Mahjongg Journey

Mahjongg Journey

Mahjong or mah-jongg  is a tile-based game that was developed in the 19th century in China and has spread throughout the world since the early 20th century. It is commonly played by four players . The game and its regional variants are widely played throughout Eastern and South Eastern Asia and have also become popular in Western countries. The game has also been adapted into a widespread online entertainment. Similar to the Western card game rummy, Mahjong is a game of skill, strategy, and luck.

The game is played with a set of 144 tiles based on Chinese characters and symbols, although some regional variations may omit some tiles or add unique ones. In most variations, each player begins by receiving 13 tiles. In turn players draw and discard tiles until they complete a legal hand using the 14th drawn tile to form four melds  and a pair . A player can also win with a small class of special hands. While many variations of mahjong exist, most variations have some basic rules in common including how a piece is drawn and discarded, how a piece is robbed from another player, the use of suits  and honors, the basic kinds of melds allowed, how to deal the tiles and the order of play. Beyond these basic common rules, numerous regional variations exist which may have notably different criteria for legal melds and winning hands, radically different scoring systems and even elaborate extra rules. A group of players may introduce their own house rules which can notably change the feel of play.

Etymology   

In Chinese, the game was originally called meaning sparrowwhich is still used in some languages in southern China. It is said that the clacking of tiles during shuffling resembles the chattering of sparrows. It has also been suggested that the name came from an evolution of an earlier card game called Madiao from which mahjong tiles were adapted. Most Mandarin-speaking Chinese now call the game . Its name is similar in other languages, except in Thai, where it is called, a calque meaning "sparrow cards."

Old Hong Kong Mahjong rules   

There are many highly varied versions of mahjong both in rules and tiles used. "Old Hong Kong Mahjong" uses the same basic features and rules as the majority of the different variations of the game. This form of Mahjong uses all of the tiles of the most commonly available sets, includes no exotic complex rules, and has a relatively small set of scoring sets/hands with a simple scoring system. For these reasons Hong Kong mahjong is a suitable variation for the introduction of game rules and play and is the focus of this article.

Game pieces and accessories    

Old Hong Kong Mahjong is played with a standard set of 144 Mahjong tiles . Sets often include counters, dice, and a marker to show who the dealer is and which round is being played. Some sets include racks to hold the tiles, especially if they are larger or smaller than standard tiles or have an odd shape. Mahjong sets originating from the United States, Japan or Southeast Asia will likely have extra tiles or specialized markings.

The tiles are split into three categories: suited, honours, and bonus tiles.

Suited tiles     

Suited tiles are divided into three suits and each are numbered from 1 to 9. The suits are bamboos, dots, and characters. There are four identical copies of each suited tile totalling 108 tiles.

Heavenly Hand 

Great Winds  

Great Dragons  

All Kongs 

All Honor Tiles 

Thirteen Orphans  

Nine Gates Hand 

Self Triplets 

All in Triplets 

Mixed one suit  

All one suit 

Common Hand 

Small Dragons 

Small Winds 

Unicode   

Mahjong tiles were added to the Unicode Standard in April, 2008 with the release of version 5.1.

The Unicode block for Mahjong tiles is U+1F000–U+1F02F:

See also   

Mahjong tiles

Mahjong video game

Singaporean Mahjong scoring rules

Khanhoo

Madiao

Chinese playing cards

Mah-Jongg, a pet owned by the Courtaulds