, numbered 1–9. Usually depicted with green stalks.
- Craks — character tiles, numbered 1–9. Shown with red Chinese numerals.
- Dots — circle tiles, numbered 1–9. Shown as colored circles.
Honors
- Winds — East, West, North, South
- Dragons — Red (中), Green (發), and White (白, sometimes called Soap)
Flowers — decorative tiles, usually numbered 1–4
Jokers — the wild cards of American Mahjong. More on these in a moment.
Each suit tile comes in four copies, so there are four 1 Bams, four 2 Bams, and so on.
The NMJL card
Before your first game, get familiar with the NMJL card. It lists every valid winning hand for that year, organized into categories. Each hand shows a specific combination of tiles you need to collect — for example, three pairs, or a run of consecutive numbers, or a hand made entirely of one suit.
Your job during the game is to look at your tiles and figure out which hands on the card you have a shot at building. As you draw and discard tiles, you narrow your focus down to one hand and work toward completing it.
The card changes every spring, so if you're playing with an older card make sure everyone at the table is using the same year.
Jokers: your best friends
Jokers are wild tiles — they can stand in for any tile in a hand, with one important rule: jokers can only be used in sets of three or more identical tiles (called "pungs" or "kongs"). They can't be used in pairs.
If you pick up a joker, hold onto it. They're valuable. And if another player has a joker sitting in a completed set on the table, you can swap it out for the real tile it represents — as long as you have that tile in your hand.
How a game works
Setup
Players sit around the table, each assigned a wind direction. Tiles are shuffled face-down and built into a "wall" — a rectangle of stacked tiles in the center of the table. Each player draws 13 tiles to start (the East player draws 14).
Taking turns
Play moves clockwise. On your turn you either:
- Draw a tile from the wall, or
- Claim a tile another player just discarded (if it helps complete a set)
After drawing or claiming, you discard one tile face-up in the center.
Claiming discards
This is where it gets interesting. When another player discards a tile you need, you can call it — but only under specific conditions depending on what you're completing. If multiple players want the same discard, the player closest in turn order gets priority, except when someone is calling Mahjong — that always wins.
Winning
When your tiles match a complete hand on the NMJL card exactly, you call Mahjong. Show your tiles, confirm the hand against the card, and collect your points. In American Mahjong, points are typically paid by each of the other three players based on the value printed on the card.
A few things that trip up beginners
You must commit to one hand. As the game goes on you'll need to mentally narrow down to a single hand and discard tiles that don't fit. Holding onto too many options too long is the most common beginner mistake.
Discarding is strategic. The tile you throw away is just as important as the tile you keep. Try not to discard tiles that other players obviously need — called "feeding" someone's hand.
You can pass on a discard. Just because you can claim a tile doesn't mean you should. If it doesn't help your best hand, let it go.
The card is your bible. Keep it visible during the game. There's no shame in checking it constantly — even experienced players refer to it throughout.
Ready to practice?
Reading about Mahjong is one thing — actually playing it is where it clicks. Head over to Discard Lab's practice mode to play a few hands against AI opponents at your own pace. No table, no pressure, no one watching you check the card.
And if you already have tiles in hand and want to know which hands you're in the running for, try the Hand Finder — tell us what you're holding and we'll match it against the card for you.