Early history

The origin of playing cards is obscure, but it is almost certain that they began in China after the invention of paper. Ancient Chinese “money cards” have four “suits”: coins (or cash), strings of coins (which may have been misinterpreted as sticks from crude drawings), myriads of strings, and tens of myriads. These were represented by ideograms, with numerals of 2–9 in the first three suits and numerals 1–9 in the “tens of myriads”. Wilkinson suggests in The Chinese origin of playing cards that the first cards may have been actual paper currency which were both the tools of gaming and the stakes being played for. The designs on modern Mahjong tiles and dominoes likely evolved from those earliest playing cards. The Chinese word pái (牌) is used to describe both paper cards and gaming tiles. An Indian origin for playing cards has been suggested by the resemblance of symbols on some early European decks to the ring, sword, cup, and baton classically depicted in the four hands of Indian statues. This is an area that still needs research. The time and manner of the introduction of cards into Europe are matters of dispute. The 38th canon of the council of Worcester (1240) is often quoted as evidence of cards having been known in England in the middle of the 13th century; but the games de rege et regina there mentioned are now thought to more likely have been chess. If cards were generally known in Europe as early as 1278, it is very remarkable that Petrarch, in his dialogue that treats gaming, never once mentions them. Boccaccio, Chaucer and other writers of that time specifically refer to various games, but there is not a single passage in their works that can be fairly construed to refer to cards. Passages have been quoted from various works, of or relative to this period, but modern research leads to the supposition that the word rendered cards has often been mistranslated or interpolated.

Italians playing cards, Sancai-type bowl, Northern Italy, mid-15th century.

It is likely that the ancestors of modern cards arrived in Europe from the Mamelukes of Egypt in the late 1300s, by which time they had already assumed a form very close to those in use today. In particular, the Mameluke deck contained 52 cards comprising four “suits”: polo sticks, coins, swords, and cups. Each suit contained ten “spot” cards (cards identified by the number of suit symbols or “pips” they show) and three “court” cards named malik (King), nā’ib malik (Viceroy or Deputy King), and thānī nā’ib (Second or Under-Deputy). The Mameluke court cards showed abstract designs not depicting persons (at least not in any surviving specimens) though they did bear the names of military officers. A complete pack of Mameluke playing cards was discovered by L.A. Mayer in the Topkapi Sarayi Museum, Istanbul, in 1939 [1]; this particular complete pack was not made before 1400, but the complete deck allowed matching to a private fragment dated to the twelfth or thirteenth century. There is some evidence to suggest that this deck may have evolved from an earlier 48-card deck that had only two court cards per suit, and some further evidence to suggest that earlier Chinese cards brought to Europe may have travelled to Persia, which then influenced the Mameluke and other Egyptian cards of the time before their reappearance in Europe.

It is not known whether these cards influenced the design of the Indian cards used for the game of Ganjifa, or whether the Indian cards may have influenced these. Regardless, the Indian cards have many distinctive features: they are round, generally hand painted with intricate designs, and comprise more than four suits (often as many as twelve).

Spread across Europe and early design changes

In the late 1300s, the use of playing cards spread rapidly across Europe. The first widely accepted references to cards are in 1371 in Spain, in 1377 in Switzerland, and, in 1380, they are referenced in many locations including Florence, Paris, and Barcelona [2] [3]. A Paris ordinance dated 1369 does not mention cards; its 1377 update includes cards. In the account-books of Johanna, duchess of Brabant, and her husband, Wenceslaus of Luxemburg, there is an entry dated May 14, 1379 as follows: “Given to Monsieur and Madame four peters, two forms, value eight and a half moutons, wherewith to buy a pack of cards”. An early mention of a distinct series of playing cards is the entry of Charles or Charbot Poupart, treasurer of the household of Charles VI of France, in his book of accounts for 1392 or 1393, which records payment for the painting of three sets or packs of cards, which were evidently already well known.

It is clear that the earliest cards were executed by hand, like those designed for Charles VI. However, this was quite expensive, so other means were needed to mass-produce them. It is possible that the art of wood engraving, which led to the art of printing, developed because of the demand for implements of play. If the assumption is true that the cards of that period were printed from wood blocks, the early card makers or cardpainters of Ulm, Nuremberg, and Augsburg, from about 1418 to 1450 [4], were most likely also wood engravers.

Many early woodcuts were colored using a stencil, so it would seem that the art of depicting and coloring figures by means of stencil plates was well known when wood engraving was first introduced. No playing cards engraved on wood exist whose creation can be confirmed as earlier than 1423 (the earliest-dated wood engraving generally accepted). However, in this period professional card makers were established in Germany, so it is probable that wood engraving was employed to produce cuts for sacred subjects before it was applied to cards, and that there were hand-painted and stencilled cards before there were wood engravings of saints. The German Briefmaler or card-painter probably progressed into the wood engraver; but there is no proof that the earliest wood engravers were the card-makers.

Modern Austrian-style 40-card or 54-card Tarock

The Europeans experimented with the structure of playing cards, particularly in the 1400s. Europeans changed the court cards to represent European royalty and attendants, originally “king”, “chevalier”, and “knave” (or “servant”). Queens were introduced in a number of different ways. In an early surviving German pack (dated in the 1440s), Queens replace Kings in two of the suits as the highest card. Throughout the 1400s, 56-card decks containing a King, Queen, Knight, and Valet were common. Suits also varied; many makers saw no need to have a standard set of names for the suits, so early decks often had different suit names (typically 4 suits, although 5 suits also had been common and other structures are also known). The cards manufactured by German printers used in the later standard the suits of hearts, bells, leaves, and acorns still present in Eastern and Southeastern German decks today used for Skat and other games, in the very early time suits took many vary variations, however. Later Italian and Spanish cards of the 15th century used swords, batons, cups, and coins. It is likely that the Tarot deck was invented in Italy at that time, though it is often mistakenly believed to have been imported into Europe by Gypsies (see detailed studies, also the article Tarot). While originally (and still in some places, notably Europe) used for the game of Tarocchi, the Tarot deck today is more often used for cartomancy and other occult practices. This probably came about in the 1780s, when occult philosophers [5] mistakenly associated the symbols on Tarot cards with Egyptian hieroglyphs.

