Board Games & Card Games : How to Play Mahjong

Mahjong is a game of Chinese origin that is usually played by four people with 144 tiles that are drawn and discarded until one player secures a winning hand. Play mahjong and get a booklet that describes the change of the wind with tips from a gaming specialist in this free video on card games.

Expert: Windy St. George
Bio: Windy St. George has worked at Games of Berkeley for eight years. She is an expert in all types of card games, board games, tabletop games, RPGs, and miniatures.
Filmmaker: Sam Lee

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Closed Caption:

Hi, my name is Windy and this is an introduction
to Mahjong. Mahjong is a tile game from China,
it means the sparrows. It is based on a mythical
idea of China where the four winds blow across
the country and off the mountains. It involves
the four winds, the three dragons who live
in the elements, the four seasons which change
how much you; how many points you get when
you're betting during certain configurations
of the tile game. The tile game is not the
same as the game that you've learned to play
on the computer which is simple tile matching
game. This is a bidding game that has trumps
and straights so it's much more like bridge.
Mahjong usually is tiles that are made to
look like ivory although ivory isn't aloud
in America so it's usually a high quality
plastic polymer backed by either more polymer
or bamboo. This set here is bone and bamboo
with a silk binding. There are American sets
and there, there are traditional Chinese sets.
Most of what you find in America is an American
set. And the jokers are used which isn't traditional
to the game but American rules always use
a joker which is clearly marked in English.
They also have the four winds and the numbers
marked in English as well as in Chinese characters.
The tiles are divided amongst bamboos, circles,
characters, the winds, the four winds, the
four directions, the four seasons and the
three dragons. They also include money tiles
which is a complicated form of betting although
some Americans just get rid of that and do
dice instead. People sit on a square table,
traditionally you can play three but it, it's
bad luck. You're supposed to play four. When
you sit down you; everyone gets seventeen
tiles that they wind up in front of them.
And then they take one of these chips which
indicates the four directions and they sit
according to the direction of the chip and
their partner is the one who is facing them.
It's a complicated bidding game. The rules
for league play change every year. According
to the mythical change of the winds over China
and they put out a little booklet here. So
if you know someone who plays Mahjong, they
like to get these new booklets that often
come out in the fall. It tells you different
rules for point combinations, the point combinations
change according to season. And betting changes
according to season. It's determined by a
complicated formula not, not the actual winds.
You can get simple sets from thirty dollars
all the way up to expensive two hundred dollar
sets that are made out of bone and ivory.
And that's my introduction to Mahjong.