Mah jong is typically played by four players, although there are three player variants played in some parts of the world. The game is played with a set of one hundred and fifty-two tiles, based on a variety of Chinese characters and symbols. There are a number of variations of Mah jong, each with its own individual set of rules, but here we will explain how to play Hong Kong mah jong, which is the most common version of the game. Each player is dealt thirteen tiles to begin with. Players draw and discard tiles until they can complete a hand by using the fourteenth tile, in a play cycle similar to rummy.
The final hand must be formed out of four groups of three, or melds, as well as a pair, or head. Points are obtained by matching the winning hand with a particular set of criteria, and different criteria have different scoring values. If mah jong is being played as a gambling game, these points are translated into money. At the beginning of the game, each player receives a certain number of score chips. In most cases, only the winner will score, and is deducted from the scores of the losers. While there are many scoring modifiers, some common ones include:
If a player wins with a discard, then the player who performed the discard must pay double.
If a player wins with a draw, then every losing player must pay double.
If a player wins in a high-risk scenario, then the player who performed the discard must pay for the other two losing players in addition to his or her normal double share.
In most cases, once a player is out of scoring chips, the player in the lead is declared to be the winner. The way an individual game will play out is heavily dependent on the scoring criteria defined. The most common types of criteria refer to the contents of the winning hand. These are known as meld criteria. For example, one type of meld criterion would be that the winning hand consists only of honour tiles, and tiles of a single suit. Another would be that the winning hand be either all honour tiles, or tiles from a single suit. Other common criteria involve having specific tiles in the hand, such as a meld of red dragon or a meld of the wind of the seat in which the player is sitting.
To get started playing mah jong online, all you have to do is log on to a community games site. Some of these sites also allow for mah jong to be played as a gambling game.
