How many tiles do you need to win?

Four melds plus a pair — 14 tiles. You win on your own draw (tsumo) or by calling a discard (ron).

What is the easiest first yaku?

Tanyao (all simples) — use only 2-8 tiles and avoid terminals and honors entirely.

Can I call chi from any player?

No — chi is only allowed from the player to your left. Pon and kan can be called from any player.

How to Play Mahjong: A Beginner's Step-by-Step Guide

Start from zero: the tiles, the table, turns and calls, and your first winning hand — a plain-language guide for absolute beginners.

Published 2026-07-03 · Updated 2026-08-08

How to Play Mahjong: A Beginner's Step-by-Step Guide

What is the goal of mahjong in one sentence?

Your goal is to build four melds plus a pair (14 tiles in total) before anyone else does. A meld is either a sequence of three consecutive numbers in one suit (1-2-3, 4-5-6 or 7-8-9) or a triplet of three identical tiles, and the pair is any two identical tiles that serve as the head of the hand. You start with 13 tiles, and on each turn you draw one and discard one, so the hand grows toward exactly 14. Opponents' discards can help you too (that is what the calls chi, pon and kan are for). If nobody manages to win, the round ends in a draw and a new one starts, so the game is a race against both the wall and the other three players at the table.

What happens in your first game, move by move?

A first game follows a fixed rhythm. Four players sit at East, South, West and North, and the dealer (East) starts by drawing an extra tile and discarding it. From then on each turn is the same: draw a tile from the wall, check whether you can win or call, then discard one tile. When your hand is one tile away from a winning shape you are tenpai; if you then draw or take the winning tile, you win the round immediately. The game on this site highlights your tenpai state and always shows which tiles complete the hand, so you never have to compute your waits yourself. The first round is usually a blur of discards; that is completely normal, and it is exactly how you learn which tiles are worth keeping and which are dead weight.

How do you keep it simple at first?

Keep the first games simple by aiming for the easiest yaku. On this site's Classic mode, any legal winning hand counts as at least 1 fan even without a named pattern, so beginners can always win and always get a score to learn from. In riichi mode the easiest targets are tanyao (all simples, only 2-8 tiles) and a triplet of dragons (yakuhai, 1 fan), both of which are forgiving because they tolerate imperfect shapes. The site's beginner tutorial walks through each step with an illustrated hand, and the AI difficulty setting "Easy" makes the opponents mostly random so you can experiment without pressure. Play three or four rounds this way and the turn structure becomes second nature before you ever worry about scoring tables. The goal is not winning big; it is winning at all, because every win on this site shows you the fan breakdown that scoring is built on.

What are seats, the dealer and the round?

Seats, the dealer and the round are simpler than they sound. Four players sit at East, South, West and North; the East player is the dealer (庄家), starts each round and, in riichi scoring, pays and receives double points. A game usually runs several rounds, and the dealer seat rotates (classic rules rotate every hand, while riichi keeps the dealer after a win or a tenpai draw (a rule called renchan)). The round wind also matters for scoring: a triplet of the round wind or your seat wind is a 1-fan yaku (yakuhai) in most rulesets, which is why new players should learn to spot wind triplets in their own hands and treat them as instant scoring opportunities rather than random honors. For the first few games, ignore the dealer rotation entirely (the seat matters far less than learning the draw-discard rhythm).

What does a complete turn look like, step by step?

A complete turn is five small steps. First, draw a tile from the wall. Second, check whether you can win immediately (if the drawn tile completes the hand, you may declare a win). Third, decide whether to call chi, pon or kan on the tile you drew or on the last discard. Fourth, discard one tile from your hand. Fifth, wait briefly while the other players decide whether to call your discard (chi from the next player, pon or kan from anyone), and then the next player draws. Strong players watch the discard pile as much as their own hand during this window, because every discard is an offer to the table and the calls it provokes are valuable information about what everyone else is building. The window is short, so strong players make the call decision before they discard, not after.

What are chi, pon and kan?

Chi, pon and kan are the three ways to use other players' discards. Chi (吃) takes a discard to complete a sequence of three, and you can only chi from the player immediately to your left. Pon (碰) takes a discard to complete a triplet and works from any player. Kan (杠) declares four identical tiles and then draws a replacement tile from the dead wall. Every call exposes your melds to the table and usually lowers your yaku ceiling (open hands cannot use riichi or pinfu), so the rule of thumb is to call only when the shape gain is worth the scoring loss. Beginners should call pon on dragons and their seat wind and skip almost everything else, keeping the hand closed for as long as possible. Calling a kan also reveals a new dora indicator in riichi, which can change everyone's discard plans instantly.

What does winning actually look like?

A winning hand is four melds plus a pair (14 tiles). You win by tsumo (drawing the winning tile yourself) or by ron (calling a discard that completes your hand). Before you can win you will spend time in tenpai, one tile short; this site highlights tenpai and shows your winning tiles so you always know how close you are. If nobody wins, the wall eventually runs out and the round ends in a draw (流局), with the next round starting fresh. In riichi, remember the furiten rule: if any of your winning tiles is already in your own discard pile, ron is blocked and only tsumo works (a rule this site checks automatically for concealed tenpai hands, so an illegal ron call can never slip through). Knowing your winning tiles in advance also tells you what not to discard: if your wait is tainted, change it before it costs you the hand.

How does scoring work without the headache?

Most beginners only need two scoring facts. First, your hand needs at least one yaku to win; on this site's Classic mode any legal win counts as at least 1 fan, and in riichi the basic yaku such as tanyao, riichi or yakuhai provide it. Second, fan (番) decides how big the score is: 1-2 fan is a small hand, 3-4 is solid, and 5+ jumps to mangan, the flat maximum that most strong hands are actually worth. The game shows your fan, fu and points after every win, so you learn the scoring by playing rather than by memorizing tables. Once you can win consistently with tanyao or a dragon triplet, adding one more yaku per hand is the fastest route to noticeably better scores. Fan, fu and points are shown side by side, so the connection between hand shape and score becomes visible hand after hand.

Sources & references

FAQ

How many tiles do you need to win?: Four melds plus a pair — 14 tiles. You win on your own draw (tsumo) or by calling a discard (ron).
What is the easiest first yaku?: Tanyao (all simples) — use only 2-8 tiles and avoid terminals and honors entirely.
Can I call chi from any player?: No — chi is only allowed from the player to your left. Pon and kan can be called from any player.