American Mahjong Rules: The Complete Reference

American mahjong has a reputation for being complicated. It isn't, exactly. There are a lot of moving parts, but most of them are simple rules that nobody ever sits you down and explains in one place. You learn the deal from one friend, the Charleston from another, exposures from a YouTube video, and you piece it together over six months of "wait, is that legal?"

This is the one-place version. Bookmark it. Send it to the person you're teaching this weekend.

Rules review updated October 7, 2026: setup, Charleston exceptions, calls, exposures, picking errors, incorrect mahjong declarations, scoring, jokers and dealer rotation. Disqualification rulings, payment rules and call timing are documented through NMJL sources reproduced by Mahj Life.

TL;DR: American mahjong in 5 lines

• Four players, 152 tiles, racks, a pair of dice, and the current NMJL card. East deals 14 tiles to themselves and 13 to everyone else.
• In four-player play, complete the first Charleston unless East is dealt mahjong. The second Charleston and Courtesy Pass are optional. Once the second Charleston begins, finish all three passes. Never pass jokers.
• On your turn, you pick a tile (from the wall or someone's discard) and then discard one. You name every tile out loud as you discard.
• You can call a discarded tile to expose a pung, kong, quint, or sextet if it completes part of your card hand. Once exposed, those tiles stay on top of your rack.
• You win by declaring mahjong with a complete hand that matches a hand on the current NMJL card. Start with the hand value printed on the card. Apply the payment rules for a discard win or self-picked win, and the jokerless bonus when eligible. There is no separate multiplier for a concealed hand.

The setup

You need four players, 152 tiles, four racks (with pushers, if you can), a pair of dice, and the current NMJL card.

The 152 tiles break down as: 36 Bams, 36 Craks, 36 Dots, 16 Winds (four each of North, East, South, West), 12 Dragons (four each of Green, Red, and White), 8 Flowers, and 8 Jokers. Many sets ship with extra Flowers, Jokers, or blanks. NMJL play uses only eight Flowers and eight Jokers regardless of what's in the box. For the deeper tour of every tile type, see American mahjong tiles explained.

Each player sits at one side of the square table. Each rack holds tiles upright and hidden from the other players. Three-handed play is possible (the NMJL has rules for it) but the standard game is four-handed.

Building the four walls

Every player builds their own wall. The four walls together form a square in the middle of the table. So it's "four walls," not "the wall."

Each player takes 38 tiles from the shuffled pile and builds a wall in front of their rack: two tiles tall, 19 tiles long. (38 tiles per player times four players is 152 tiles. The math works.) When all four walls are built, the table has a closed square of tiles in the middle.

The dice roll (next section) determines where the wall gets broken open. If you've heard someone say "break the wall," they mean the moment East splits the wall at the spot the dice indicate. The deal and Charleston follow. Ordinary play begins when East makes the first discard.

Dice and seat assignment

East is the dealer. East rolls two dice to determine where the wall gets broken, and it is always East's own wall that gets broken open. East counts that many tile-stacks in from the right end of their own wall and splits the wall at that spot. The dice just randomize where the break lands.

For standard four-player rotation, pass the deal to the player on the right for the next game. East does not automatically remain dealer after winning. Follow the agreed seat-rotation procedure after each four-game round.

The deal

Starting with East and moving to the right, each player takes four tiles at a time for three rounds, giving everyone 12. East then takes the first and third tiles on the top tier. The next player takes the first bottom tile, the opposite player takes the next top tile, and the player to East’s left takes the next bottom tile. East has 14 tiles; the other players each have 13. Count before racking and beginning the Charleston.

East has 14 because East discards first. After that opening discard, every player picks one tile on their turn (rack goes from 13 to 14) and discards one (back to 13). The rhythm is "pick to 14, discard to 13."

The Charleston

In a standard four-player game, the first Charleston has three required passes. If East is dealt a complete winning hand, East declares mahjong and the Charleston is waived. Otherwise, complete First Right, First Across and First Left. The second Charleston is optional as a whole; once begun, its three passes must be completed. The Courtesy Pass is optional.

