1. Objective
American Mahjong (Mah Jongg) is played with a card published each year by the National Mah Jongg League. Instead of building melds freely, you must match one of the hands printed on the card exactly.
The winner is the first player whose 14 tiles match a card hand. Points come from the value printed next to the matched hand β no yaku calculation needed.
2. The tiles
A 152-tile set: bamboo (bam), characters (crak) and dots (dot) 1-9, winds (E/S/W/N), dragons (white/green/red), 8 flowers, and 8 jokers. Jokers are wild and may substitute in any pung/kong/quint/sextet.
3. The yearly card
The card lists winning hands in sections: QUINT (5 identical tiles), KONG (4), PUNG (3), and combinations like two pungs. Each printed hand also includes a pair and single tiles that must not repeat or connect.
Hands marked with an X may be built with exposed (called) tiles; hands marked C must be concealed (all drawn from the wall, except the winning tile).
4. The Charleston
Before play, all players pass tiles three times: first 3 tiles to the player on your right, then 3 to the player across, then 3 to the player on your left (from your own perspective). The last pass may be a "blind pass" (passing received tiles without looking).
Jokers may never be passed. This site plays the first Charleston automatically; a second Charleston and the courtesy pass are optional in real games.
5. Jokers
Jokers substitute for any tile inside a pung/kong/quint/sextet. They may NOT be used as a pair or a single tile.
If another player discards the tile your exposed joker is standing in for, you may exchange it on your turn.
6. Winning the hand
A winning hand: 14 tiles that exactly match a card line β e.g. five 1-bams + a pair of 2-dots + 7 single tiles, all isolated (no duplicates, no same-suit neighbors).
You may win off a discard or by self-draw. The discarder pays double (or more, without jokers); on self-draw every player pays.
7. Quick reference
Quick reference: match the yearly card, one line + pair + isolated singles; jokers fill quints/kongs/pungs only; Charleston passes 3 tiles right/across/left; no jokers in passes.