The four suits (hearts, diamonds, spades, clubs) now used in most of the world originated in France, approximately in 1480. These suits have generally prevailed because decks using them could be made more cheaply; the former suits were all drawings which had to be reproduced by woodcuts, but the French suits could be made by stencil. The trèfle, so named for its resemblance to the trefoil leaf, was probably copied from the acorn; the pique similarly from the leaf of the German suits, while its name derived from the sword of the Italian suits (alternative opinion: derived from the German word “Spaten”, which is a tool like “Schippe” and in optical sense similar to the Pique-sign; “Schippe” is a German slang-name for Pique) [6]. In England the French suits were used, and are named hearts, clubs (corresponding to trèfle, the French symbol being joined to the Italian name, bastoni), spades (corresponding to the French pique, but having the Italian name, spade = sword) and diamonds. This confusion of names and symbols is accounted for by Chatto thus:

“If cards were actually known in Italy and Spain in the latter part of the 14th century, it is not unlikely that the game was introduced into this country by some of the English soldiers who had served under Hawkwood and other free captains in the wars of Italy and Spain. However this may be, it seems certain that the earliest cards commonly used in this country were of the same kind, with respect to the marks of the suits, as those used in Italy and Spain.”

Court cards have likewise undergone some changes in design and name. Early court cards were elaborate full-length figures; the French in particular often gave them the names of particular heroes and heroines from history and fable. A prolific manufacturing center in the 1500s was Rouen, which originated many of the basic design elements of court cards still present in modern decks. It is likely that the Rouennais cards were popular imports in England, establishing their design as standard there, though other designs became more popular in Europe (particularly in France, where the Parisian design became standard). There is some speculation that the common King of Hearts was designed as a tribute to Donatello’s Judith and Holophernes.’

Rouen courts are traditionally named as follows: the kings of spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs are David, Alexander, Caesar and Charles (Charlemagne), respectively. The knaves (or “jacks”; French “valet”) are Hector (prince of Troy), La Hire (comrade-in-arms to Joan of Arc), Ogier (a knight of Charlemagne) and Judas Maccabeus (who led the Jewish rebellion against the Syrians). The queens are Pallas (warrior goddess; equivalent to the Greek Athena or Roman Minerva), Rachel (biblical mother of Joseph), Argine (the origin of which is obscure; it is an anagram of regina, which is Latin for queen) and Judith (from Book of Judith). Parisian tradition uses the same names, but assigns them to different suits: the kings of spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs are David, Charles, Caesar, and Alexander; the queens are Pallas, Judith, Rachel, and Argine; the knaves are Ogier, La Hire, Hector, and Judas Maccabee. Oddly, the Parisian names have become more common in modern use, even with cards of Rouennais design. (See the Nine Worthies for another medieval collection of knightly heroes.)

Later design changes

In early games the kings were always the highest card in their suit. However, as early as the late 1400s special significance began to be placed on the nominally lowest card, now called the Ace, so that it sometimes became the highest card and the Two, or Deuce, the lowest. This concept may have been hastened in the late 1700s by the French Revolution, where games began being played “ace high” as a symbol of lower classes rising in power above the royalty. The term “Ace” itself comes from a dicing term in Anglo-Norman language, which is itself derived from the Latin as (the smallest unit of coinage). Another dicing term, trey (3), sometimes shows up in playing card games.

An 18th century card table from New York now located at the Baltimore Museum of Art.

Corner and edge indices appeared in the mid-1800s, which enabled people to hold their cards close together in a fan with one hand (instead of the two hands previously used). Before this time, the lowest court card in an English deck was officially termed the Knave, but its abbreviation (“Kn”) was too similar to the King (“K”). However, from the 1600s on the Knave had often been termed the Jack, a term borrowed from the game All Fours where the Knave of trumps is termed the Jack. All Fours was considered a low-class game, so the use of the term Jack at one time was considered vulgar. The use of indices changed the formal name of the lowest court card to Jack.

This was followed by the innovation of reversible court cards. Reversible court cards meant that players would not be tempted to make upside-down court cards right side up. Before this, other players could often get a hint of what other players’ hands contained by watching them reverse their cards. This innovation required abandoning some of the design elements of the earlier full-length courts.

The joker is an American innovation. Created for the Alsatian game of Euchre, it spread to Europe from America along with the spread of Poker. Although the joker card often bears the image of a fool (possibly derived from the stereotypical village idiot), which is one of the images of the Tarot deck, it is not believed that there is any relation. In contemporary decks, one of the two jokers is often more colorful or more intricately detailed than the other, though this feature is not used in most card games. The two jokers are often differentiated as “Big” and “Little,” or more commonly, “Red” and “Black.” In many card games the jokers are not used. Unlike face cards, the design of jokers varies widely. Many manufacturers use them to carry trademark designs.

A transformation playing card from the 1895 Vanity Fair deck

In the twentieth century, a means for coating cards with plastic was invented, and has taken over the market, producing a durable product. An example of what the old cardboard product was like is documented in Buster Keaton’s silent comedy The Navigator, in which the forlorn comic tries to shuffle and play cards during a rainstorm.

Alleged symbolism

Playing cards have been used as vehicles for political statements. Here, a playing card of the French Revolution symbolising freedom of cult and brotherhood.

Popular legend holds that the composition of a deck of cards has religious, metaphysical or astronomical significance: typical numerological elements of the explanation are that the four suits represent the four seasons, the 13 cards per suit are the 13 phases of the lunar cycle, black and red are for day and night, the 52 cards of the deck (joker excluded) symbolizes the number of weeks in a year, and finally, if the value of each card is added up — and 1 is added, which is generally explained away as being for a single joker — the result is 365, the number of days in a year. The context for these stories is sometimes given to suggest that the interpretation is a joke, generally being the purported explanation given by someone caught with a deck of cards in order to suggest that their intended purpose was not gambling (Urban Legends Reference Pages article).

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

A playing card is a typically hand-sized piece of heavy paper or thin plastic used for playing card games. A complete set of cards is a pack or deck. Playing cards are often used as props in magic tricks, as well as occult practices such as cartomancy, and a number of card games involve (or can be used to support) gambling. As a result, their use sometimes meets with disapproval from some religious groups (such as a minority of conservative Christians). They are also a popular collectible (as distinct from the cards made specifically for collectible trading card games). Specialty and novelty decks are commonly produced for collectors, often with political, cultural, or educational themes. One side of each card (the “front” or “face”) carries markings that distinguish it from the others and determine its use under the rules of the particular game being played, while the other side (the “back”) is identical for all cards, usually a plain color or abstract design. In most games, the cards are assembled into a “deck” (or “pack”), and their order is randomized by a procedure called “shuffling” to provide an element of chance in the game.

Some typical Anglo-American playing cards.

