How To Play Singapore Mahjong

The Tiles

Meet The Tile Families

Wan (characters, also called Wan Zi), Suo (bamboo) and Tong (circles) are the three numbered suits. Each goes from 1 to 9, with four copies of each tile. Read the number and suit together: 3 Wan, 3 Suo and 3 Tong are different tiles. 1 Suo is usually drawn as a bird, but it is still a Suo tile. Winds and dragons form another group called honours.

A Singapore Mahjong set has 148 tiles: 108 numbered tiles, 28 winds and dragons, and 12 bonus tiles: flowers, seasons and four animals (a cat, a rat, a cockerel and, yes, a centipede). An Eye (the pair every winning hand needs) takes two matching tiles, so 3 Suo and 3 Tong can’t be an Eye.

Winds & Dragons

East, South, West and North are winds. The dragons are Hong Zhong (red), Fa Cai (green) and Bai Ban (white). Together, they are called honours. There are four copies of each.

Matching winds or dragons can make an Eye, Pong or Kong, but never a Chi (a run of three numbers): East–South–West is not a set. Bai Ban shows only a frame, but nobody forgot to paint the middle: it’s a real tile.

Your Flowers & Seasons

The flowers are Plum, Orchid, Chrysanthemum and Bamboo. The seasons are Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. Match their numbers to your seat: 1 East, 2 South, 3 West, 4 North.

At this table, a flower or season matching your seat earns one tai. Check its number and name. Colours can differ between Mahjong sets.

Meet The Four Animals

Singapore sets add four animals: Cat, Rat, Rooster and Centipede. There’s just one tile of each, while every numbered tile, wind and dragon has four copies.

At this table, each animal earns one tai. Put it face up in your bonus area. Animals cannot be used in an Eye, Chi, Pong or Kong.

Seats And The Deal

Find Your Own Wind

East is the Banker (the player who deals and starts). Turns go East → South → West → North, anticlockwise around the table. Your Own Wind (your seat’s wind) depends on where you sit in relation to the current Banker.

The round also has a wind, called the Round Wind. You can sit South during an East round. When counting tai for wind sets, check both your Own Wind and the Round Wind.

Build, Break & Deal

For this setup, East and West each build 19 stacks; South and North each build 18. Each stack has two tiles, one on top of the other. The dice decide where to open the wall, so agree how you’ll use them before you start.

Starting with East, give each player four tiles at a time. Repeat until everyone has twelve. Give one more to each player, then an extra tile to East. Put bonuses face up and draw replacements: East needs 14 tiles in hand, and everyone else needs 13, not counting bonuses.

Every Turn

Draw, Decide, Discard

Every turn has the same rhythm: draw one tile, then throw one, unless you win or declare a Kong. If nobody claims your discard, the next player draws.

After claiming a Chi or Pong, throw a tile without drawing. After a Kong, you usually draw a replacement. In Scored Play, some special claims win immediately. A Kong on the final playable draw also has a special rule.

Reveal & Replace

When you draw a bonus, put it face up and draw a replacement from the other end of the wall. If that is another bonus, repeat. Stop if no playable tiles remain or the bonuses give you an automatic win under the table rules.

This app leaves fifteen tiles in reserve. You may reveal a final bonus without being able to replace it. In Scored Play, an allowed automatic bonus win still counts; otherwise, the hand ends with no winner. Tables may handle bonus replacements at the start differently.

Sets And The Eye

Four Sets & An Eye

Here’s the goal of almost every hand: four sets and one Eye. A set can be a Chi, Pong or Kong. Count the sets you’ve already put face up, as well as the tiles still in your hand.

A Kong has an extra tile, but still counts as just one set. In a scored game, four sets and an Eye must also meet the table’s minimum tai before you can win.

Make A Chi

A Chi is three numbers in a row, all in the same suit, like 3–4–5 Tong. No wrapping round: 9 doesn’t join back to 1. You can only Chi a tile thrown by the player on your left.

Choose two tiles from your hand to join the discard. Put all three face up, then throw a tile. If one discard fits more than one Chi, you choose which set to make.

