How a round flows.
Before the first tile is drawn, the table goes through a setup: seats are assigned by dice roll, the wall is built, and East deals 13 tiles to each player with 14 for themselves. From there, the game runs on a simple loop.
01 · shuffle
Shuffle the tiles
All 144 tiles go face-down and players mix them together in the centre.
02 · the wall
Build the wall
144 tiles stacked two deep around the four sides of the table.
03 · the draw
Draw clockwise
Each player takes tiles CW from the wall — 4 at a time, 3 rounds, then 1 more each.
04 · the play
Play counter-clockwise
After the deal, turns proceed CCW: East → South → West → North, one tile in, one tile out.
Full table view · East wins
A snapshot mid-round: three hidden hands, a few discards in the center, and East's winning 14-tile hand laid out below.
Every turn follows the same three-beat rhythm.
Three steps repeat clockwise around the table — draw a tile, decide what to do with it, throw one back. The fourth “beat” is the loop itself: round after round, until someone wins.
Take one tile from the front of the wall. Your hand is now 14 tiles. The only moment in the game where the future is unknown — anything could arrive.
Look at the new tile. Does it improve your hand? Could it complete a set, finish a sequence, or become the pair you needed? This is where mahjong lives.
Place one tile face-up in the center. Your hand is back to 13. Your turn is over — but the tile you threw doesn't disappear.
And then again — until someone wins.
One tile in, one tile out, repeated clockwise around the table until a player completes four sets and a pair.
The setup process is easier to grasp in motion than in words. The interactive room walks you through every step — seat selection, dice roll, wall break, and deal — one click at a time. Go to the interactive room →
Most of mahjong's richness is in the decide step. A new tile arrives and you must choose: discard the new one and stay the course? Break up an old plan for a better one? Hold something dangerous because it's the only path to a high-scoring hand?
Calls — intercepting a discard
The discarded tile sits face-up briefly before the next draw. In that window, any other player can call it to complete one of their sets. This is what makes mahjong social: a single discard can change four people's plans at once.
When multiple players call
You can also kong on your own turn. If you draw the fourth tile of a triplet already in your hand, declare a concealed kong. It scores more generously than an open kong.
The call trade-off
Calling skips turn order and locks in a set immediately. The risk: your exposed tiles are visible to everyone. Opponents will stop discarding tiles that help you.
A fully concealed hand scores higher than the same hand with exposed sets. Sometimes the right move is to let a useful discard pass and wait for the wall to deliver it naturally.
The wall
The round ends in a draw — sometimes called a goulash. No points change hands. East stays East and the round replays. Only a win by another player rotates the wind seat.