Playing card symbols in Unicode

The Unicode standard defines 8 characters for card suits in the Miscellaneous Symbols block, from U+2660 to U+2667:

There is also a proposal by Michael Everson, dated 2004-05-18 to encode the 52 cards of the Anglo-American-French deck together with a character for “Playing Card Back” and another for a joker. [6]

References

• Parlett, David. The Oxford Guide to Card Games. 1990. ISBN 0-19-214165-1.

Set of 52 playing cards

Links

• Manchester University playing card FAQ
• Online Tarot and Playing Card Museum
• History of the design of the court cards
• Courts on playing cards
• Deck of playing cards in SVG
• Deck of playing cards in .fla and .png

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

A card game is any game using playing cards, either traditional or game-specific.

The deck or pack

A card game is played with a deck (common in the US), or pack (common in the UK), of cards intended for that game. The deck consists of a fixed number of pieces of printed cardboard known as cards. The cards in a deck are identical in size and shape. Each card has two sides, the face and the back. The backs of the cards in a deck are indistinguishable. The faces of the cards in a deck may all be unique, or may include duplicates, depending on the game. In either case, any card is readily identifiable by its face. The set of cards that make up the deck are known to all of the players using that deck.

Although many games have special decks of cards, the 52 card pack is known as the standard deck, and is used in a wide variety of games. It consists of 52 cards, each card having a suit (one of spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs) and a rank (a number between 2 and 10, or one of jack, queen, king and ace). For any combination of one suit and one rank, there is exactly one card in the standard deck having that suit and rank. In addition to games that use the standard deck, there are also games that use some modification of the standard deck, for example excluding all cards of rank lower than some rank (e.g., a pinochle deck), or adding a special card, joker, to the standard deck. Many European regions have their own variants of the standard deck having different names and imagery for suits, or having a different set of ranks in the cards.

There are also some card games that require multiple standard decks. In this scenario, a “deck” refers to a set of 52 cards or a single deck, while a “pack” or “shoe” (Blackjack) refers to the collection of “decks” as a whole.

The deal

Dealing is done either clockwise or counterclockwise. If this is omitted from the rules, then it should be assumed to be:

• clockwise for games from North America, North and West Europe and Russia;
• counterclockwise for South and East Europe and Asia, also for Swiss games and all Tarot games.

A player is chosen to deal. That person takes all of the cards in the pack, stacks them together so that they are all the same way up and the same way round, and shuffles them. There are various techniques of shuffling, all intended to put the cards into a random order. During the shuffle, dealer holds the cards so that he or she and the other players cannot see any of their faces.

Shuffling should continue until the chance of a card remaining next to the one that was originally next to is small. In practice, many dealers do not shuffle for long enough to achieve this.

After the shuffle, the dealer offers the deck to another player to cut the deck. If the deal is clockwise, this is the player on her right; if counter-clockwise, it is the player on her left. The invitation to cut is made by placing the pack, face downward, on the table near the player who is to cut: who then lifts the upper portion of the pack clear of the lower portion and places it alongside. The formerly lower portion is then replaced on top of the formerly upper portion.

The dealer then deals the cards. This is done by dealer holding the pack, face-down, in one hand, and removing cards from the top of it with her other hand to distribute to the players, placing them face-down on the table in front of the players to whom they are dealt. The rules of the game will specify the details of the deal. It normally starts with the players next to the dealer in the direction of play (left in a clockwise game; right in an anticlockwise one), and continues in the same direction around the table. The cards may be dealt one at a time, or in groups. Unless the rules specify otherwise, assume that the cards are dealt one at a time. Unless the rules specify otherwise, assume that all the cards are dealt out; but in many games, some remain undealt, and are left face down in the middle of the table, forming the talon, skat, or stock. The player who received the first card from the deal may be known as eldest hand, or as forehand.

The set of cards dealt to a player is known as his or her hand.

Throughout the shuffle, cut, and deal, the dealer should arrange that the players are unable to see the faces of any of the cards. The players should not try to see any of the faces. Should a card accidentally become exposed (visible to all), then normally any player can demand a redeal – that is, all the cards are gathered up, and the shuffle, cut and deal are repeated. Should a player accidentally see a card (other than one dealt to herself) she should admit this.

It is dishonest to try to see cards as they are dealt, or to take advantage of having seen a card accidentally.

When the deal is complete, all players pick up their cards and hold them in such a way that the faces can be seen by the holder of the cards but not the other players. It is helpful to fan one’s cards out so that (if they have corner indices) all their values can be seen at once. In most games it is also useful to sort one’s hand, rearranging the cards in a way appropriate to the game. For example in a trick taking game it is easier to have all one’s cards of the same suit together, whereas in a rummy game one might sort them by rank or by potential combinations.

The rules

A new card game starts in a small way, either as someone’s invention, or as a modification of an existing game. Those playing it may agree to change the rules as they wish. The rules that they agree on become the “house rules” under which they play the game. A set of house rules may be accepted as valid by a group of players wherever they play. It may also be accepted as governing all play within a particular house, café, or club.

When a game becomes sufficiently popular, so that people often play it with strangers, there is a need for a generally accepted set of rules. This is often met by a particular set of house rules becoming generally recognised. For example, when whist became popular in 18th-century England, players in the Portland Club agreed on a set of house rules for use on its premises. Players in some other clubs then agreed to follow the “Portland Club” rules, rather than go to the trouble of codifying and printing their own sets of rules. The Portland Club rules eventually became generally accepted throughout England.

There is nothing “official” about this process. If you decide to play whist seriously, it would be sensible to learn the Portland Club rules, so that you can play with other people who already know these rules. But if you only play whist with your family, you are likely to ignore these rules, and just use what rules you choose. And if you play whist seriously with a group of friends, you are still perfectly free to devise your own set of rules, should you want to.

It is sometimes said that the “official” or “correct” sets of rules governing a card game are those “in Hoyle”. Edmond Hoyle was an 18th-century Englishman who published a number of books about card games. His books were popular, especially his treatise on how to become a good whist player. After (and even before) his death, many publishers have taken advantage of his popularity by placing his name on their books of rules. The presence of his name on a rule book has no significance at all. The rules given in the book may be no more than the opinion of the author.

If there is a sense in which a card game can have an “official” set of rules, it is when that card game has an “official” governing body. For example, the rules of tournament bridge are governed by the World Bridge Federation, and by local bodies in various countries such as the ACBL in the USA, and the EBU in England. The rules of skat in Germany are governed by the Deutsche Skatverband which publishes the Skatordnung. The rules of French tarot are governed by the Fédération Française de Tarot. But there is no compulsion to follow the rules put out by these organisations. If you and your friends decide to play a game by a set of rules unknown to the game’s official body, you are doing nothing illegal.

