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Basic Information about Mahjong Games

Mahjong is a game that involves four players to play together. It is originated in an old Asian country - China. So it is an Ancient Chinese Game. Its Chinese name is 麻將 (pronounced Má Jiàng in Mandarin). In South China, Mahjon game is also known as 麻雀 má què, meaning sparrow in Chinese, which is pronounced as Min Nan in Cantonese as well as in Japanese.

To win Mahjong playing, players need basic skills, in processing strategy, and calculation abilities. Of cause luckiness is also import as playing other gambling games such as Blackjack, Slots, etc. When playing, every of four players is normally dealt thirteen tiles in a hand. In the game, playing is in the anti-clockwise order. On a player’s turn, he/she draws a tile and discards one, with the goal of making four melds and one pair, or "head". Winning comes "on the draw" to complete the hand by the player’s own drawing a new tile or a tile discarded any of the other three players. This means that a winning hand actually contains fourteen tiles – the thirteen tiles in hand and one tile for completion.

Mahjong Playing in Other Countries

Japan

Mahjong gaming is far more popular in Asia than in the West. It is the most popular table game in Japan, typically played by male players. Japanese players like to gamble on the games when they play the games.

United States (North America) and Europe

It is believed that Mahjong was introduced to western countries (America, Frence, etc) since the beginning of 20th century. Now the American Mah Jongg Association (AMJA) hosts tournaments all across North America, of which the most signature event is the one happens at the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Playing mahjong in U.S.A. is usually a social activity other than gambling between relatives or close friends.

Mahjong Set

In a whole mahjong set, normally there are three basic equipments: tiles, chips, and dices.

Chips are in four different colors, such as blue, green, yellow, and red for four players. They are used as certain amount of money losing in the games, paying to the winner. Usually in many of playing methods, only the player who discard the completion tile for the winner to win need to pay. However in some places, it is a rule that all the three players need to pay the winner. But all three players need to pay the winner if the winner complete the game by drawing a completion tile by his/her own.

Dices are used to determine from whom the games start. They are also used to from where the tiles should be drawn.

Tiles: A mahjong set commonly has 144 tiles made with plastic or ivory (very limited) although there are more tiles in a set of mahjong in America or Japan. They are composed of suits, characters, wind tiles, and flowers:

Three Mahjong Suits:

筒 (tóng) or 饼（bing) with one to nine circles carved on the tiles （一筒、二筒、三筒、四筒、五筒、六筒、七筒、八筒、九筒）, each of which has four copies. One circle represents a coin used in ancient times with a hole in the center.
条（条，tiao, bamboo sticks) or 索（sǔo）with one to nine strings (lines, or bars) carved on the tiles （一条、二条、三条、四条、五条、六条、七条、八条、九条）, each of which has four copies. One string equivalent to one hundred coins.
万 (萬 in traditional Chinese, wàn) carved with numbers of ten thousand (一万）, twenty thousand （二万）, thirty thousand （三万）, fouty thousand (四万）, fifty thousand （五万）, sixty thousand （六万）, senventy thousand （七万）, eighty thousand （八万）, and ninety thousand （九万） in Chinese characters. 一万(yi wan, ten thousand) stands for one hundred strings of one hundred coins.

Three Charaters:

中（zhong, also known as 红中， hongzhong,). 中 means middle or center in Chinese. They are named as 红中（hongzhong, red center) as they are in red color. The red "中" represents hitting on the target, so it also means luckiness.
發（fa, "發" is a traditional Chinese character and means 发财（發財）, fācái, literally "get rich"). Four 發 tiles are in green color like growing plants, which means you will become wealthy gradually.
白（bai) - it is also called "白板", white board. 白 means white and unproductive, so it also represents failure or lose.

Four Wind Tiles (风）:

Flowers:

四季花牌

Besides of Mahjong tiles, sometimes people use a set of mahjong cards (kards) to play the games as Mahjong cards are much easier for carrying with when players want to play during a travel. Nowadays playing mahjong online or on mobile phone is also possible as Mahjong games are available on the internet now. The online or mobile version of mahjong games can be played by someone himself/herself, which is quite different from the normal game playing (four players involves). He/she actually played with the virtual players created in the game software. However players can also choose to play mahjong games online or even chat with real players on the same table by sitting in front of the personal computer (PC) at home.

Mahjong Culture

Mahjong culture is still deeply ingrained in the Chinese community like tea culture or alcholic culture. Mahjong gaming is an activity happens everywhere in China everyday. You might hear people talking about mahjong games on the street, party, or in a cafe or tea house in China. It has been one of the important activities in some people's everyday life. There is no wonder if you hear somebody else talking on the phone about mahjong games in China. There are a lot of books published about introduction, how to play and how to increase your mahjong skills, etc. There are also some Hong Kong movies included scenes of playing mahjong games.

Mahjong Events

In 1998, the China State Sports Commission published a new set of mahjong rules, now generally referred to as Chinese Official rules or International Tournament rules or Guobiao Majiang rules.
The 1st World Mahjong Championship in Tokyo, October 2002.
The 1st Annual China Majiang Championship, Hainan, China, 2003
The first Open European Mahjong Championship, Nijmegen, the Netherlands, June 2005
The World Mahjong Organization (WMO) was founded in Beijing, China, with the cooperation of the Japan Mahjong Organizing Committee (JMOC) and the European Mahjong Association (EMA), etc. in 2006.
The 1st World Mahjong Championship, Chengdu, Sichuan, China, November 2007 (The next World Championship will be in Utrecht, the Netherlands, Summer 2010)
The 2nd Open European Mahjong Championship, Copenhagen, Denmark, June 2007
The 1st Online European Mahjong Championship on the Mahjong Time server, 2007
The 3rd Open European Mahjong Championship, Baden/Vienna, Austria, 2009