The 136 tiles of Mahjong encompass 34 distinct designs with 4 tiles of each kind. Speaking in basic terms the total tiles of Mahjong are classified as number tiles and honor tiles. The number tiles are in 3 suits unlike Rummy which has 4 suits. The three suits of the number tiles are Bamboos (aka "Sticks"), Circles (aka "Dots") and Characters (aka "Actors"), in turn having nine different designs numbered 1 to 9 (the tiles with numbers 1 and 9 are called "Terminals" or terminal tiles and the tiles from 2 to 8 are called "Simples" or simple tiles). The "Honor" tiles are the Wind tiles, designated as EAST, SOUTH, WEST and NORTH and the Dragon tiles; Red, Green and White. Both the Wind tiles and Dragon tiles have four duplicates of each tile.

Chow - A "Chow" is a sequence (or a run) of 3 successive tiles of the same suit. For example, 5, 6 and 7 of the Bamboo suit make a valid chow. A similar sequence in a concealed hand is known as "concealed sequence" and there is also an "exposed sequence", which is formed from the discarded tile. The player claims this discarded tile to form an "exposed sequence" on proclaiming "chow" loud out. A chow can be formed only from the discards of the players on the left and not from other players.

Valid Chow:

Pung - A "Pung" is a triplet (set of three) of identical tiles of the same suit. These identical tiles can be three of the same ranked (number) tiles of the same suit or can be 3 honor tiles. A triplet formed in a concealed hand is called a "concealed triplet" and to form an "exposed triplet" the player declares "Pung" loud out and lifts the discarded tile. In the case of an "exposed triplet" the player displays his created set to other players only after discarding a tile. Thus ends his turn for the next player to continue.

Valid Pung:

Kong -  A "Kong" is a combination of 4 identical tiles of the same suit. A combination cannot be called Kong; if a concealed hand has 4 identical tiles (it is seen as a concealed triplet with an extra tile). A player forms a Kong after having declared "Kong" out loud and claiming a discarded tile. This created set is shown out to the players. In a case where a Kong is formed from the tile drawn from the wall, the player need not expose the set and can retain it concealed. On concealing a Kong the player can later split it if he wishes, and use one of these tiles to make a Chow thus justifying its name, a Concealed Kong.

In the case of a concealed Kong, the player has to draw a replacement tile from the wall and this is done only on declaring this Kong to the players. A Kong cannot be formed from the discarded tile using an already exposed Pung, but if the tile is from the wall the Kong can be formed using the exposed Pung.

Valid Kong:

Valid Pair:

The Game  involves the following steps:

1. Picking the seats

2. Creating and Breaking the wall

3. Dealing the tiles

4. Drawing the tiles

Picking the Seats – Initially the players assume random seats and they pick a wind tile each and put them face down on the table. Then two number tiles, one of odd number and the other with even number are taken and placed face up on either side of the wind tiles sandwiching them. The dice is now given to a random player and he drops the dice. Now the player indicated by the count on the dice is given the dice and this player again throws the dice. If the count on the dice comes as an odd number the same player picks the wind tile first at the "odd number" end and this course of action of picking the tiles is continued by the players in the counter clockwise direction. The same process would have continued from the "even number" end if the dice count were even. The player with the "East" wind tile takes the seat designated and the other players occupy the seats named with the direction tiles in their hands.

In each hand a player belongs to a certain wind direction and a wind tile matching his seat’s direction is his "seat wind" and forming a meld of the "seat wind" tile would score a player more points. Generally the East player is made the dealer and after completion of every hand (irrespective of a hand won or a hand lost) the players change their seats hence changing their wind directions. When we regard the player who sat on the east seat as the east player and also identify other players with directions of the seats of their first hand then the directions of their seats in subsequent hands can be visualized as in the figure below.

Creating and Breaking the wall – The players now having assumed their seats move in to next process of play. The 136 (144 with flower/season tiles) tiles are shuffled and placed face down on the table. Each player now lifts 34(36 if the flower/season tiles are included) tiles and places them on the table arranging them in 2 stacks of 17(18) tiles each. These tiles are moved little forward by each player to form a hollow square which is generally referred to as "wall". A wall formed is as seen in the figure below.

The player on the East seat is given the dice and he drops them to determine the side (direction) where the "breaking of the wall" procedure has to start. Now the side is determined and the player here throws the dice again and the number of tiles (stacks) as in the dice count is counted starting from the right end. These tiles are now shifted apart slightly to the right to show a distinction from the remaining tiles, thus breaking the wall and these tiles are generally referred to as a "Dead wall". And the tiles on the left of the dead wall form a "live wall".

Important Note: The tiles in the dead wall are reserved as the replacement tiles. Whenever a player in the game has a concealed Kong in his hand, he is obliged to draw a tile from the dead wall. In a different situation when a player encounters with a flower or season tile he has to place the flower/season tile face up on the table and draw a replacement tile from the dead wall. If the tile drawn from the dead wall is again a flower or season tile, this has to be again put aside and another tile has to be drawn, this continues until a non flower tile comes up. A player with a concealed Kong can retain it to the end of the hand; else he can declare it and pick a replacement tile from the dead wall.

Dealing the Tiles – The East wind is the priority wind and the East player starts the deal taking 2 stacks of 4 tiles from the live wall, followed by south player taking 2 stacks, then west player and finally the north player. This process of dealing continues till all the players have 12 tiles with each of them. On the last round of dealing, the east player picks two tiles and the other players pick one tile each. An extra tile is drawn by the east player as he is the one to start off the play on discarding a tile. The East player picks up the last two tiles in two different styles. In one of the approach he picks two tiles after every other player has picked his 12th tile. And in a different approach he picks one tile after every one has picked his twelfth tile and another tile after every one has picked his thirteenth tile. In the figure below the second style of picking is shown.

Drawing the Tiles – The player on the east side has an extra tile and he starts the play on discarding a tile. The tiles discarded are put face up in the middle of the wall. This discarded tile can be claimed by any of the players. If this discard is not claimed by any of the players, the player to the dealers’ right i.e. south takes on his turn to draw a tile from the wall and once he discards the turn passes on to the west player. After his draw and discard, the turn passes on to the North player and he too draws and discards a tile. Any where in the game, if a discarded tile is claimed by any of the players then the player claiming it picks and discards a tile as a result the sequence of play is braked and the game continues from that player again.

When a player is done with forming combinations of the tiles in his hand he proclaims "Mahjong", a gesture representing win. The game in a different case ends without a winner or a looser when there are no unused tiles left on the table.

In Mahjong, when a player discards a tile it can be claimed by any of the players to Pung or Kong the tile except for a Chow, which can be made only from the discards of the player on ones left.

If in the game 2 players try to claim the same discard there is a priority extended to claim the discard and the priority from high to low is shown in the following sequence.

1. Going out (declaring Mahjong).

2. Kong or Pung

3. Chow

4. When 2 players claim the same tile for declaring Mahjong the player to the right of the discarder wins.

On melding four sets of Chow, Pung, Kong and a Pair a player can proclaim loud "Mahjong". A winner has a total of 14 tiles in his hand. After each round the seating position of the players changes or rotates in counter clockwise. The change of position occurs even if there is a dead hand in which none of players wins.

Basic Scoring - Winner on default receives 20 points for going out (for winning the game).