Many widely-played card games have no official regulating body. An example is Canasta.

Rule infractions

An infraction is any action which is against the rules of the game, such as playing a card when it is not one’s turn to play and the accidental exposure of a card.

In many official sets of rules for card games, the rules specifying the penalties for various infractions occupy more pages than the rules specifying how to play correctly. This is tedious, but necessary for games that are played seriously. Players who intend to play a card game at a high level generally ensure before beginning that all agree on the penalties to be used. When playing privately, this will normally be a question of agreeing house rules. In a tournament there will probably be a tournament director who will enforce the rules when required and arbitrate in cases of doubt.

If a player breaks the rules of a game deliberately, this is cheating. Most card players would refuse to play cards with a known cheat. The rest of this section is therefore about accidental infractions, caused by ignorance, clumsiness, inattention, etc.

As the same game is played repeatedly among a group of players, precedents build up about how a particular infraction of the rules should be handled. E.G. “Sheila just led a card when it wasn’t her turn. Last week when Jo did that, we agreed … etc.”. Sets of such precedents tend to become established among groups of players, and to be regarded as part of the house rules. Sets of house rules become formalised, as described in the previous section. Therefore, for some games, there is a “proper” way of handling infractions of the rules. But for many games, without governing bodies, there is no standard way of handling infractions.

In many circumstances, there is no need for special rules dealing with what happens after an infraction. As a general principle, the person who broke a rule should not benefit by it, and the other players should not lose by it. An exception to this may be made in games with fixed partnerships, in which it may be felt that the partner(s) of the person who broke a rule should also not benefit. The penalty for an accidental infraction should be as mild as reasonable, consistent with there being no possible benefit to the person responsible.

Links

• Card Games – Pagat.com contains detailed rules for hundreds of card games
• The House of Cards – comprehensive directory of traditional and commercial card games
• Rules for historic card games
• International Playing Card Society

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

View from a player going to discard a tile in an ongoing gameplay.

Players may read the name of the discarded tile out loud.

The flower tile on the left should be replaced by a tile from the dead wall promptly.

Each player is dealt either 13 tiles for 13-tile variations or 16 tiles for 16-tile variations.

A turn involves a player’s drawing of a tile from the wall (or draw pile) and then placing it in his hand. The player then discards a tile onto the table. This signals the end of his turn, prompting the player to the right to make his move. As a form of courtesy, each player is encouraged to announce loudly the name of the tile being discarded. Many variations require that discarded tiles be placed in an orderly fashion in front of the player, while some require that these be placed face down.

Flower tiles

Flower tiles, when dealt or drawn, must be immediately replaced by a tile from the dead wall, or if no dead wall exists, the back end of the wall. They are immediately exposed (placed in view on the table on front of the player’s tiles). At the start of each round, where two or more players may have flower tiles, flower tiles are replaced starting with the dealer and moving to the right. Flower tiles may or may not have point value; and in some variations, possession of all the flower tiles wins the round regardless of the actual contents of the hand.

In American Mahjong, however, Flower tiles are not instantly exposed and replaced, as they may be melded with other Flower tiles in the same group (in essence, they are treated as if they were another set of honor tiles) or be used as a requirement of a winning hand. Early versions of American Mahjong used Flower tiles as Joker tiles.

Joker tiles

A feature of several variations, most notably American variations of Mahjong, is the notion of wild card or Joker tiles. They may be used as a substitute for any tile in a hand (or, in some variations, only tiles in melds). Depending on the variation, a player may replace a Joker tile that is part of an exposed meld belonging to any player with the tile it represents.

Rules governing discarding Joker tiles also exist: some variations permit the Joker tile to take on the identity of any tile, and others only permit the Joker tile to take on the identity of the previously discarded tile (or the absence of a tile, if it is the first discard).

Joker tiles may or may not have an impact on scoring, depending on the variation. Some special hands may require the use of Joker tiles (for example, to represent a “fifth tile” of a certain suited or honor tile).

In American Mahjong, it is illegal to pass jokers during the Charleston.

Melds

When a player discards a tile, any other player may “call” or “bid” for it in order to complete a meld (a certain set of tiles) in his or her own hand. The disadvantage of doing this is that the player must now expose the completed meld to the other players, giving them an idea of what type of hand he or she is creating. This also creates an element of strategy, as in many variations, discarding a tile that allows another player to win the game causes the discarding player to lose points (or pay the winner more in a game for money).

Most variants (again, with the notable exception of American Mahjong) allow three types of melds. When a meld is declared through a discard, the player must state the type of the meld to be declared and place the meld face-up. The player must then discard a tile, and play continues to the right. Because of this, turns may be skipped in the process.

Pong:

• Pong or Pung (碰 pinyin peng, Japanese pon) – A pong or pung is a set of three identical tiles. In American Mahjong, where it is possible to meld Flower tiles, a pong may also refer to a meld of three of the four flower tiles in a single group. American Mahjong may also have hands requiring a knitted triplet – three tiles of identical rank but of three different suits. For examples:; ; ; .

Kong:

• Kong (槓/杠 pinyin gang, Japanese kan) – A kong is a set of four identical tiles. Because all other melds contain three tiles, a Kong must be immediately exposed when explicitly declared. If the fourth tile is formed from a discard, it is said to be an exposed Kong (明槓/明杠, pinyin ming gang). If all four tiles were formed in the hand, it is said to be a concealed Kong (暗槓/暗杠, pinyin an gang). It is also possible to form a Kong if the player has an exposed Pung and draws the fourth tile. In any case, a player must draw an extra tile from the back end of the wall (or from the dead wall, if it exists) and discard as normal. Play then continues to the right. Once a Kong is formed, it cannot be split up (say, if you wanted to instead use one tile as part of a Chow), and thus, it may be advantageous not to immediately declare a Kong. For examples: ;

The woman sitting on the left may make a chow with a tile discared by the player on the right.

• Chow (吃 chi, in some versions 上 shang) – A chow is a meld of three suited tiles in sequence. Unlike other melds, an exposed Chow may only be declared off the discard of the player on the left. American Mahjong does not have a formal chow (that is, you cannot declare chows), but some hands may require that similar sequences be constructed in the hand. Some American variations may also have the knitted sequence, where the three tiles are of three different suits. Sequences of higher length are usually not permissible (unless it forms more than one meld). For examples: ; ; ;

Two are the eyes of this completed set of tiles.

