American mahjong
American mahjong in plain words
American mahjong and JONGG terms in plain words: the card, Charleston, calls, jokers and scoring. Check your printed card and official rules for the full requirements.
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American mahjong
American mahjong usually has four players and uses 152 tiles and a printed card of winning hands. Players build a fourteen-tile hand that matches the card; “Mahjong!” names a winning declaration. JONGG also offers Quick Duel, its own two-player variant. Other mahjong traditions use different rules.
Tiles
The game's pieces, like playing cards. There are three suits numbered one to nine (dots, bamboo and characters, called bams and craks), plus winds, dragons, flowers and jokers.
The card
In American mahjong, a printed list of the hands you are allowed to win with. It changes every year, so everyone at the table aims for the same small set of patterns. Each hand on it has a value.
A hand
Two meanings: the tiles you are playing, including any groups laid face up, and a winning pattern on the card. A completed winning hand has fourteen tiles in total.
Points, or value
Each hand has a value printed on the card. That value is the starting point for scoring; the way the hand is won and any eligible jokerless bonus determine the amounts each player owes.
Jokers and jokerless
Jokers are wild tiles: they can stand in a matching group of three or more, but never a single or pair. A win without jokers is called jokerless. Eligible hands receive an extra jokerless multiplier; Singles & Pairs hands do not, because their printed value already includes that bonus.
The Charleston
Before ordinary four-player play, players exchange tiles in a first sequence: right, across and left. Any player may stop before the second sequence; if everyone continues, it goes left, across and right. Blind and courtesy passes have their own rules. JONGG’s Quick Duel has no Charleston.
Discard
A tile a player puts face up in the middle of the table to end a turn. Usually the player draws first; the dealer’s first discard and a discard after calling an exposed group do not need another draw.
Calling a discard
For a hand that permits exposures, you can call a discarded natural tile to complete a matching group of three or more that fits the card. You then lay that group face up. A call that completes your entire winning hand is different: the winning tile may complete a single or pair, including in a concealed hand. A discarded joker cannot be called.
Pung, kong and quint
Matching groups: a pung is three tiles, a kong four and a quint five. A pair is two. Follow the group and tile requirements on your card; jokers cannot fill a pair.
Exposures
The groups a player has laid face up on the table after calling a discard. Everyone can see them, which gives away a little about the hand being built.
Self-pick
Usually, winning with a tile you draw from the wall. In JONGG’s current card rules, a win completed by a valid joker exchange on your turn also uses self-pick scoring. The table’s format determines the payment.
Concealed
A hand marked concealed on the card must be built without calling any discards, except the very last tile that wins it. All its tiles stay hidden until the win.
East, or the dealer
East is the dealer at the start: they receive fourteen tiles and discard first without drawing. In JONGG, the deal moves after a win and stays with the same player after a wall game.
The wall and a wall game
The tiles not yet dealt are stacked face down in a square called the wall, and players draw from it. When no tile remains to draw and nobody has won, it is a wall game: nobody wins and nobody pays.
Near miss
A hand that ended one tile short of winning. Cards about a near miss are only made for players who ask for them.
Tiles away
How many tiles are missing from a matching version of a hand on the card. JONGG considers your tiles and exposed groups. A smaller number means a closer match, not a better chance of winning or a promise that the missing tiles remain available.
Bots
Players the app runs. They fill an empty seat so a game can start, and suggest moves in practice. Their level says how carefully they play.
Club
A named social club in JONGG: its people and their weekly tables, whether a library group, a Tuesday crowd or a class. One invite link joins it, and the organizer keeps the roster. Listing a club so others can find it is a separate choice the organizer makes.
Weekly table
The same people at the same time each week, kept together in a club with their table settings and their history. Games at a real table can be scored into it too.
The line
When a game night is full, answering Going puts you in the line instead of a seat. When a seat opens, it goes to the next name in the line. A place in the line is not a seat, and Maybe does not reserve one.
Tally
A running count of points a club or weekly table keeps over the year, scored from its games. It is points only; there is no money in the app. On a score sheet, the pot is the points set aside on a wall game for the next winner.