Mah Jong is played by four players who play as individuals and not as partners.
Before play commences a limit should be set for the maximum number of points that one player may have to pay to another on any given round, typically 1000, though 500 and 1500 are also common. Designate one player as the East, who will be the first dealer.
A full game consists of 16 hands of play, falling within 4 rounds. The rounds are named after the four directions: East, South, West, and North. The first 4 hands are the East round; the South round follows (second 4 hands); the West round is next (third round of 4 hands); last is the North round (last four hands). This is also known as "the wind of the round" or "the prevailing wind".
A double wind occurs when a player's own wind coincides with the prevailing wind. This situation has special value to a winning player when the score is tallied.
Seats are chosen and each man throws two dice in turn, the high throw becoming the "East Wind," or "Dealer." Everyone else around the table is assigned a corresponding cardinal direction. The dealer is always "East," the player opposite is "West," to the dealer's right is "South," and to his left "North".
The order of play, beginning with East, therefore, is anti-clockwise. Note that the Chinese compass (placement of the directions) is not the same as the English compass (see figure 1).
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West (3)
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South (2)
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East (1)
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Figure 1: The East Round seating positions. Play goes anti-clockwise.
Building the Wall
The entire set of pieces is then placed face down on the table and thoroughly mixed or shuffled. Each player selects 34 pieces at random and arranges them in front of him face down in a row seventeen pieces long and two high. These four rows are then shoved forward (another handy use of the racks) to form a hollow square in the middle of the table to represent a Chinese city wall (see figure 2).
Figure 2: Unbroken Wall
Breaking the Wall
Though this procdeure and the method of drawing ones pieces may seem complex, both are traditional and are proven measures to prevent cheating.
The opening point of the wall is decided by the dice. The dealer throws the two dice and the total number of spots on both dice indicates the wall in which the opening is to be made, starting with the dealer as one and counting in a anti-clockwise direction up to twelve, the highest number that can be thrown with the two dice.
Thus, if the two dice total 2, 6, or 10 "South," takes the dice; 3, 7, 11, "West," takes the dice; 4, 8, or 12, "North," takes the dice; and 5 or 9 the "Dealer" continues with the dice.
The Draw
The second throw determines the exact spot at which the wall is to be opened. The player getting the second throw of the dice adds his roll to the total of the first roll and then counts off from the right end of his row clockwise the number of pieces indicated by the total of the two throws and opens the wall at this point.
As there are only 17 tiles in any wall (18 if playing with seasons) then a combined total of the first and second rolls of greater than 17 (or 18) would mean that the wall to the Player's left will be breached. That is, if West were rolling to determine the opening point due to the first roll being 11, and West rolled 10 then he would count 21 tiles from the right end of his wall. This would take him/her round the corner into North's wall by 4 (or 3) tiles for the break.
After the opening point has been established the player takes out the two pieces (top and bottom tiles), called the loose tiles and lays them to the right of opening. They then mark the "end of the wall".
The dealer then takes the first four pieces to the left of the opening (2 top and 2 bottom tiles), followed by South, West, and North, each drawing four in turn, going in a clockwise direction around the wall until each man has twelve pieces.
East then takes the next tile from the edge of the wall (top tile), and the tile two over (top tile). Each other player then takes one tile from the gap (top or bottom tile depending on player), leaving the tile under the last tile East took as the next tile to be drawn when the game actually begins. (see figure 3)
Figure 3: After all players have drawn hands
The seventh pair of tiles from the other end of the wall is taken up, and a tile is placed on top of the last and third-to-last pairs in the wall. These fourteen tiles which are separated from the rest of the Wall form the Dead Wall.
The pieces are then arranged in order of suits in the hand. Each player's hand is concealed from the other three as in dominoes and tiles may be be placed in "racks".
Play may now commence.
