Knowing the Rules and Basics of Mahjong

It is undeniable that the game mahjong originated in China, although there are no records whatsoever of the person who created the mahjong or how it even became the game it is today. In the 19th century, the game mahjong became popular. And a lot of stories or rumors were created like; it was created by nobles as their leisure or army officers that were looking to fly by time. The most popular story was about the Chinese philosopher Confucius and his travels while spreading his favorite gambling game at every corner of China.

The game mahjong is played with a set of 136-144 tiles to be used with another 36 in the circle suit, 36 in the bamboo suit and another 36 for the character suit. There are four similar tiles for the numbers from 1 to 9. Wind tiles (North, South, East and West) have 4 each and 3 tiles for the Dragon (Red, Green and White). There are also 8 additional tiles; 4 flowers and 4 seasons which normally are not used.

Traditionally, mahjong solitaire tiles' are made from ivory or bamboo and the prints are artistically chiseled or hand-painted which makes it somehow expensive. In the beginning, the four players will shuffle the tiles and stack them facedown forming a two-level wall, and then push the tiles to the centre of the table and form a square. After shuffling, the dice will be used to determine who comes to pick a tile from the wall first.

The rules of the free mahjong game enables each player to take turns in drawing tiles from the wall until all of them have 13 tiles in hand. In order to win, a player needs to collect sets of three tiles according to their numbers and suits. Once each player has or his hand completed, they need to take turns drawing tiles and removing unnecessary tiles until all the tiles can be separated into sets of three. "Three-of-a-kind" is a set of three identical tiles or three tiles in the same suit in numeric sequence, and to complete a player's hand, they must also have one pair of similar tiles which is called the Eyes.

Tiles can be drawn from a Wall or a player can get a tile once it has been discarded by the consecutive player only if he or she can complete a set of three identical tiles. A player can also take a discarded tile that can complete a sequential set if the removal has been signaled the start of his or her own turn and no one can steal it for a three-of-a-kind set. The winner will be declared once he draws the final tile that can complete his or her hand. But when the last tile is drawn from the wall, it will be declared as a draw. The tiles are once more reshuffled and a new table of mahjong game begins.

Many different factors affect the scoring of the game. The so called purity of the finished hand, whether a player only has a three-of-a-kind sets to oppose a mix of three-of-a-kind and sequential sets, if he or she won with a single or multiple suits, and if a player had any of the wind or dragon tiles. These are all the factors that were used to determine the final score.

The information above are just basics and base rules of the free mahjong game. You will learn more and understand it clearly while playing it with your family or friends.