How the Game Runs
Seats
Four seats: East, South, West, North. East is the dealer. Going around to your right: East → South → West → North → back to East. West sits opposite East.
Who sits where, and why it's called anticlockwise →
Before the first hand
Two small rituals happen before a single tile is drawn, and both use dice:
- Choosing the first East — everyone rolls, highest takes the seat. East carries real weight: win as East and you stay there for another hand.
- Breaking the wall — once the wall is built, East rolls again to decide where dealing starts. It looks fussy the first time and takes ten seconds once you've seen it done.
Building the wall
Each player builds a row of tiles two high; the four rows form a square. It's a bit ceremonial, takes a minute, and is genuinely one of the nicest parts of the game. Don't rush it.
Dealing
- 13 tiles each
- The dealer (East) gets 14 and starts by discarding one
- Any Flowers or Seasons are placed face-up and replaced immediately
The loop
- Draw a tile from the wall — your hand is now 14
- Discard one — your hand is back to 13
- Play passes to the next player, anticlockwise
Claiming a discard — the calls
| Call | What it claims | Who may claim |
|---|---|---|
| Pung | A discard completing three of a kind | Anyone |
| Chow | A discard completing a run of three | Only the player to the discarder's immediate left |
| Kong | A discard completing four of a kind | Anyone — then draw a replacement |
| Mahjong | A discard completing your hand | Anyone |
Priority: Mahjong beats Pung beats Chow.
After claiming, lay the set face-up and discard. Play continues from you — so a claim can skip players.
Two things people always ask: you must say the call out loud before anyone draws next, and any set claimed from a discard must be laid face-up — no exceptions. Claiming, out loud and face-up →
Concealed and melded
A set claimed from a discard sits exposed — melded. A set you built yourself stays hidden — concealed. Concealed is worth more, which is why good players don't claim everything they could.
Rotation
After each hand East moves to the next player — unless East won, in which case East stays. A full round is everyone having been East once. A full game is four rounds, which takes hours.
Wash-out
If the wall runs out before anyone wins, nobody wins. In the Indian game, that's exactly when a Goulash gets played.