• Eye (將 jiang, in some versions 眼 yan, also Pair) - The pair, while not a meld (and thus, cannot be declared or formed with a discard), is the final component to the standard hand. It consists of two identical tiles. Two are the eyes in this case:

It is to note that American mahjong hands may have tile constructions that are not melds, such as “NEWS” (having one of each wind). As they are not melds, they cannot be formed off discards, and in some variations, cannot be constructed in part or in whole by Joker tiles.

When two or more players call for a discarded tile, a player taking the tile to win the hand has precedence over all others, followed by pong or kong declarations, and lastly chows. In American Mahjong, where it may be possible for two players needing the same tile for melds, the meld of a higher number of identical tiles takes precedence. If two or more players call for a meld of the same precedence (or to win), the player closest to the right wins out (but the game may be declared an abortive draw if two or more players call a tile for the win, again depending on the variation). In particular, if a call to win overrides a call to form a kong, such a move is called robbing the Kong, and may give a scoring bonus.

There is generally an informal convention as to the amount of time allowed to make a call for a discarded tile before the next player takes its turn. In American Mahjong, this “window of opportunity” is explicitly stated in the rules, where in other variants, it is generally viewed that when the next player’s turn starts (ie. the tile leaves the wall), the opportunity has been lost.

Ready hands

Ready hand: waiting for or

When a hand is one tile short of winning (for example: , waiting for: or ), the hand is said to be a ready hand, or more figuratively, “on the pot”. The player holding a ready hand is said to be waiting for certain tiles. It is common to be waiting for two or three tiles, and some variations award points for a hand that is waiting for one tile. In 13-tile Mahjong, the most amount of tiles that you can wait for is 13 (the thirteen terminals, a nonstandard special hand).

Some variations of Da Mahjong, most notably Japanese variations, allow a player to declare riichi (立直 – sometimes known as reach as it is phonetically similar). A declaration of riichi is a promise that any tile drawn by the player is immediately discarded unless it constitutes a win. A player who declares riichi and wins usually receives a point bonus for their hand, while a player who declares riichi and loses is usually penalized in some fashion. When four players declare a riichi, the game is a draw. Declaring a nonexistent riichi is penalized.

Draws

If only the dead wall remains and no one has won, the round is drawn (流局 liu ju, Japanese Ryuukyoku) or “goulashed”. A new round begins, and depending on the variant, game wind may change.

Abortive draws

In Japanese Mahjong, abortive draws (draws where the game is declared drawn while tiles are available) are possible. They can be declared under the following conditions:

• 九種幺九倒牌 (kyuu shu yao kyuu tou pai): If, on a player’s first turn, and with no melds declared, a player has nine different terminal or honor tiles, the player may declare the round to be drawn (for example: ; but could also go for the nonstandard thirteen terminals hand as well).
• 三家和 (san ka agari): If three players claim the same discard in order to win the round, the round is drawn.
• 四風子連打 (suu fontsu renda): If, on the first turn without any meld declarations, all four players discard the same wind tile, the hand is drawn.
• 四家立直 (suu ka riichi): If all four players declare riichi, the round is drawn.
• 四槓流れ (suu kan nagare): The round is drawn when the fourth kong is declared, unless all four kongs were declared by a single player. In this case, the round is drawn when another player declares a kong.

Winning

“Che hu!”
The three great scholars:

A player wins the round (胡, hu) by creating a standard mahjong hand (in Western Classical variants, this is known as creating a Mahjong, and the process of winning is called going Mahjong) which consists of a certain number of melds, four for 13-tile variations and five for 16-tile variations, and a pair. Some variations may also require that winning hands be of some point value.

Variations may also have special nonstandard hands that a player can make (in this sense, American Mahjong is a variant where only special hands exist).

Turns and rounds

If the dealer wins the game, they will stay as the dealer. Otherwise, the player to the right becomes dealer and the player’s wind becomes the Game Wind, in the sequence East-South-West-North.

After the wind returns to East (ie. each player has been the dealer), a round is complete and the Prevailing Wind will change, again in the sequence East-South-West-North. A full game of mahjong ends after 4 rounds, ie. when the North Prevailing Wind round is over. It is often regarded as an unlucky act to stop the gameplay at the West round, as West has a similar sound to death in Chinese.

Scoring

When gambling with mahjong, scores are typically directly translated into sums of money. Poker chips are used in transaction throughout the playout.

Scoring in Mahjong involves points, with a monetary value for points agreed upon by players. Although in many variations scoreless hands are possible, many require that hands be of some point value in order to win the round.

While the basic gameplay is more or less the same throughout mahjong, the greatest divergence between variations lies in the scoring systems. Like the gameplay, there is a generalized system of scoring, based on the method of winning and the winning hand, from which Chinese and Japanese (among notable systems) base their roots. American mahjong generally has greatly divergent scoring rules (as well as greatly divergent gameplay rules).

Because of the large differences between the various systems of scoring (especially for Chinese variants), groups of players will often agree on particular scoring rules before a game. Like with gameplay, many attempts have been made to create an international standard of scoring, but most are not widely accepted.

Points (terminology of which differs from variation to variation) are obtained by matching the winning hand and the winning condition with a specific set of criteria, with different criteria scoring different values. Some of these criteria may be subsets of other criteria (for example, having a meld of one Dragon versus having a meld of all of them), and in these cases, only the most general criteria is scored. The points obtained may be translated into scores for each player using some (typically exponential) functions. When gambling with mahjong, these scores are typically directly translated into sums of money. Some criteria may be also in terms of both points and score.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Basic equipment: chips, tiles and dice.

Mahjong houses provide a convenient venue for Mahjong old hands. This is a typical scene of Mahjong house in Wan Chai, Hong Kong.

Mahjong, can be played either with a set of Mahjong tiles, or less commonly, a set of Mahjong playing cards (sometimes spelled ‘kards’ to distinguish them from the list of standard hands used in American mahjong); one brand of Mahjong cards calls these Mhing). Playing cards are often used when travelling as it reduces space and is lighter than their tile counterparts, but are of a lower quality in return. In this article, “tile” will be used to denote both playing cards and tiles.

Many Mahjong sets will also include a set of chips or bone tiles for scoring, as well as indicators denoting the dealer and the wind of the round. Some sets may also include racks to hold tiles or chips (although in many sets the tiles are generally sufficiently thick so that they can stand on their own), with one of them being different to denote the dealer’s rack.