The short version: First Right, First Across, First Left. (Three tiles per pass, always exactly three.) Then the table decides whether to do a Second Charleston (Second Left, Second Across, Second Right). Then an optional Courtesy with the player across from you. And one absolute rule: no jokers in any Charleston pass, ever.

The Charleston has its own guide because the strategy alone fills 3,000 words. For the full breakdown of every pass, the blind pass, the stop mechanic, and the seven mistakes most players make, see the complete Charleston guide.

Picking and discarding

On your turn, you pick a tile from the wall and then discard a tile from your rack. Play moves counterclockwise (East to South to West to North and back to East).

The pick

You pick the next available tile from the wall, in order from where it was broken. You don't get to choose. You take the next tile in sequence.

The discard

After you pick, you discard one tile into the middle of the table and name it out loud. "Four Bam." "Red Dragon." "Flower." The naming is required, not optional. It's how everyone tracks the discard pile without leaning across the table.

Name your discard correctly before anyone claims it. Correct a mistaken name immediately. A misnamed tile can have special consequences, especially if someone calls mahjong on the name that was announced; check the NMJL rules before settling that situation.

The "no picking before someone discards" rule

Wait until the previous player has discarded and named the tile before picking from the wall. Picking a tile alone does not automatically close the opportunity for another player to call the previous discard. The window closes when the next player racks, names or discards the picked tile, begins a joker exchange, or declares mahjong. If the call and the racking happen simultaneously, the caller gets the discard and the picked tile goes back into the wall.

Calling exposures (pung, kong, quint, sextet)

When another player discards a tile that completes a set you're building, you can call it. Calling means you take the discarded tile, add it to the tiles in your hand that match, and place the completed set face-up on top of your rack. That's an exposure.

The set types you can call:

• Pung: three of a kind (three matching tiles)
• Kong: four of a kind (four matching tiles)
• Quint: five of a kind (five matching tiles, only used in hands that call for quints, like the card's Quints section)
• Sextet: six of a kind (six matching tiles, rare, only in specific card hands)

You cannot call for a pair. Pairs stay on your rack, hidden. The only exception is the very last tile to declare mahjong: if a discard completes your hand and the missing tile happened to be a pair tile, you call mahjong (not "pair"), and the game ends. You still cannot call a discard mid-game to expose a pair.

What you must show

Clearly say “call” or “take” before taking the discard, then display the complete legal exposure. If the tile completes your hand, call “mahjong.”

What you give up

Your exposures must fit the legal hand you finish. A hand marked C must stay concealed until you declare mahjong. Exposing tiles does not remove a separate concealed scoring bonus; there is no such bonus.

The discard rule after a call

When you call and expose, you do not pick from the wall. You finish your turn by discarding, unless you declare mahjong. You may make a legal joker exchange before that discard, but it locks the exposure against further changes. Play continues with the player to your right. Calling skips the turn order, so the players between the discarder and you lose their turn that round.

Jokers

Jokers may replace tiles in a group of three or more identical tiles, whether the group is concealed or exposed. They cannot replace singles or pairs anywhere on the card. They cannot be passed during the Charleston or claimed after being discarded.

After legally beginning your turn, you may exchange the matching natural tile for a joker in an eligible exposure, including your own. You may exchange using the freshly drawn tile directly. If using a tile already on your concealed rack, rack the drawn tile first to maintain your tile count. A disqualified player's invalid exposures are not eligible; valid earlier exposures can remain available. There is no cap on the number of legal joker exchanges in one turn. For more examples, see the joker rules guide.

Declaring mahjong

You win by declaring mahjong. To declare, your tiles (exposed and on your rack combined) must exactly match a hand printed on the current NMJL card. Not "mostly match." Exactly match.

New to the card itself? How to read the NMJL card decodes every color, symbol, and letter on the sheet.

The moment

Common ways to complete your hand include:

1. A tile you just picked from the wall (a self-pick, or "off the wall"). You pick, you see that the tile completes your hand, you declare before discarding.
2. A discard from another player. If another player discards a tile that completes your hand, you call mahjong on the discard.

