The soul of the game is Flexibility and Freedom, so house rules are strongly encouraged! Once you have some games under your belt, you can add these Flextra House Rules to your game, which add even more complexity and creativity, adding more options for creating winning hands that resemble popular American Mah Jongg hands. Use as many or as few as you want!
Here are three special sets you can add to a hand that use single tiles instead of matching tiles.
NEWS set:
Use one of each wind tile to create a Quad set.
In most American Mahjong sets, the tiles use the first letter of each wind, North, East, West, and South which spell out the word “NEWS”
You don’t need a Mahjong set that has printed English letters to make a NEWS set, just use 1 of each wind.
YEAR set:
Create a Quad set using the four digits of the current calendar year, with the dragon as 0.
All 4 tiles must be in the same suit: Bam, Crack, or Dot.
For example, in 2025, a YEAR set in the Bam suit would be 2 Bam, Green Dragon, 2 Bam, 5 Bam
SEQUENCE QUINT set:
Create a 5-tile “Quint” set using one tile from each number in the Evens sequence or Odds sequence.
All tiles must be in the same suit: Bam, Crack, or Dot.
There are important restrictions on using Singles Sets:
You can’t call a discarded tile to make a Singles set unless it is the last tile you need for Mahjong.
You can’t use any jokers in a Singles set.
NEWS sets are in the winds suit and YEAR & SEQUENCE QUINT sets are in a number suit. The restriction of no more than 2 suits per hand still applies.
Special Sequences
Here are three special sequences that break the normal rules of sequences which add more possibilities for hands that resemble common American Mah Jongg hands.
LIKE NUMBERS:
Use 3 sets of the same number in all 3 suits.
You will need to combine these 3 sets with a set of flowers, a NEWS set, or a YEAR set.
This is the only kind of hand that allows you to break the 2 suits per hand maximum.
Using 3 sets, one of each Dragon, is a valid Like Numbers hand.
DOUBLE SEQUENCE:
Use the same 3-set sequence twice in the same hand using two different suits.
The rule of only using two suits still applies, so a flower set could not be added to the hand.
OPPOSITE WINDS:
Make two sets of opposite winds:
North & South
East & West
Combine these two sets with sets in a standard number sequence.
The rule of only using two suits still applies, so all the tiles in the number sets must be the same suit.
Standard American Mah Jongg House Rules
You can add house rules that make American Flex Mahjong play more like Standard American Mah Jongg:
Build walls and deal tiles.
Give the East player 14 tiles during the initial deal.
Do a complete Charleston at the start of a round.
Add the rules for calling a hand dead.
Only allow Joker swaps using a Joker from your hand.
Make “sneaky” blank swaps quietly not during your turn.
It’s Your Game!
The most important element of American Flex Mahjong is to have fun! Use whatever rules make your game experience more enjoyable. If you want a quick and light game, you can play without any additional house rules. If you want to mimic the gameplay of Standard American Mah Jongg more closely, use whatever rules you that you are used to. Express your own creativity by making up your own house rules! Just make sure you all agree as a group, and have fun!
Flex Mahjong 