Computer implementations of Mahjong are also available: these allow you to play against computer opponents, or against human opponents on the Internet.

A set of Mahjong tiles will usually differ from place to place. It usually has at least 136 tiles, most commonly 144, although sets originating from America or Japan will have more. Mahjong tiles include:

• Circle suit: named as each tile consists of a number of circles. Each circle is said to represent copper (tong) coins with a square hole in the middle.

• Bamboo suit: named as each tile (except the 1 Bamboo) consists of a number of bamboo sticks. Each stick is said to represent a string (suo) that holds a hundred coins.

• Character suit: named as each tile represents ten thousand (wan) coins, or one hundred strings of one hundred coins.

• Wind tiles: East, South, West, and North.

• Dragon tiles: red, green, and white. The term dragon tile is a western convention introduced by Joseph Park Babcock in his 1920 book introducing Mahjong to America. Originally, these tiles are said to have something to do with the Chinese Imperial Examination. The red tile (“中”榜) means you pass the examination and thus will be appointed a government official. The green tile (“發”財) means, consequently you will become financially well off. The white tile (a clean board) means since you are now doing well you should act like a good, incorrupt official.

• Flower tiles: typically optional components to a set of mahjong tiles, often contain artwork on their tiles.

Setting up the board

Shuffling of the Mahjong tiles is needed before piling around the table.

All players throw three dice and the one with the highest total would be the dealer.

Players picking up their own tiles after rolling the dice.

The Charleston.

The following sequence is for setting up a standard Hong Kong (or Singapore) game. Casual or beginning players may wish to proceed directly to gameplay. Shuffling the tiles is needed before piling up.

Prevailing Wind and Game Wind

To determine the Player Game Wind (門風 or 自風), each player throws three dice (two in some variants) and the player with the highest total is chosen as the dealer or the banker (莊家). The dealer’s Wind is now East, the player to the right of the dealer has South wind, the next player to the right has West and the fourth player has North. Game Wind changes after every round, unless the dealer wins. In some variations, the longer the dealer remains as the dealer, the higher the value of each hand.

The Prevailing Wind (場風) is always set to East when starting. It changes after the Game Wind has rotated around the board, that is, after each player has lost as the dealer.

A Mahjong set with Winds in play will usually include a separate Prevailing Wind marker (typically a die marked with the Wind characters in a holder) and a pointer that can be oriented towards the dealer to show Player Game Wind. In sets with racks, a rack may be marked differently to denote the dealer.

These winds are also significant as winds are often associated with a member of a Flower tile group, typically 1 with East, 2 with South, 3 with West, and 4 with North.

Dealing tiles

All tiles are placed face down and shuffled. Each player then stacks a row of tiles two deep in front of him, the length of the row depending on the number of tiles in use:

• 136 tiles: 17 tiles for all players
• 144 tiles: 18 tiles for all players
• 148 tiles: 19 tiles for dealer and player opposite, 18 for rest
• 152 tiles: 19 tiles for all players

The dealer throws three dice and sums up the total. Counting counterclockwise so that the dealer is ’1′, a player’s row is chosen. Starting at the right edge, ‘sum’ tiles are counted and shifted to the right.

The dealer now takes a block of 4 tiles to the left of the divide.

The player to the dealer’s right takes 4 tiles to the left, and players (counterclockwise) take blocks of 4 tiles (clockwise) until all players have 12 tiles for 13-tile variations and 16 for 16-tile variations. In 13-tile variations, each player then takes one more tile to make a 13-tile hand. In practice, in order to speed up the dealing procedure, the dealer often takes one extra tile during the dealing procedure to start their turn.

The board is now ready and new tiles will be taken from the wall where the dealing left off, proceeding clockwise. In some special cases discussed later, tiles are taken from the other end of the wall, commonly referred to as the back end of the wall. In some variations, a group of tiles at the back end, known as the dead wall, is reserved for this purpose instead. In such variations, the dead wall may be visually separated from the main wall, but it is not required.

Unless the dealer has already won (see below), the dealer then discards a tile. The dealing process with tiles is ritualized and complex to prevent cheating. Casual players, or players with Mahjong playing cards, may wish to simply shuffle well and deal out the tiles with fewer ceremonial procedures.

Charleston

In the American variations, it is required that before each hand begins, a Charleston is enacted. This consists of a procedure where three tiles are passed to the player on one’s right, followed by three tiles passed to the player opposite, followed by three tiles passed to the left. The dealer can demand for a second Charleston, followed by an optional pass to the player across of one, two or three tiles. This is a distinctive feature of American-style Mahjong that may have been borrowed from card games.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

In 1998 the China State Sports Commission, in the interest of changing mahjong from an illegal gambling game to an approved ‘healthy sport’, published a new set of rules, now generally referred to as Chinese Official rules or International Tournament rules. The principles of the new, ‘healthy’ mahjong are: no gambling – no drinking – no smoking. On international tournaments, players are often grouped in teams to emphasize that mahjong from now on is considered a sport.

The new rules are highly pattern-based. The rulebook contains 80 combinations, based on patterns and scoring elements popular in both classic and modern regional Chinese variants. Some table practices of Japan have also been adopted. In order to go out, players must score at least 8 points. Points for flower tiles (each flower is worth 1 point) may not be added until the player has scored 8 points. The winner of a game receives the score of his winning hand in points from the player who discarded the winning tile, plus 8 basic points from each player; in the case of zimo (self drawn win), he receives the value of his winning hand plus 8 points from all players.

The new rules were used in an international tournament first in Tokyo, where in 2002 the first World Championship in Mahjong was organized by the Mahjong Museum, the Japan Mahjong Organizing Committee and the city council of Ningbo, China, the town where it is believed mahjong most likely originated. One hundred players participated, mainly from Japan and China, but also from Europe and the United States. Miss Mai Hatsune from Japan became the first world champion. The following year saw the first annual China Majiang Championship, held in Hainan. The next two annual tournaments were held in Hong Kong and Beijing. Most players were Chinese, but players from other nations attended as well.

In 2005, in the Netherlands, the first Open European Mahjong Championship was held, with 108 players. The first prize was won by Masato Chiba from Japan.

Critics say that these new rules are unlikely to achieve great popularity outside of tournaments, since regional variations are well-entrenched. They also complain that the game is excessively complex, even by normal mahjong standards. But those who advocate the New Mahjong claim that it is not meant to replace existing rules, but only to act as a standard for international mahjong events.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Beijing residents playing Mahjong in public.

