Rules Reference Guide

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This guide outlines the rules in a concise way for quick reference. Once you have read the complete rules to Flex Mahjong, this guide will remind you of all the rules you need to remember when playing.

Download a printable PDF of this reference guide.

Game Setup

  1. Use the number tiles 1-9 plus dragon tiles in 3 suits: Bams, Cracks, Dots
  2. Add additional special tiles if desired:
    • Winds: If using, include all 16 tiles
    • Flowers: If using, include 6 to 8 tiles
    • Jokers: If using, include 4 to 8
    • Blanks: If using, include up to 4
  3. Shuffle tiles facedown
  4. All players draw 13 tiles
  5. Players arrange tiles in their hands
  6. Players pass 3 tiles to the player on their left.

Taking a Turn

  1. Take a tile (Mandatory):
    • Draw one face-down tile, or
    • Call the last discarded tile
  2. Swap Tiles (Optional):
    • Joker Swap: swap joker with exposed tile
    • Blank Swap: swap blank with discarded tile
  3. Declare Mahjong (Optional):
    • Declare winning hand, round ends if valid
  4. Discard a Tile (Mandatory):
    • Place tile face up on table and say tile name

Mahjong Hand – Three S’s

Suits:

  • Use no more than two suits in your hand.
  • The suits are: Bams, Cracks, Dots, Winds, & Flowers.

Sets:

  • All tiles must be grouped into sets of 2 to 4 matching tiles.
  • Matching tiles must be of the same suit and number.
  • Each number can only be used in one set per hand.
  • 2 Tiles (Pair), 3 Tiles (Triple or Pung), 4 Tiles (Quad or Kong)

Sequence:

Across the hand, the ranks of each set are in consecutive order in one of these number sequences:

  • Runs: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,6 , 7, 8, 9, 10
  • Evens: 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10
  • Odds: 1, 3, 5, 7, 9
  • Threes: 0, 3, 6, 9

Special Tiles

  • FLOWERS: You can make one set of 2 or more flowers without using jokers.
  • WINDS: You can make a sequence of winds using 4 sets, one of each wind. A flower set can be added to the 4 sets of winds.
  • JOKERS: A joker tile can take the place of a number tile or a wind tile in a Triple or Quad set, not a flower tile or any tile in a Pairs set.
  • BLANKS: You must either discard blank tiles or perform a Blank Swap to remove blanks from your hand before declaring Mahjong.

Scoring

Add one point for each scoring factor:

  • Mahjong: The hand is a valid Mahjong hand
  • Suit Flush: Only one suit is used
  • Full Sequence: Use all the numbers in a sequence: Evens (02468), Odds (13579), or Threes (0369)
  • Big Sets: The hand is made of 6 or 7 sets
  • 7 Pairs: The hand is made of 7 Pair sets
  • Bouquet: A flower set of more than 4 tiles is used
  • Self Draw: The last tile drawn was a face-down tile
  • Concealed: No exposures made
  • Jokerless: No jokers in winning hand
  • Sunrise: Mahjong made on player’s first turn
  • Sunset: Mahjong with final possible face-down or final possible discarded tile

Minimum Hand Value (Optional)

For experienced players, set a minimum point value of 2 or 3 points for a winning Mahjong hand.

Payouts to the Winner

  • Each point is worth one scoring token or coin.
  • Losing players pay the winning player the value of the hand.
  • If a player discarded the last tile called for Mahjong, that player pays the winner double the hand value.
  • If more than one player call Mahjong on the same discarded tile, the non-winning players pay the winning players, however the player who discarded the tile does not pay multiple players double.

Flextra House Rules (Optional)

Singles Sets

  • NEWS Singles Set: Quad set of 1 of each wind tile without jokers
  • YEAR Singles Set: Quad set of number value of year without jokers
  • SEQUENCE Singles Set: a Quint set of 1 of each number tile in the Evens or Odds sequence.

Special Sequences

  • Like Sequence: Same number in 3 sets, one suit each
  • Double Sequence: 3-number sequence repeated in 6 sets
  • Opposite Winds Sequence: Add 2 sets of N&S or E&W to a standard number sequence.

Standard American Mah Jongg Rules

  • 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.