Mahjong is a popular game that had been developed from various Chinese games. The fact that it came from different Chinese games provided it with sophisticated cultural pattern.
Mahjong Seating
Before the game starts, each player must draw randomly from the four wind tiles to determine order. These tiles look like the following:
(From left to right, East, South, West, North)
The East tile is considered the prevailing wind and is the first player to start for the round. He/She also receives double points and is also paid double the normal amount. Order of play continues in an anti-clockwise fashion and then for subsequent rounds, players rotate their position. In some cases, a complete session of mahjong is when after everyone has had a turn of being the prevailing East position, South is then determined to be the prevailing wind. Once everyone has had a turn being the prevailing South wind, West is then determined to be the prevailing wind and so on until finally everyone has had a turn of being the prevailing north wind. However, completing a full session of mahjong is certainly not necessary and most people usually play up to a certain amount of rounds or points anyway.
Setting up the Tiles
All tiles are placed face down on the table and then shuffled thoroughly in a process that is sometimes referred by Chinese as “The twittering of the sparrows.” When this is complete, each player draws 34 tiles, still face down, and builds them into a wall that is 2 tiles high and 17 tiles. Each players structures are then pushed together to form a square as shown below:
Mahjong Table
Making a Break in the Wall
Before the game starts, the player in the East position rolls the dice in order to determine who goes first. Counting anti-clockwise, the player who is seated where the count ends rolls the dice and then the totals of both are added to count along his/her wall going from right to left. This is where the player breaks the wall and removes the pair of tiles, placing the topmost tile above the previous one and the lower tile two positions further anti-clockwise.
Dealing the Tiles
Tiles are dealt in an anti-clockwise fashion from the break that was just made until each player has received twelve tiles. The first and third tiles are then dealt to the East position and then the first on the lowest row is given to South. The next on the topmost row is given to West and the subsequent lower tile is given to North. Thus, the East positioned player will end up with fourteen tiles and everyone else will have thirteen.
Aim of Mahjong
Before we get into playing the game, let’s review the aim of mahjong and what is required to win. The basic idea is to create combinations of tiles which have special names as listed below:
Pong (or Pung) – A combination of 3 identical tiles e.g. 
Kong – A combination of 4 identical tiles e.g 
Chow – A combination of 3 tiles in sequential order e.g. 
The primary objective in the end is to have a set of tiles that is completely made up of these combinations. So in order for a player to win (or declare “Mahjong”), he/she must have a pair and 4 Pongs, Kongs or Chows.
Playing the game
The player positioned as East is the first to discard a tile by placing it face up in the middle of the table. Each player then has their subsequent turn of discarding a tile and picks up a new one with the option to create a tile combination. i.e. after each discard, any player can declare Pong, Kong or Chow and use the discarded tile as part of a combination.
Play continues in this fashion until someone can declare Mahjong. Whenever a player declares Kong, he/she must present the combination face up and immediately take a new tile from the Kong Box. A Pong that has been declared can be converted into a Kong but only when using a tile taken from the wall.
Tile that have been discarded are considered dead if no one is able to create a combination with them
If all tiles have been drawn, then there is no winner and the game is declared a draw. The tiles are then reshuffled with the same wind positions.
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