🀄 How to Use This Site

This game follows the official rules of the National Mah Jongg League (NMJL) using either the 2025 or 2026 card. You start as the East player and play against three computer bots. The East position changes with each new game. No account or download is needed — the game runs entirely in your browser.

When you arrive at the Welcome screen, choose your settings using the dropdown rows, then click Start Game. Tiles are dealt automatically and the Charleston begins immediately.

Five option rows let you customise each game before it starts:

• 1Tiles are dealt automatically. East receives 14 tiles, all other players receive 13. Tiles are pre-sorted by suit to help you read your hand quickly — but you can rearrange them however you like by clicking and dragging any tile to any other position that you want.
• 2The Charleston begins immediately. You will be prompted to pass tiles Right, Across, and Left (and optionally a courtesy pass if the Charleston is stopped), exchanging three tiles each time. This is your chance to shape your hand before play begins.
• 2bAfter the first mandatory Charleston passes, you will see a prompt asking if you want to continue to the Second Charleston. If you click No, that is when you will have the option for an optional pass with the player across from you. Bots can never stop the Charleston and will always exchange the number of tiles you want to exchange — this is not how it is typically done in a real game. If you decide to continue to the Second Charleston, you will be prompted to continue passing 3 tiles but this time Left, Across, and then Right. For the first Left and the last Right you have the option to do a blind pass where you can pass 0, 1, 2, or 3 tiles to the player across from you.
• 3Once the Charleston is complete, you will see your entire hand. If you are East you will be prompted to discard a tile. If you are not East, you will be prompted to click Start so the player who is East can discard first.
• 4On your turn, click Draw and a tile will be automatically drawn from the wall. Click a tile in your hand to select it (it highlights), then click Discard — or click another tile to change your selection.
• 5When a bot discards, you have 3 seconds to claim it for an exposure. If the discard works for your hand, click Call and then make an exposure with tiles from your hand (see the Claiming Discards & Exposures section below). You can also click Cancel if you change your mind. Pay close attention — the 3-second window closes quickly.
• 6To declare Mah Jongg, your complete 14-tile hand must match a valid pattern on the NMJL card. Click the Mah Jongg button when you have a winning hand. The game validates your hand automatically.

When any player discards a tile, you have 3 seconds to claim it. To claim:

• 1Click Call to claim that discard. The tile moves to your exposure builder.
• 2Click 2 or more matching tiles from your hand to complete the group (pung = 3 tiles total, kong = 4, quint = 5, sextet = 6). Jokers may be used if the group has 3 or more tiles.
• 3Click Expose. The group is locked face-up, visible to all players.
• 4You must then discard one tile from your remaining hand to continue play.

Once exposed, tiles cannot be returned to your hand. Choose carefully — an exposure commits you to hands that use that group.

• 1If you hold a natural tile that matches a joker in any exposed group — yours or an opponent's — you may swap it for that joker.
• 2Click the Joker button first. You will be prompted to click on any exposed joker you want to claim.
• 3You will then be prompted to click on the matching natural tile in your hand to complete the exchange.
• 4This can only be done on your turn — after you have claimed a discard and made an exposure, or after you have drawn a tile from the wall.
• 5Multiple exchanges can be done one at a time in the same turn, including jokers in your own exposures.

Show Hands is available in two situations:

For each player, Show Hands displays:

If any player wins Mah Jongg, a pop-up will appear showing which player won, the winning hand, and all the points won or lost by each player. All bot tiles will be revealed face-up.

From here you can:

If all tiles in the wall are drawn and no player has declared Mah Jongg, the game ends in a Wall Game. No player wins or loses points.

When a Wall Game occurs, all hands are revealed face-up. You can click Show Hands to reveal the closest hand for each player and the possible number of tiles away to make that hand.

The Practice section offers three modes to sharpen your skills without the pressure of a live game. Access it from the Welcome screen by clicking the Practice row.

The value of the win depends on the hand's point value printed on the NMJL card. If the winning tile was discarded, the player who discarded it pays double the point value while the other two players pay only the face value. If the winning tile was a self-pick from the wall, all three players pay double. If the winning hand contains no jokers, all payments are doubled again.

Click Scores after any game ends to see the full breakdown. The Scores screen also lets you reset cumulative totals if needed.