Four Filipino women playing Filipino Mahjong.

There are many variations of mahjong. In many places, players observe one version, and are either often unaware of other variations, or claim that other variations are incorrect. Although many variations today differ only by scoring, there are several main variations of Mahjong.

• Chinese Classical Mahjong is the oldest variety of Mahjong, and was the version introduced to America in the 1920s under various names.
• Hong Kong Mahjong or Cantonese Mahjong is the most common form of Mahjong, differing in minor scoring details with the Chinese Classical variety.
• Japanese Mahjong is a standardized form of Mahjong in Japan, found prevalently in video games. In addition to scoring changes, the rules of riichi and dora are unique highlights of Japanese Mahjong.
• Western Classical Mahjong is a descendant of the version of Mahjong introduced by Babcock to America in the 1920s. The evolution of Mahjong in America led to American Mahjong. Today, this term largely refers to the Wright-Patterson rules, used in the U.S. military, and other similar American-made variants that are closer to the Babcock rules.
• American Mahjong is a form of Mahjong standardized by the National Mah Jongg League and the American Mah-Jongg Association that has the greatest divergence from traditional Mahjong, with the introduction of Joker tiles, the Charleston, as well as melds of five or more tiles, and eschewing the Chow and the notion of a standard hand. Because of this divergence, the NMJL and AMJA variations (which differ from each other by minor scoring differences) is commonly referred to as Mahjongg (with two Gs, possibly hyphenated). Purists of Mahjong claim that the divergence from standard Mahjong makes American Mahjong not a “true Mahjong”, and thus should be considered a separate game in and of itself.

Other variants include Fujian Mahjong (with Dadi Joker 帶弟百搭), Taiwanese Mahjong (each player would have 16 tiles), Vietnamese Mahjong (with 16 different kinds of joker), and Filipino Mahjong (with Window Joker).

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Mahjong in China

Different kinds of Chinese playcards (from left to right): Bógŭ Yèzí (博古葉子), Caozhou Paí (曹州牌), Three Kingdoms Yèzí (三國葉子), Dongguan Paí (東莞牌).

One of the myths (probably originating in the West) regarding the origin of Mahjong suggests that Confucius, the great Chinese philosopher, had developed the game about 500 BC. The appearance of the game in various Chinese provinces coincides with Confucius’ travels at the time he was teaching his new doctrines. The three dragon (Cardinal) tiles also agree with the three Cardinal virtues bequeathed by Confucius. Zhong ( , lit. middle) the Red, Fa ( , lit. prosperity) the Green, Bai ( , lit. white) the White represent Benevolence, Sincerity, and Filial piety respectively. Confucius was said to be fond of birds, which would explain the name “Mahjong” (hemp bird).

Terms used in the play of the game Pong, Chee and Kong also give evidence to this theory. Confucius was of the Kong family, his full name being Kong-Qiu; he married a girl named Che and adopted the term Chee, meaning ‘to connect’, which Westerners corrupted into Chow.

Another possible theory implies that the game had been developed from existing Chinese card and domino games sometime around 1850. Some historians believe it was based on a Chinese card game called Mádìao (馬吊) (also known as Ma Tiae, lit. Hanging Horse; or Yèzí (葉子), lit. Leaf) in the early Ming dynasty. This game was played with 40 paper cards similar in appearance to the cards used in the game Ya Pei. These forty cards, numbered 1 to 9 in four different suits along with four extra flower cards, are quite alike to the numbering of Mahjong tiles today. There is still a healthy debate about to whom the creation of the game should be attributed. One theory is that Chinese army officers serving during the Tai Ping Rebellion created the game to pass the time. Another theory is that a noble living in the Shanghai area created the game between 1870 and 1875. It is thought that around 1850 in the city of Ningpo two brothers had created Mahjong from the earlier game of Mádìao.

Mahjong in the western world

Mahjong Taikai, a Japanese Mahjong computer game on PSP, produced by Koei in 2005.

By 1895, Stewart Culin, an American anthropologist, wrote a paper in which Mahjong was mentioned. This is the first known written account of Mahjong in any language other than Chinese. By 1910, there were written accounts in many languages including French and Japanese. An important English read was Joseph Park Babcock’s Rules of Mah-Jongg, which, simplified in 1920, was simply known as the “red book”. Although this was the earliest version of Mahjong that had been introduced to America, many of Babcock’s simplifications are abandoned nowadays. The book introduced many similar English language rulebooks, with a large number of inaccurate rumors (including those of the National Mah Jongg League, the governing body of American Mahjong). A patently false claim was made that Mahjong had originated in ancient China in order to bring an air of mystique into the game. Ironically, many of these hearsay information about Mahjong’s ancient origins are used today in much the same way for Mahjong solitaire, a much newer game.

The game was a sensation in America when it was imported from China in the 1920s, with the same Mahjong game taking on a number of trademarked names, such as Pung Chow or the Game of Thousand Intelligences. Part of Mahjong nights in America were to decorate rooms in Chinese style and dress like Chinese. Several hit songs were also recorded during the mahjong fad, most notably Since Ma is Playing Mah Jong by Eddie Cantor.

American mahjong, which was mainly played by women during the time, grew from this craze, and in the 1930s, after many revisions of the rules (including some that were considered fundamentals in other variants, such as the notion of a standard hand) led to the formation of the National Mah Jongg League in 1937, along with the first American mahjong rulebook, Maajh: The American Version of the Ancient Chinese Game. Despite it being Chinese in origin and accepted by players of all racial backgrounds when first introduced by Babcock, American Mahjong is considered a Jewish game, as many American mahjong players are of Jewish descent, and the NMJL was founded by Jewish players and considered a Jewish organization. But, at the same time, this traditional Chinese game was banned in its homeland in 1949, when the People’s Republic of China was founded. The new Communist government forbade any gambling activities, which were regarded as symbols of capitalist corruption. After the Cultural Revolution, the game was revived, and once again Mahjong has become one of the favorite pastimes of the Chinese people.

Current development

Today, the popularity and demographic of players of Mahjong differs greatly from country to country. In America, most players of American mahjong are women. In Japan, there has been a much greater emphasis on gambling before other le gender of the players is much less divided. There are also many governing bodies of Mahjong, many of them hosting exhibition games and tournaments. In Japan, video arcades have introduced Mahjong arcade machines that can be connected to others over the internet, as well as video games that allow a victorious player to view pictures of women in varying stages of undress.

