How to play
- There are 136 tiles, four of each: three suits numbered 1 to 9 (characters 萬, dots ● and bamboo 竹), four winds (東 East, 南 South, 西 West, 北 North) and three dragons (中 red, 發 green and the white frame).
- Everyone holds 13 tiles. On your turn, draw one and throw one. The dealer starts with 14 and just throws.
- Win with 14 tiles in four sets and a pair. A set is a pong (three alike), a kong (four alike, which gets you an extra tile) or a chow (a run of three in one suit, like 3-4-5 dots).
- When someone throws a tile, you can claim it to finish a pong or kong, or to win. Only the next player can claim it for a chow. A win beats a pong, and a pong beats a chow. Claimed sets go face up on the table.
- A winning hand scores faan: self-drawn 1, no claimed sets 1, all chows 1, all pongs 3, one suit with honours 3, one suit only 7, each pong of dragons 1, of your seat wind 1 and of the round’s wind 1 (up to 8). Points are 2 to the faan. A self-drawn win is paid by everyone; a win on a discard is paid three times over by whoever threw it.
- If the wall runs out, nobody scores. The deal passes round after every hand; the most points after the last hand wins.
Tips
Throw lonely winds and dragons early, unless they’re worth a faan to you. Runs with two ways to finish (4-5 waiting on 3 or 6) beat ones with one. Claiming makes a hand quicker but shows what you’re collecting, and late in a hand a tile nobody has thrown yet is the risky one.