• 💡Use the Charleston to get rid of isolated tiles — ones that don't fit any hand you can see. Keep flowers, jokers, and tiles that appear in multiple patterns.
• 💡Keep your eye on the discard pile. If you see multiple players discarding the same tile, that tile is probably safe to discard too.
• 💡Jokers are precious — don't use them early. Save them until you know exactly which hand you are building.
• 💡Remember you only have 3 seconds to claim a bot's discard. Watch the discard pile when bots play.
• 💡Start on Easy difficulty to learn the rhythm of the game before moving to Normal or Advanced.

During the Charleston

• ♟Avoid giving up Flowers and Dragons — they are flexible and appear in many hands.
• ♟Avoid breaking up pairs or groups of 3 or more matching tiles you already hold.
• ♟Mix up your discards so they are not all from the same suit, or all winds, or all dragons.
• ♟If discarding two winds, avoid pairing North/South together or East/West together. North and South (both have O's) typically pair with odd numbers; East and West (both have E's) typically pair with even numbers. Mix them: use NE, NW, SE, or SW pairings when discarding.
• ♟If your initial hand looks like one big mess, count odd vs even numbers and discard whichever you have fewer of. If equal, compare high numbers (5–9) vs low numbers (1–5) and discard the smaller group.
• ♟Hold onto winds initially if you have 3 or more — especially if you have a N, E, W, and S combination that could make NEWS.
• ♟Look for and hold onto digit sequences that match the NMJL card: 135, 369, any three consecutive numbers (2025 card) or four consecutive numbers or 369 (2026 card). Hold same-suit 2s and 6s especially if you also have one or more White Dragons — they fit well in the 2026 section.
• ♟Always look for one or two broad categories your tiles can fit into, and stay open to pivoting to a different hand depending on what tiles you receive.
• ♟Singles and pairs are hard to complete once the Charleston is over — jokers cannot be used for them and discards cannot be picked up until Mah Jongg. Be cautious about committing to hands with two or more pairs.
• ♟Closed (concealed) hands are very hard to win. Only choose one if you already hold many of the tiles needed. Look for the C at the end of the line on the card.
• ♟Always notice color changes within a hand. Sometimes the same suit used earlier must be used again — for example, FFF 3333 369 9999 means the suit for the 3333 kong must be the same suit as the 9999 kong, and 369 must be a different suit.
• ♟Check the point value at the end of each hand line. Higher points generally mean a harder hand to complete.
• ♟Hands with 3 or more flowers can be easier to build, but flowers are popular — they may not be discarded by other players, or they may be discarded early when they cannot be claimed.
• ♟If you do not need flowers, hold onto yours as long as possible for a possible joker exchange later. You risk giving another player an advantage, but it can be worth it.
• ♟For the 2025 NMJL card, the easier hands to make in order are: 2468 section line 4, Consecutive Run lines 2 and 4, and lines with 3 or more flowers.
• ♟Try to remember the tiles passed during the Charleston — those tiles are not in the wall but may be discarded by other players or used in their hands.

During Play

• ♟Start by discarding winds you don't need.
• ♟Silently repeat to yourself the tiles you still need — especially for pungs, kongs, quints, or sextets — so you don't miss calling for a discard.
• ♟Count the discards you need, especially singles, single winds, or pairs, since jokers cannot complete them unless it is the last tile for Mah Jongg. If all the tiles you need have been discarded and you cannot pivot, play defensively — discard tiles others cannot use, such as jokers, or break up your own pungs and kongs.
• ♟Before every discard, scan all exposures — yours and your opponents' — for jokers you could exchange. Joker baiting is also effective: around the time players start picking from the second wall, discard one tile of a pair you don't need. If another player claims it and exposes a joker, you can now exchange that joker for the other tile in your pair.
• ♟Remember: a joker exchange can only happen on your turn, and only after you pick a tile from the wall or after picking up a discard and completing that exposure. The claimed joker goes on the sloped part of your rack facing you and can only be used on your next turn.
• ♟Early in the game, think carefully before exposing a group that contains jokers — it opens an opportunity for another player to claim them. If you wait, you may be able to draw the tile you need naturally without exposing at all.
• ♟Avoid using a joker for an exposure if you need that joker to complete a kong and the last tile for that kong has already been discarded.
• ♟Try not to expose unless you must. After two or more exposures, other players may figure out your hand and stop discarding tiles you need.
• ♟If only a few tiles remain and you have no realistic chance of winning — for example, you need a single or pair and all 4 copies of that tile have been discarded or exposed — start discarding full kongs, then pungs (if the 4th tile is gone), and save jokers for last. This prevents another player from winning with your discards.