The Complete Book of Mah Jongg: An Illustrated Guide to the Asian, American and International Styles of Play

195 Pages·2016·9.81 MB·English

by  Amy Lo

THE COMPLETE BOOK OF
MAH JONGG
AN ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO THE ASIAN, AMERICAN
AND INTERNATIONAL STYLES OF PLAY
AMY LO
TUTTLE Publishing
Tokyo Rutland, Vermont Singapore
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TUTTLE STORY
“Books to Span the East and West”
Our core mission at Tuttle Publishing is to create books which bring people together one page
at a time. Tuttle was founded in 1832 in the small New England town of Rutland, Vermont
(USA). Our fundamental values remain as strong today as they were then—to publish best-in-
class books informing the English-speaking world about the countries and peoples of Asia. The
world has become a smaller place today and Asia’s economic, cultural and political influence
has expanded, yet the need for meaningful dialogue and information about this diverse region
has never been greater. Since 1948, Tuttle has been a leader in publishing books on the cultures,
arts, cuisines, languages and literatures of Asia. Our authors and photographers have won
numerous awards and Tuttle has published thousands of books on subjects ranging from martial
arts to paper crafts. We welcome you to explore the wealth of information available on Asia at
www.tuttlepublishing.com.past—still inspired by Charles Tuttle’s core mission to publish fine
books to span the East and West and provide a greater understanding of each.
Published by Tuttle Publishing, Distributed by:
an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.
North America, Latin America & Europe
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Copyright © 2001 Amy Lo North Clarendon,
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CONTENTS
MAH JONGG, THE PEOPLE’S GAME ............................................................ 7
INTRODUCTION The Mah Jongg Game ................................................... 9
CHAPTER ONE The Game of Mah Jongg ............................................ 12
1.1 The Tiles 14
1.2 Accessories 16
1.3 A Hand of Tiles 17
1.4 A Few Examples of Winning Hands 18
1.5 Players and Their Respective Playing Positions 19
1.6 Playing Directions 21
1.7 Different Rules of Mah jongg Game 22
CHAPTER TWO The Cantonese Game ................................................. 23
2.1 Seat Allocation 23
2.2 Building the Walls 26
2.3 Designating the First Dealer 28
2.4 Breaking the Walls 29
2.4.1 Leaping the Tiles 31
2.5 Matching the Tiles 32
2.6 Claiming a Discarded Tile 34
2.6.1 Sheung — To Match a Sequence 34
2.6.2 Pung — To Match a Triplet 35
2.6.3 Revealed and Concealed Sets 37
2.6.4 Gong — To Match a Quadruplet 38
2.6.5 Priority in Claiming Discards 41
2.7 When to Declare a Win 42
2.8 Failing to Claim a Discard to Declare Pung
or a Win 44
2.9 The Dealer and the Duration of a Game 44
2.10 Scoring 47
2.11 Computing the Fans 56
2.12 Awarding the Winner 58
2.12.1 Jit Woo — To Intercept a Winning Hand 59
2.12.2 Table of Awards 59
2.13 Paying the Winner 60
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The Complete Book of Mah Jongg
2.14 Bao — Penalty to the Risk Taker 61
2.15 Penalties 63
2.15.1 Falsely Declaring a Win 63
2.15.2 Long or Short Hand 63
2.16 Fortune Hand — a Draw 64
2.17 Playing with Flower Tiles 64
2.17.1 Scoring for Flower Tiles 65
2.18 Five-Player Game — Dreaming 67
2.19 Three-Player Game 67
CHAPTER THREE Basic Strategy ................................................ 68
3.1 Speed 68
3.2 Taking Advantage of Opportunities 69
3.3 Keeping Alert 69
3.4 Safe Discards 70
3.5 Improving Your Winning Chance 70
3.6 Improving Your Hand for a Higher Score 71
3.7 Winning Probabilities 73
CHAPTER FOUR Courtesies ...................................................... 76
CHAPTER FIVE The Shanghai Game ....................................... 79
5.1 Terminology 80
5.2 Designating the Chair of the First Dealer 80
5.3 Choosing the First Dealer 81
5.4 Building the Walls 85
5.5 Discards 86
5.6 Displaying Revealed Sequences 86
5.7 Fortune Hand 87
5.8 Assembling a Revealed 13-Terminal Tile Hand 87
5.9 Scoring 89
5.10 Computing the Fans 104
5.11 Awarding the Winner 110
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Contents