Make A Pong

Got two identical tiles? When anyone else throws a third, you can claim it to make a Pong. Put all three face up, then throw a tile.

A Pong can jump the queue, ahead of the usual turn order. Once your Pong is face up, it stays together: you can’t break it up to make other sets.

Three Ways To Kong

There are three ways to make a Kong: use four identical tiles from your hand; claim a discard to join three in your hand; or add a fourth tile to a Pong you already placed face up. You normally draw a replacement after declaring a Kong.

When you add a tile to a Pong, another player may win with that tile. That’s Qiang Gang (grabbing the added tile to win; yes, it stings). In this app, you can declare a Kong from your hand, or add to a Pong, only straight after you draw.

Claiming A Discard

Who Gets The Discard?

Hu means declaring a win. A winning claim beats Pong or Kong, and those beat Chi. If more than one player can win, this app gives the tile to the one who comes first in turn order after the discarder.

Shouting first doesn’t win you the tile, however loud you are. Before playing elsewhere, agree what happens when several players can win, and whether special hands come first.

A Passed Tile Has History

In this app, if you could win or Pong but pass, you can’t win or Pong on another copy of that tile until you draw a tile or declare a set. Passing when you could do neither doesn’t block the next copy. And you can’t win, Pong or Chi on a copy of your own last discard.

Don’t worry, these limits don’t last. But a tile someone threw earlier isn’t always safe to throw later.

Claim Or Pass?

Only Chi or Pong when the claim brings you closer to winning. Pass if the claim just swaps a tile for one you already hold, breaks up a finished set or your only Eye, or trades a good wait for a worse one. A Chi comes from the player on your left, so if you pass, your own draw usually comes next anyway.

Every claim puts a set face up: the table sees what you’re collecting, and you keep fewer tiles to pick a safe throw from. In Scored Play a win needs at least 1 tai (a unit of the hand’s value), and a Men Qing hand (nothing claimed) earns 1 tai on a Zi Mo (a win on a tile you drew yourself). Claim, and that tai is gone, so make sure your hand can still win.

Winning A Hand

Secure Your First Tai

In Scored Hand and Full Match, four sets and an Eye are not enough: as at most tables, a win also needs at least 1 tai, a unit of the hand’s value. The quickest tai come from a Pong or Kong of any dragon, of your Own Wind or of the Round Wind, from the flower or season with your seat’s number, and from any animal. At this table a Men Qing hand, one with no claimed sets, also earns 1 tai on a Zi Mo.

Plan for your tai early. Two of a dragon, or of your Own Wind or the Round Wind, are worth keeping: one more copy makes a Pong worth a tai. Patterns such as Pong Pong Hu, Hun Yi Se and Qing Yi Se earn more, and the next lessons show them.

Find Every Wait

A waiting tile is a tile that could complete your hand. One tile from winning, your hand is Ting (waiting). If your last unfinished Chi is 4–5 Suo, you can finish it with 3 Suo or 6 Suo.

A 4–6 gap needs 5: that’s kalong, the middle wait. A 1–2 at the edge needs 3. Waiting on one tile to finish your Eye is dan diao, the single wait. Check your whole hand: sometimes rearranging the tiles reveals another way to finish.

Finish A Hand, Move The Deal

In Full Match, East deals again after winning. After any other player wins, the next player becomes Banker. If nobody wins, East stays as Banker unless someone completed a Kong.

After four Banker changes, the Round Wind moves on: East, South, West, then North. A hand with no winner and no completed Kong keeps the same Banker and Round Wind. Guided Hand stops after one hand.

Before You Play

Agree, Announce, Check

Before dealing, agree the minimum tai, tai limit, special hands, payments, Bao and what to do about mistakes, like a zha hu (a false win). If someone is still learning, also agree when they can ask questions or take back a move.

Say your call clearly and keep face-up tiles easy to see. If there’s a disagreement, stop before moving more tiles and check the hand and the agreed rule together. No inventing penalties afterwards: that’s how friendships end.