Mahjong has enjoyed enormous popularity since it was first played in ancient China. This tile game has its roots with the Chinese philosopher, Confucius, according to legend, and was introduced to the West in the early part of the 20th century.
While Mahjong reached the shores of the United States in the 1920’s, it wasn’t until 1937 that the National Mahjong League of New York introduced a standardized version known as the American Style of Mahjong.
The game is essentially a game of skill that is played among four players. The game of Mahjong today is very similar in all its versions, although different elements may change from version to version in terms of scoring, and game pieces.
The main objective of Mahjong is to build sets and earn yourself the highest point value in the process. The tiles, which have different designs on them, are thus chosen and discarded by the player until a set has been completed. That, in a nutshell, is how American Mahjong is played.
American Mahjong rules differ slightly to traditional Chinese Mahjong.
Some of the differences can be found in the sequences before the game play. In American Mahjong, the Charleston sequence can be found. This is essentially a series of tile exchanges that takes place among players so that they can get discard of any tiles they don’t want to others in the game.
There are three stages to the Charleston – First Charleston, Second Charleston and Courtesy Pass, with the latter two being optional.
The First Charleston consists of three passes and is a required step. The Second Charleston can only be done if all the players in the game agree to it, while the Courtesy Pass is done if two players sitting across from one another agree to it. According to American Mahjong rules, the game begins once the Charleston step (or steps) is completed.
After the player creates a mahjong (a set of hand), he or she is declared the winner of the game. A Mahjong is essentially a combination of tiles that can be found in the rules book published each year by the National Mahjong League in the United States. The hand consists of a combination of kong, pung, pair, quint or other special hands.
Another area where American Mahjong rules differ to other versions of Mahjong is in the scoring of the game.
Scoring the American style is based on two different ways of declaring Mahjong. If the declaration is by self drawing (the preferred method), the winner of the game receives double the points scored by each player. If there are no Jokers, all the players in the game pay four times the value of the hand (except in the case of singles and pairs group of the winning hand).
If the declaration of Mahjong is by someone’s discard, the winner will receive double the points earned by the player who discarded the tile plus points scored from all the other players in the game.
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