THE GOAL OF THE GAME
✨Build one complete hand from your Mahjong Press card✨
✨Collect the full combination and say the most satisfying word in the game: MAHJONG✨
Setting up the game
Before you can play a game, you'll need to take a few minutes to set the table. This is a combination of shuffling your tiles, choosing a dealer, building walls, and dealing the tiles.
WHAT’S IN A MAHJONG SET
Every American set needs 152 tiles:
• Dots, Bams, and Cracks - your suited tiles numbered 1-9 (4 of each number)
• Winds - N, E, W, & S (4 of each)
• Dragons - Red, Green, and Soap/White (4 of each)
• Flowers (8 total)
• Jokers (8 total)
If you’re using a Mahjong Press card, everything on your card matches these exact tiles.
HOW TO SET UP A GAME
1. Every player builds a wall of tiles in front of their rack.
2. Each wall is 19 stacks long and 2 tiles high, for a total of 38 tiles per player.
3. The host is usually the first dealer of the night, but you can also let the dice decide. Have everyone roll, and the highest number becomes the dealer for the first game.
HOW TO DEAL
1. The dealer rolls the dice and counts that number of tile stacks from the right of their wall, and "breaks" it.
2. The tiles to the right of the break stay put, and the dealer curtsies the rest of the wall, pushing those tiles toward the center of the mat. These curtsied tiles become the starting point for the deal.
Only the dealer breaks their wall, other players curtsy their entire wall.
3. The dealer then takes the first two stacks (4 tiles) from the right side of the curtsied wall.
4. Moving counterclockwise, each player takes two stacks at a time until everyone has 12 tiles.
5. Then every player takes one more tile to make 13, and the dealer takes an extra tile (for 14).
The Charleston
A series of three passes that helps you shape your starting hand. You’ll pass three tiles in each round, receive three back, and slowly move closer to the hand you want to build. Note: You can never pass a Joker during the Charleston.
The First Charleston
Once everyone has sorted their tiles, it’s time for the Charleston - the tile swap that helps you move toward the hand you want to build.
Start by picking a hand or section on your Mahjong Press card that you’d like to aim for. Then choose 3 tiles you don’t need, place them face down, and pass them.
The Charleston has three passes in the first round:
1. Pass 3 tiles to the right
2. Pass 3 tiles to the player across
3. Pass 3 tiles to the left
You’ll receive 3 tiles from the opposite direction each time. You can keep any tile you like, or pass it along in the next pass.
The Second Charleston
The first Charleston is required.
The second Charleston is optional, and it goes in the reverse order:
1. Pass 3 tiles to the left
2. Pass 3 tiles to the player across
3. Pass 3 tiles to the right
Think of the Charleston as a “hand cleanup.” It helps you ditch tiles that won't help you, and move toward a winning pattern. After a few games, it feels completely natural.
The Courtesy Pass
After the 1st (and optional 2nd) Charleston, players have the option to do one final mini-exchange called the courtesy pass.
This pass is completely optional and only happens between you and the player sitting across from you.
You can choose to exchange 0–3 tiles, but both of you must agree on the number.
If even one of you wants to pass zero, then no tiles are exchanged.
Only the two players across from each other are involved, the other two players at the table can choose to do their own courtesy pass or skip it entirely.
PLAY THE GAME
Playing a turn is easier than it looks. You’ll pick a tile, make a decision, and keep the game moving. This section walks you through how a turn flows, when you can call someone’s discard, and exactly what happens when you hit the magic combination and declare Mahjong.
How a turn works
Here’s your turn in one sentence:
Draw the next tile from the active wall, decide if it helps, discard it, or keep it and discard another tile you don’t need.
That’s it. Truly.
Play moves to the right/counterclockwise.
WHEN YOU CAN CALL A TILE
You may call a discard if:
• The tile completes or helps you form a group of 3 or more identical ti.es in the hand you’re building.
• And you can expose the entire group you’re calling for (with or without Jokers).
Note: You can never call a discarded Joker.
If the tile you want to call is for a single tile in your hand, a pair of tiles, or a group of non-identical tiles, you cannot call it unless it’s the tile that wins you the game.
HOW TO WIN (DECLARING MAHJONG)
If a tile gives you your 14th tile, you win, whether you draw that tile from the wall or call a discard.
Just say “Mahjong”, and expose your hand so the other players can verify your hand matches a line on your card.
HOW TO READ YOUR MAHJONG PRESS CARD
The colors and symbols on your card show you exactly how to build each hand. Here’s how to read them quickly and accurately.
Reading your Card
The Colors on Your Card
Black represents all non-suited tiles.
This includes:
- Flowers
- Winds (N, E, W, S)
- "Zero" in the Year of the Horse section
Use the Soap tile as a zero. In these hands, Soap becomes suitless.
Reading your Card
Pink, Purple, and Gold
The hand colors tell you how many suits your winning hand will use, not which suits they must be.
- If a hand is all Pink, the entire hand is one suit.
- If a hand has Pink and Purple, then Pink tiles are one suit and Purple tiles are a different suit.
- If a hand includes Pink, Purple, and Gold, the hand uses all three suits.
During each game you play, you choose which suits go with which colors, as long as the number of suits in your hand matches the number of colors shown on the card.
Reading your Card
Point Values & Subscripts
In the points column, you’ll see a number followed by a small X or C.
- The number is the point value of the hand. Higher points generally mean a trickier hand.
- The X subscript means the hand can call tiles and make exposures.
- The C subscript means you cannot call a tile (unless it’s the final tile you need to win) and you cannot expose any grouping while building that hand.
Reading your Card
Don’t Skip the Small Text
Some hands have a small note to the right, and/or an additional note at the bottom of the section.
These details point out special rules or distinctions that apply only to that hand or section, and they’re important.
Give them a quick read before you start building.
Have More Questions?
Have a question we didn’t cover here? Visit our Gameplay FAQ for clear answers to the most common rules and “what if?” moments.