A legal joker exchange can also complete your hand. East may also declare a winning hand before the opening discard.

The call and verification

You call out "Mahjong!" The table stops. You lay your full hand down on top of your rack and name the hand: "2026 #1" or "Consecutive Run, Line 3." Naming makes the verification step faster.

Before any settlement happens, the table verifies that your tiles actually match the hand you named. Every player has the right to check the card. If the hand is correct, settlement proceeds.

An incorrect mahjong declaration does not always have the same result. If you correct it immediately without new exposures and before anyone disturbs their hand, play can continue without penalty. If you have claimed a discard and revealed only a legal current exposure, you may change the declaration to an exposure call and complete your turn. If you reveal more of your hand, you are disqualified: stop playing without discarding, return the newly revealed tiles to your rack, and leave earlier valid exposures available for joker exchanges. A concealed hand returns entirely to the rack.

If all three other hands remain intact, those players continue; there is no automatic double payment merely because someone has an intact hand. If an incorrect declaration causes two other players to throw in their hands, the declarer pays the sole intact player twice the value of the hand the declarer was attempting. Other combinations of errors have different penalties. Keep your tiles intact until the win is verified, and consult the rulebook’s “Mah Jongg in Error” section for the exact scenario. Another player may still claim the erroneous winning discard for a valid mahjong, but not for an ordinary exposure.

Dead hands

Once another player correctly declares your hand dead, you stop picking and discarding for the rest of that game. If someone wins, you still owe the applicable payment.

What causes a dead hand

The most common causes:

• An exposure that doesn't match any hand on the card. If you call a pung that doesn't appear in any hand on the current card, your hand is dead the moment the call is challenged and confirmed wrong.
• Exposures that together cannot complete any single hand. If you've exposed a pung of Three Bams and a pung of Three Dots and no hand on the card uses both, your hand is dead.
• Exposing tiles for a hand that must be concealed. If your exposures show that the only possible card hand is marked C, another player can challenge the hand.
• Incorrect tile count or an illegal pick. Count tiles both in and on your rack: normally 13 between turns and 14 after a legal pick or claim, before discarding. A wrong count after East’s opening discard, an out-of-turn pick, or a pick from the wrong wall or end can disqualify a hand. These are separate rules; do not treat every picking error as the same situation.

What happens

Privately realizing that your hand cannot win is different from being declared dead. You do not declare yourself dead. Continue playing defensively until another player correctly identifies and declares the problem. Once your hand is declared dead, stop picking and discarding.

You may adjust the current exposure before discarding, provided you have not made a joker exchange in between. Once you exchange a joker or discard, you cannot reshape that exposure. You cannot call an incomplete exposure on the assumption that you will retrieve a joker and add it afterward. Later legal joker exchanges replace a joker with its matching natural tile; they do not change the exposure’s size.

Different picking errors have different next steps

• Out of turn: the picker is disqualified. If the tile has not been racked and the mistake is noticed immediately, return it to the wall; if racked, it stays with the dead hand. Returning it does not erase the penalty.
• Wrong wall: a player who picks and racks from the wrong wall is disqualified. Play continues using that wall, then resumes with the correct wall. Pushing a wall out before the previous wall is exhausted can disqualify both the pusher and the picker.
• Wrong end: the picker is disqualified and keeps the tile; the others resume at the correct end. If more than one player has picked from the wrong end, stop and replay the game.

Use the current NMJL rulebook’s “Rules and Penalties” section for these cases, including special payments if an incorrectly picked tile is discarded and claimed for mahjong. During a teaching game, agree on any practice exceptions in advance and label them as house rules.

The wall game

If no player declares mahjong before the wall runs out, the hand ends in a wall game. Nobody wins. No payments are made between players. Everyone resets for the next hand.

After a wall game, pass the deal to the player on the right for the next game, following the same rotation used after a win.

Wall games are common at tables where every player is playing defensively. No shame in it. It's just the game ending the way it sometimes ends.