CHAPTER SIX The 12-Tile Game ......................................... 111
6.1 Winning Probabilities 115
CHAPTER SEVEN The 16-Tile or Taiwanese Game ................... 116
7.1 Seat Allocation 116
7.2 Building the Walls 119
7.3 Designating the First Dealer, Breaking the Walls,
Revealing Flower Tiles, and Drawing Make-up
Tiles 119
7.4 Shuh 120
7.5 Garng 121
7.6 Winners 122
7.7 Scoring 122
CHAPTER EIGHT The American Game ..................................... 128
8.1 The American Mah Jongg Set 129
8.2 Seats Allocation 129
8.3 Designation of the First East Player 129
8.4 Exchange of Unwanted Tiles 129
8.4.1 First Pass 130
8.4.2 Second Pass 130
8.4.3 Third Pass 131
8.4.4 Blind Pass 131
8.5 Reclaim an Exposed Joker Tile 132
8.6 Combination of Tiles of Winning Hands 133
8.7 How to Read The Score Card 133
8.8 Start to Play The Game 137
8.9 To Match a Triplet, Kong, and So On 137
8.10 Mismatches 137
8.11 Temporary Score Table 137
8.12 Winning Tile 140
8.13 False Win 140
8.14 Long and Short Hand 140
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The Complete Book of Mah Jongg
CHAPTER NINE The International Game ................................ 141
9.1 Terminologies 142
9.2 Winning Elements and Fan 143
9.3 Paying the Winner 161
9.4 Winning Priority 162
9.5 Alert and Penalty 162
9.6 Standard Scoring Chart 163
CHAPTER TEN The Shenzhen Game ..................................... 164
10.1 Settlement 165
CHAPTER ELEVEN The People’s Game ....................................... 167
11.1 A Simple Game for All Players 167
11.2 The Simple Version 167
11.2.1 A Winning Hand 168
11.2.2 Formation of Tiles of Winning Hands 168
11.2.3 Scoring 169
11.2.4 Example of Standard Winning Hands and
Scores 170
11.2.5 Special Winning Hand 171
11.2.6 Player’s Variation 172
11.2.7 Playing the winners 172
11.2.8 Winning Probabilities 172
11.2.9 Falsely Declaring a Win 175
11.2.10 Miscellaneous 175
11.3 Classical Version 175
11.3.1 Scoring 175
11.3.2 Basic Hands 176
11.3.3 Dragon and Wind Tiles 176
11.3.4 Other Combinations 178
11.3.5 Sequences Combinations 180
11.3.6 Triplets Combinations 183
11.3.7 Miscellaneous Combinations 186
11.3.8 Total Score 188
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MAH JONGG,
THE PEOPLE’S GAME
The world’s most popular game, with millions of players worldwide, Mah
Jongg is played in many different versions. As each version has its own
rules and winning hands, players of different groups cannot play the game
together. In our modern mobile society it would be nice to have a simple
version that all players can share.
Chapter 11 of this book introduces a newly arranged player friendly
game with simply designed winning hands based on the logical combination
of tiles. The game is arranged in a way that will help players understand
the formation and the probability of matching tiles in a winning hand
through intuition rather than through memorizing the combination of
tiles in a specially designed, password-like winning hand. This will make
playing the game more enjoyable. It is not the author’s intention to set a
new standard for the thousand-years old game, but rather to hope that the
simple instruction and the logical combination of tiles in a winning hand
will make the game easier for new players to follow.
For experienced players, the classical (Cantonese) version in Chapter 2
illustrates a complete collection of logical probabilities of combinations of
tiles from many modern and classical versions of the game, and will serve
as valuable reference.
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The Complete Book of Mah Jongg
This new edition also salutes the very popular American Game with
a chapter that explains this version’s unique characteristics. Chapter
8 succinctly covers the basics and explains how to navigate the official
score card. This author’s hope is that, combined with the basic strategies
offered in this book, this information will help you enjoy—and win—the
American Game.
Finally, two new popular variations—the International Game and the
Shenzhen Game—are also included in this new edition. I hope that with
these new chapters this book will serve as a complete guide and reference
to all players regardless of their preference, and will encourage them to
try new versions.
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