Mahjong culture is still deeply ingrained in the Chinese community: Sam Hui wrote Cantopop songs, using mahjong as their themes. Chinese movies have always included scenes of mahjong games. Gambling movies have been filmed time and again in Hong Kong, and a recent sub-genre is the mahjong movie.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Mahjong (Traditional Chinese: 麻將; Simplified Chinese: 麻将; pinyin: Májiàng; Cantonese: Màhjeung; or Chinese: 麻雀; pinyin: Máquè; Cantonese: Màhjeuk; other common English spellings include mahjongg, majiang, and hyphenated forms such as mah-jong or mah-jongg) is a game for four players that originated in China. It is a game of skill, strategy, intelligence, calculation and luck. Depending on the variation which is played, the amount of luck may vary from 20 to 80 percent. In China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, and other countries mahjong is often used for gambling. The Chinese character 麻将 literally means “hemp general”. In Cantonese an alternate writing, 麻雀, is more common (the same kanji are used in Japanese). In Cantonese this literally means “sparrow”, while in Japanese it means “hemp sparrow”, and is pronounced mā-jan.

In English, in addition to Mahjong, the name of the game is variously written as Mah Jong, Mahjongg, Majong or simply “M-J”; there are other, less common variations as well. The spelling “Mah-Jongg” was trademarked by Joseph Park Babcock in 1920.

The closest Western analogue is probably the card game gin rummy. Both games involve selecting or discarding units (tiles in one case, cards in the other) to score points by forming groups or runs of similar units.

The game pieces (tiles) and scoring rules used in the game are slightly different depending on regional variations. The game play in general is very similar in all versions, as players compete to build sets including the highest point value.

The object of the game is to build complete suits (usually of threes) from either 13 or 16 tiles. The first person to achieve this goal is said to have won the game. The winning tile completes the set of either 14 or 17 tiles.

Trivia

Little known to most players, the suits of the tiles are money-based. In ancient China, the copper coins had a square hole in the center. People passed a rope through the holes to tie coins into strings. These strings are usually in groups of 100 coins called diao (弔 or variant 吊) or 1000 coins called guan (貫). Mahjong’s connection to the ancient Chinese currency system is consistent with its alleged derivation from the game named ma diao (馬吊).

In the mahjong suits, the coppers represent the coins; the ropes are actually strings of 100 coins; and the character myriad represents 10,000 coins or 100 strings. When a hand received the maximium allowed winning of a round, it is called man guan (滿貫, lit. full string of coin.)

A Mahjong game is described in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie, ending with the very unusual event of a player getting a complete winning hand on the initial draw. This success makes the character unduly talkative, which leads to significant plot developments.

British superspy James Bond plays a dangerous game of mahjong in Zero Minus Ten, a suspense novel by Raymond Benson.

In the 1940 film Charlie Chan’s Murder Cruise, the title character remarks, In China, mahjong very simple; in America very complex – like modern life.

The character that translates to “centre” is found on the super-hero suit worn by The Greatest American Hero. Since the character is typically painted red, the tile is commonly called “red centre.” For this reason the HongKong TV station TVB named the Chinese-dubbed The Greatest American Hero “the Flying Red Centre Hero” [飛天紅中俠]. (ABC, 1981-83).

Mahjong is featured in Amy Tan’s novel The Joy Luck Club, and its 1993 film adaptation.

Mahjong has always appeared in one way or another in Hong Kong made movies or TV drama, since it is considered as a “daily life” of a Chinese lifestyle. Two recent Cantonese movies, Fat Choi Spirit and Kung Fu Mahjong, parody the game’s subculture.

The tile that translates to “Red Dragon” is used as a major plot point in the same titled Thomas Harris novel, as well as its two film adaptations, Manhunter and Red Dragon.

Graham Edwards’ Stone trilogy features mahjong prominently. Much of the books’ imagery focuses around the mahjong symbols, and one character owns a set of mahjong tiles, on which she paints throughout the trilogy.

References

Print matter

• Lo, Amy. The Book of Mah jong: An Illustrated Guide. Tuttle Publishing. 2001. ISBN 0804833028
• Oxfeld, Ellen. Blood, Sweat, and Mahjong: Family and Enterprise in an Overseas Chinese Community (Anthropology of Contemporary Issues). Cornell University Press. 1993. ISBN 0801499089.
• Pritchard, David.Teach Yourself Mahjong. McGraw-Hill/Contemporary. 2001. ISBN 0658021478.

Websites

• Zango’s Free Mahjong
• Play Mahjong OnlineOnline live games. You can play against other players 24/7, no download required.Chinese official and Hong kong versions available.
• Jade Dragon Mahjong game multiplayer play Chinese official, Hong kong, Taiwan 16 tile, European & American rules with help for beginners.
• Mahjong FAQ of newsgroup news://rec.games.mahjong
• Rules of Singapore Mahjong
• National Mah-Jongg League
• How to Play the Japanese Three Player Mahjong Variation on the Standard 4-Player Game
• Japanese Mah Jong Rules Description of game play, rules, exceptions, hands listings.
• Nan’s Mah Jong Notes
• MahjongNews specialized in international news and mahjong tournaments
• Mah-Jongg: The Tiles that Bind is a documentary about the Jewish and Chinese women who play
• Jim May’s Mah Jong Museum
• Yahoo! Online Mah Jong
• Wright-Patterson Officers’ Wives’ Club Mah Jongg website
• Mahjong in MAME Guide to Japanese Mahjong arcade games.
• Pussers Bones is a set of mahjong rules developed by sailors in the Royal Australian Navy
• Mahjong Escape: Ancient China – mah jong solitaire game free download
• Mahjong Premium is a free online Mahjong flash game with a rank of scores (English and Spanish)
• Mahjong games for download Download free Mahjong games

Links

Mahjong bulletin boards

• The Maj Exchange Bulletin Boards

Mahjong organizations

• National Mah Jongg League
• Japan Professional Mahjong League
• Nihon Pro Mahjong association
• New Japan Mahjong Association
• Open China Championship
• Deutsche Mah-Jong Liga
• Fédération Française de Mah-Jongg
• Mah-jong Montréal
• Mahjong Denmark
• Nederlandse Mahjong Bond
• Mahjong Hungary
• Mahjongverband Österreich
• Federazione Italiana Mah-Jong
• Deutsche Mah-Jongg Liga

Mahjong strategy

• tilehog.net Strategy site for Chinese Official Rules
• Mah Jong Solitaire Strategy tips & hints for PC Mah Jong Solitaire games

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.