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Each one corresponds to a direction: East is 1, South is 2, West is 3, and North is 4.īecause the Chinese words for "four" and "west" are both similar to the Chinese for "death" (observant players will have noticed that these two ideograms are very similar one Chinese metaphor for death is "to return to the west", similar to the English-language metaphor in which a gadget which breaks down is said to have "gone south"), superstitions have grown around this: Flowers may be worth points at the end of a hand. If a flower is drawn, it is set aside and a new tile drawn. The first player to form a complete hand, with four sets and a pair, wins the hand. If multiple players claim a discard tile, a player claiming it for a pong or kong is given priority over one claiming it for a chow, and one claiming it as the final tile for victory has priority over all others. A tile discarded by anyone may be claimed for a pong or kong. The set made by a discard must be set aside and revealed to the other players the tiles in it may not be discarded.Ī tile may only be claimed for a chow if it was discarded by the player on the claimant's left (unless it is the final tile needed to win). If a tile is claimed in this manner, play immediately jumps to the claimant. When a player discards a tile, another player may claim it to form a set if they already have two (for a shueng or pong) or three (for a kong) of the needed tiles in their hand. A kong is worth no more than a pong in most variants its purpose is mostly to use up the extra tile to avoid having to discard a tile or make it available to another player. Since this is the only possible set with more than three tiles, a kong must be declared and set aside, and the player must draw an additional tile to replace the fourth tile.
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![mahjong soul mahjong soul](https://is4-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Purple124/v4/2e/3f/ad/2e3fad13-f3ee-10f1-ebbb-41d48b6533d5/source/512x512bb.jpg)
Pong (碰), or pung, pon (ポン): Three identical tiles.Numbers do not go "round the corner", i.e. Chow (corruption of 吃, chi), or chii (チー), also known as Sheung (上): Three tiles from one of the regular suits in numerical sequence (eg 4,5,6).The object of the game is to be the first to make a complete hand consisting of a pair and four sets usually consisting of three tiles each. If a player does not have a complete hand, they discard one tile, and play continues with the player on their right. Each player, on their own turn, draws the next tile from the wall. After the deal, play starts with the dealer. Each player is dealt a hand that usually has 13 tiles. Then, the dealer rolls the dice to determine which wall is broken and where, and the deal starts at the breaking point, for a result similar to cutting a deck of cards. The game ends after four rounds have been played.Įach player stacks 1/4 of the tiles in a wall in front of them, two tiles high and all facing down. A round ends when the East seat returns to the player who started as East. The East seat opens every hand at the end of each hand, the seats rotate anticlockwise (so that East becomes North, South becomes East, etc.) unless the hand was won by East or ended in a draw. Each player is also assigned a direction, referred to as their seat. Each round is assigned a direction, beginning with East and progressing through South, West, and North in that order. Four Season tiles: Spring (春), Summer (夏), Autumn (秋), and Winter (冬).Ī game is divided into hands and rounds.These four plants are part of a wider motif in Chinese art called the "Four Gentlemen". Four (actual) Flower tiles: Plum (梅), Orchid (蘭), Chrysanthemum (菊), and Bamboo (竹).
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Eight optional Flower tiles (花牌), which consists of two sets:.Occasionally, the dragon tiles are stylized dragons (with White being a dragon in silver ink, or a frame made up of two blue-outlined dragons). Three Dragons (三元牌), Red (中), Green (發), and White (白, represented by a dark bluish frame or a completely blank tile face).Dots (筒子), also called "balls", "circles", "stones", or "loaves", use little circles to represent the number.Īs well as those, there are also the Honour tiles:.