The American game
Jeux
Mah-Jongg

Playing the American Game is basically the same as playing the Chinese Game, but with the following differences:

(1) Players need an American Mah Jongg set.
(2) Seats allocation is not required.
(3) Designation of the first East player is not required.
(4) There is an exchange of unwanted tiles.
(5) Players can reclaim a Joker tile.
(6) The combination of tiles of a winning hand is determined by the National Mah Jongg League.

The American Mahjongg Set

An American Mahjongg set comes with eight Joker tiles, and four Racks.

The Jokers are wild tiles which can be used to substitute any tiles to make up a Pung, Kong, Quint or Sextet, except to make up a pair.

Example:

The Racks are for racking the hand of tiles.

Seats Allocation

Seats allocation is not required.

At the beginning of the game, the four players can seat themselves randomly on four sides of the game table.

Designation of the First East Player

Any player can be the first East player (preferably the host of the game) to break the wall and to start the game.

Exchange of Unwanted Tiles

This occurs after each player has picked up 13 tiles (East player takes 14 tiles)

First Pass

Each player sorts out three unwanted tiles, keeps them face down, passes them to the player on the right, and adds the three tiles passed from the player on the left.

Second Pass

Each player sorts out three unwanted tiles, keeps them face down, passes them to the opposite player and adds the three tiles passed from the opposite player to his or her hand.

Third Pass

Each player sorts out three unwanted tiles, keeps them face down, passes them to the player on the left, and add the three tiles passed by the player on the right to his or her hand.

The first exchange, which is compulsory, is now complete.

Option

Players can perform a second round of exchange by proceeding in the opposite direction, passing their unwanted tiles to the player on the left at the first pass, then to the opposite player at the second pass, then to the player on the right at the third pass.

Blind Pass

During the first round of exchange, and after the two passes, if a player does not have three unwanted tiles for the third pass, he or she can take some of the tiles just passed by the player on the right, without looking at them, add them to his or her unwanted tiles, and pass the three unwanted files to player on the left.

This is the completion of the second exchange.

Exchange of tiles is not a meaningful procedure as, during each game, each player will have more than twenty-five chances to draw a new tile from the wall, and to match it to his or her hand before discarding an unwanted tile.

But, in the exchange process, a player must FIRST pass the unwanted tiles, then may receive the same unwanted tiles from another player. In this way, each player may unintentionally disclose the type of hand he or she is assembling.

Reclaim an Exposed Joker Tile

When a player (including a player playing a concealed hand) picks up from the wall a matching tile of any player's exposed Pung, Kong and so on, that includes a Joker tile, that player can exchange the matching tile for the Joker tile, keep the Joker, and discard an unwanted tile.

If a player already has an unwanted matching tile, that player must wait until his or her turn to pick up a tile from the wall, then perform the exchange.

Combination of Tiles of Winning Hands

In the American Game, the combinations of tiles of the winning hands are designed and published by the National Mah Jongg League, Inc. Each year will differ to some extent from prior years.

Score Cards

How To Read The Score Card

The tiles of the winning hands are printed in red, green and blue numbers and letters.

Numbers 1-9 are the numbers of the suit tiles

Red numbers 1-9 are the numbers of character tiles (Craks)

Green numbers 1-9 are the numbers of bamboo tiles (Bams)

Blue numbers 1-9 are the numbers of the circle tiles (Dots)

Letters are abbreviation of the other tiles.

Red D Stands for Red Dragon tile

Green D Stands for Green Dragon tile

Blue D Stands for White Dragon (also called Soap) tile

Blue E Stands for East Wind tile

Blue S Stands for South Wind tile

Blue W Stands for West Wind tile

Blue N Stands for North Wind tile

Blue J Stands for Joker tile

Blue F Stands for Flower tile

Red X Stands for exposed hand, a hand with exposed set of tiles

Blue C Stands for concealed hand, a hand without exposed tiles. You must pick up all the needed tiles from the wall yourself, including the winning tile.

Pair : Two identical tiles of any suit and tile

Pung : Three identical tiles of any suit and tile

Kong : Four identical tiles of any suit and tile

Quint : Five identical tiles of any suit and tile

Sextet : Six identical tiles of any suit and tile

The official standard hands and rules are printed on the card.

Before you purchase a Score Card from The American Mah-Jongg Association or National Mah Jongg League, you can start playing the game with the following temporary Score Table (or, you can use the Simple Version Winning Hand and Score Table from The people's game and uses Flower tiles to substitute for Joker tiles)

A winning hand consists of 14 tiles forming any combination of Pair, Pung, Kong, Quint and Sextet.

Start to Play The Game

The game begins with East player (the dealer who has 14 tiles), who discards a tile face up on the table and identities the title of the discarded tile, followed by the next player (to the right) who draws a tile from the wall and makes a discard. Then, the opposite player draws and discards, followed the player to his or her left, then back to the Dealer.

To Match a Triplet, Kong, and So On

When a player holds a Pair or a Triplet, that player may claim the identical tile discarded by any other player to match a Triplet, Kong, and so on.

The player then reveals the set on the table, then discards an unwanted tile to maintain a 13-tile hand.

When a player draws the identical tile, he or she may add it to a revealed or concealed Triplet.

Mismatches

When you make a mistake by claiming a wrong tile to match a Pung, Kong and so on, you may correct your error immediately if you have not exposed your matched tiles.

If your matched tiles is exposed and after you have make a discard, your hand is declared dead. You can continue to pick and discard throughout the remainder of the game.

Temporary Score Table

These is no Sequence set of tiles in the American Game

Concealed Hand

A hand without exposed tiles. You must pick up 100 points all the needed tiles from the wall yourself, Jackpot including the winning tile.

Self-drawn winning tile 20 points

Winning Tile

Self-drawn All players pay the winner double

Discarded

Discarder pays winner Exchange tile The player who performs the exchange for a Joker tile pays the winner for all players (see section Reclaim an Exposed Joker Tile)

False Win

When you make a mistake by claiming a wrong tile to declare a win and displaying your winning hand on the table, you are penalized by paying the discarder the amount equivalent to the highest value hand, and paying other players half that amount.

When you self-draw the wrong winning tile, you must pay all players the amount equivalent to the highest value hand.

Long or Short Hand (Dai Sheong Kung, Siu Sheong Kung)

A playing hand is either more or less than 13 tiles

If, during a game, a player finds that his or her playing hand is either more, or less, than 13 tiles, the player is not allowed to discard the excessive tile or to draw a make-up tile to complete the hand. Instead, he or she must continue to play by drawing and discarding tiles as usual until the game is over.