Settlement

When a player declares mahjong (and the table verifies the hand), settlement happens immediately. The point value comes from the number printed next to the hand on the NMJL card. Most hands are 25 points; some hands (rarer or harder) are 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, or 75 points. For worked examples with real payouts, see how American mahjong scoring works.

Who pays whom

The standard rule for a mahjong on a discard:

• The player who discarded the winning tile pays double the hand's value.
• The other two players pay the hand's value (single).

The standard rule for a mahjong on a self-pick (off the wall):

• All three other players pay double the hand's value.

Doubles

The base payment doubles in specific situations:

• Self-pick: winner picked the final tile off the wall, not from a discard. All three other players pay double.
• Jokerless: the winning hand contains no jokers and is eligible for the jokerless bonus. Every player pays double their base amount. Singles and Pairs hands do not receive this bonus.

For example, an eligible 25-point hand completed by self-pick with no jokers pays 25 × 2 × 2 = 100 from each other player. Do not add another multiplier for concealment. Singles and Pairs hands receive the self-pick payment when applicable, but never the jokerless bonus.

Settlement happens with chips or quarters or whatever the table uses. The amounts are small but they add up over an afternoon, and chips keep score in a way that's harder to argue with than a paper tally.

The rules summary you can put on a sticky note

• Four players, 152 tiles, four walls (every player builds their own).
• East deals 14 tiles to themselves, 13 to everyone else. East discards first.
• In four-player play, the Charleston precedes East’s opening discard unless East is dealt mahjong. Complete each Charleston once it begins. The second Charleston and Courtesy Pass are optional. No passing jokers.
• On your turn: pick from the wall, then discard. Name every tile out loud.
• Call exposures (pung, kong, quint, sextet) on discards when they complete a set you're building.
• Jokers can be used in groups of three or more identical tiles, concealed or exposed, but never in singles or pairs.
• Declare mahjong with a complete legal card hand, then let the table verify it before anyone clears their tiles.
• A hand can be declared dead for invalid exposures, an impossible exposed hand, an incorrect tile count, or an illegal action. Stop playing once the disqualification is established.
• Wall game if no one wins before the wall runs out. No payments.
• Settlement is on the card's printed value, doubled for self-pick and jokerless. Concealment is already priced into the printed value, not a separate multiplier.

The game rewards reading the table

Most beginners think American mahjong is about memorizing the card. The card is part of it. But the players who get better fastest aren't the ones who memorize the most hands. They're the ones who learn to read the table: what's been discarded, what's been exposed, what's flowing in the Charleston, what's left in the wall.

Your strategy shouldn't be "memorize and hope." It should be "read and decide." Every rule in this guide exists to make that reading easier. The Charleston tells you what your opponents don't want. The exposures tell you what they're building. The discards tell you what's safe. The wall count tells you how much time is left.

Bring this guide to your next game. Don't try to memorize it. Just keep it within reach. The rules feel automatic after a few hands. The reading takes longer, and that's the part worth practicing.

If you want the one-page version you can slide into your tile bag, grab the free cheat sheet. If you're brand new, start here. For any specific term, the mahjong glossary has every definition.

Most of this becomes automatic once you have played it with other people a few times. That is what The Confidence Club membership is for: live games, real questions, and a group of players working through the same rules.

And if you've been nodding along to these guides but playing the card solo, the Confidence Club is where players go to actually practice this stuff together. Monthly challenges, Q&A sessions, group games. $19.99 a month. No pressure. Just real reps with real players.

See you at the table.

Lara

Where to check the official rules

This review used Mah Jongg Made Easy (2024), including “Building and Breaking of the Wall,” “The Charleston,” “Rules and Penalties,” and “Mah Jongg in Error.” The exposure and joker-exchange clarification also cites the 2025 NMJL bulletin. See the supporting explanations for incorrect mahjong declarations and wrong-end picks.

For the final word on NMJL play, consult your current National Mah Jongg League card and official rulebook. For searchable explanations that cite NMJL rulings, use Mahj Life’s rules reference. House rules and tournament scoring can differ; agree on them before the game.