Mahjong Melds Essentials

Mahjong is a straightforward game played with 144 tiles. Each player receives 13 tiles, while the dealer gets 14. The objective is to form a legal hand by creating melds. Many players find forming melds a bit tricky, so this guide is designed to help you understand it better.

Understanding Mahjong melds can seem complex, but we'll break it down for you. Read on to discover all the essential details. Let's get started.

Mahjong Melds Explained for UK Players

Your hand in Mahjong contains melds, which are collections of Mahjong tiles that can be a pong, a kong, a chow, or eyes. You can create melds by drawing a tile from the wall or claiming another player's discard. Depending on how a meld is formed, there are Mahjong rules that dictate which player has priority for a discard and whether the meld should be revealed.

Pong

• A pong is a set of three identical tiles.
• A pong can be formed using any suited or honour tiles.
• Bonus tiles cannot be used for a pong as they are set aside, and there aren't three identical bonus tiles in the set.
• The tiles must be identical.
• A pong can be either hidden or exposed.

Kong

A kong is a set of four identical tiles. It's similar to a pong but with an extra tile. Here are the three ways to form a kong:

• Hidden Kong: A player can declare a kong if they have three identical tiles and draw a fourth tile to complete the set. To do this, they reveal the meld by placing two tiles in the centre and two on either end, facing up and down respectively.
• Exposed Kong: A player can claim a discarded tile to complete an exposed or melded kong if it matches three identical tiles in their hand. The player then displays their three tiles face-up and places the claimed discard either face-down next to the other three face-up tiles or on top of the centre tile.
• Exposed Kong from Exposed Pong: If a player has an exposed pong and later draws the fourth tile from the wall, they can declare a kong by placing the fourth tile on top of the centrepiece of the melded pong or by arranging all four tiles face-up in a row. A player cannot claim the fourth tile from a merged pong if another player discards it; it must be drawn from the wall.

Important Points for UK Players

• When a kong is formed, the player must draw an additional tile from the end of the wall and then discard a tile.
• The fourth tile of a kong is not counted among the 13 tiles a player must hold in their hand at all times.
• A kong cannot be made with bonus tiles, as the set does not contain four identical tiles.
• Kongs are worth gathering to gain extra points and prevent opponents from the option to get certain tiles.

Chow

• A chow is created by melding three matching tiles in a row.
• The meld needs to be in the same suit and in exact numerical order.
• Players cannot skip numbers or meld from 8 or 9 to 1 or 2.
• Because they have no numerical value, honor tiles and bonus tiles cannot be utilised to create chows.
• Only the player whose turn came just before their own can steal a discard to build a chow. The person who forms a chow with a seized piece gets the lowest priority for that tile.
• Any other player may take control of that tile in place of the other player if they need it to produce a pong or a kong to win.
• The chow is either hidden or visible, like a pong.

Eyes

Eyes, also known as a pair, are two identical tiles essential to a lawful winning hand. A piece cannot be taken to create a pair of eyes unless the player concurrently completes a valid winning hand.

Interruption of Play

The game can be interrupted by four events. They are the following:

Flower or Season

The last tile of the wall is drawn as a replacement tile whenever a player draws a flower or season, ensuring that they have the 14 pieces required before their discard.

Melding Another Player’s Discard

Other players may take a tile that has been discarded by one player to finish a meld. The advantages of stealing tiles include constructing a winning hand more quickly and earning extra points. At the same time, the drawbacks include having to expose a portion of one's hand to other players and being unable to alter a declared meld.

Moreover, the player must specify the type of meld to be proclaimed when declaring it through a discard before exposing the meld by setting the three or four face-up tiles.

Winning A Hand

Play is stopped when a hand is won in order to evaluate the hand's viability. Following confirmation, the player receives the hand's worth in accordance with the rules of the particular game.

Winning a Hand From a Discard

A player declares victory and reveals their winning hand if, at any time throughout the game, they can utilise another player's discard to finish a legal hand. The hand is over at this point, and mahjong scoring starts.

Based on established table rules, there are several methods to handle the scenario if more than one player can utilise a discard to win the hand. The winner may be determined by adding up the points each player would have gained from the discard, selecting the person who is closest to the discarder in turn order, or concurrently awarding wins to many players.

Winning a Hand From the Wall

A player can also succeed by drawing a tile that finishes a valid hand. This can also be referred to as winning from the wall. Winning from the wall in Hong Kong Mahjong doubles the basic points that each loser must pay.

Winning a Hand By False Win

The declaring of a winning hand is technically permissible at any time. The player must have a full and legitimate hand, though. If not, the player is punished.

• The punishment is based on the table rules.
• The player can hand the other players their points back.
• The player who announces the fake win is also subject to a potential punishment of having to play the remainder of the hand with their tiles face up.
• Some strategies impose punishment at the conclusion of the whole contest.

Robbing a Kong

A play known as robbing the kong is an uncommon yet high-scoring element of Hong Kong mahjong. If a player attempts to declare a kong by adding a fourth piece to a melded pong, but another player can use that piece to finish the hand, the winning player has precedence and may remove that piece from the person who was attempting to declare the kong.

Conclusion: Mastering Mahjong for UK Players

Playing Mahjong is not about just learning the rules or tiles. Knowing about the melds, how to make them, and the different types of melds in mahjong is necessary in order to have a successful game for UK players.

Mahjong is not as difficult as it seems. It's just there is so much to learn about the game. But when players in the UK have a whole understanding, they undoubtedly have fun.