I’m well versed in Hong Kong Mahjong, my favorite variant. If you have any questions about play, feel free to ask.
I found it invaluable to play against computer opponents (who would take their time!) before going against real people. I used Hong Kong Mahjong, which I believe also contains a tutorial.
You can find it at the link in sources.
The aim of the 4-player game is very similar to Gin Rummy. Make runs or melds of similar tiles until all your tiles in your hands are used. The tiles are similar in concepts to cards with suits and numbers from 1 to 9. One of the suits is harder to get than the others because they print the iconographs for the numbers 1 to 9.
Then there are special tiles. Its not just about making matches with all your tiles – players are striving to make “bonus points”. For instance, you make extra points in the end if all your sets are runs or all your sets are melds. Each seat in the game has a cardinal point (N S E W) and if you make a meld of that cardinal point, more bonus points.
Its considered bad with some players to match up all your tiles but make no points (referred as a chicken hand).
10 is your jackpot of Mahjong. Its your limit – very rare, no one can make more than 10 points. (correction: you can make more than 10 points but your pay will not vary, see payout below)
Check with the people you’re playing with – its very common for there to be house rules for points. The examples I list above are common point schemes, but some houses play for big hands, like “The Jade Dragon”, or “Ones and Nines”, where if you make one of these hands, you get all your 10 points.
Once the points are made, they’re converted to a chip total, which is where the gambling portion comes into play.
It works with exponents of 2, until you get high where they are then grouped:
Everyone gives the winner the chip payout listed above. The guy that throws out the tile that makes the person win has to pay double the points. If the person wins by drawing a tile, everyone has to pay double.
Chip prices depend on the stake of the games – there are yellow green and red chips. Green being the unit price, yellow is unit x 10 and red is unit x 50.
People buy the chips, and keep playing until everyone has lost their money!
EDIT: I hadn’t considered the question was referring to solitaire mahjong. Many people don’t even know of the 4-player variety.
In solitaire mahjong, you simply match up similar tiles. In order for a tile to be matchable, one of its vertical edges must not be touching another tile and cannot have another tile on top of it.
Look at:
http://www.otal.umd.edu/~vg/amst205.F96/vj07/project3c.html
Visit this website for instructions:
http://www.aaaah.org/wiki/en/ma/Mahjong.htm
it’s a little confusing at first but start playing and you’ll catch on quickly. for basic rules and strategies click the link below:
http://games.yahoo.com/games/rules/mahjong/mjhistory.html?page=mj
hope this helps.
I’m well versed in Hong Kong Mahjong, my favorite variant. If you have any questions about play, feel free to ask.
I found it invaluable to play against computer opponents (who would take their time!) before going against real people. I used Hong Kong Mahjong, which I believe also contains a tutorial.
You can find it at the link in sources.
The aim of the 4-player game is very similar to Gin Rummy. Make runs or melds of similar tiles until all your tiles in your hands are used. The tiles are similar in concepts to cards with suits and numbers from 1 to 9. One of the suits is harder to get than the others because they print the iconographs for the numbers 1 to 9.
Then there are special tiles. Its not just about making matches with all your tiles – players are striving to make “bonus points”. For instance, you make extra points in the end if all your sets are runs or all your sets are melds. Each seat in the game has a cardinal point (N S E W) and if you make a meld of that cardinal point, more bonus points.
Its considered bad with some players to match up all your tiles but make no points (referred as a chicken hand).
10 is your jackpot of Mahjong. Its your limit – very rare, no one can make more than 10 points. (correction: you can make more than 10 points but your pay will not vary, see payout below)
Check with the people you’re playing with – its very common for there to be house rules for points. The examples I list above are common point schemes, but some houses play for big hands, like “The Jade Dragon”, or “Ones and Nines”, where if you make one of these hands, you get all your 10 points.
Once the points are made, they’re converted to a chip total, which is where the gambling portion comes into play.
It works with exponents of 2, until you get high where they are then grouped:
0 points = 1 chip payout
1 point = 2 chip payouts
2 points = 4 chip payouts
3 points = 8 chip payouts
4,5,6 points = 16 chip payouts
7,8,9 points = 32 chip payouts
10+ points = 64 chip payouts.
Everyone gives the winner the chip payout listed above. The guy that throws out the tile that makes the person win has to pay double the points. If the person wins by drawing a tile, everyone has to pay double.
Chip prices depend on the stake of the games – there are yellow green and red chips. Green being the unit price, yellow is unit x 10 and red is unit x 50.
People buy the chips, and keep playing until everyone has lost their money!
EDIT: I hadn’t considered the question was referring to solitaire mahjong. Many people don’t even know of the 4-player variety.
In solitaire mahjong, you simply match up similar tiles. In order for a tile to be matchable, one of its vertical edges must not be touching another tile and cannot have another tile on top of it.