Lesson 1 · 基础规则

How to Play Sichuan Mahjong

Sichuan mahjong 四川麻将 is faster, harsher and more efficient than the Cantonese or Japanese versions you may have seen. There are no winds, no dragons and no bonus tiles — only three suits. This lesson covers everything you need to sit down and play a full round.

1. The deck: 108 tiles, three suits

Sichuan mahjong uses a stripped-down deck. Out go the winds and dragons entirely. What remains is three suits of nine ranks each, four copies per tile:

3 suits × 9 ranks × 4 copies = 108 tiles. That is the whole deck. If you can read 1–9 in the suit's own style, you can name every tile in the game — see Tile Recognition.

2. Sitting down

• Four players, one wall of 108 tiles.
• Everyone is dealt 13 tiles. The dealer 庄家 takes the first turn, so effectively acts on 14.
• Turn order runs counter-clockwise.

3. Declare a missing suit 定缺

This is the rule that makes Sichuan mahjong what it is, and the first thing that confuses newcomers.

Before play begins, every player must publicly declare one suit they will not use for the whole round. From that moment:

• You must discard every tile of your declared suit before you are allowed to discard anything else.
• You can never use that suit in a meld, and you cannot win while still holding a tile of it.

You are free to choose which suit — the usual advice is to pick the suit you hold fewest tiles of, since that gets you out of it fastest.

4. A turn: draw, then discard

1. Draw one tile from the wall 摸牌. You now hold 14.
2. Discard one tile face-up in front of you 打牌. You are back to 13.

Your discards form your discard pool 牌河 — everyone can see it, and everyone is reading it. The tile you throw away is a public statement about what you are collecting.

5. The three actions

On somebody else's discard, or on your own draw, you may claim a tile instead of simply drawing and discarding:

Claiming from a discard means you skip your draw and go straight to discarding. Claiming is not free: an exposed meld is visible to all three opponents, and it locks part of your hand into a fixed shape. Strong players pong far less than beginners expect.

Kong 杠 — three flavours, three prices

After any kong you immediately draw a replacement tile 杠上开花 and continue your turn. Kong points are collected on the spot — but with a sting attached, see Scoring: a player who never wins has to give all of it back.

6. What counts as a win

A winning hand is 14 tiles made of four sets plus one pair:

• A set is either three identical tiles (a pong) or three consecutive tiles in one suit (a chow, 顺子).
• The pair is two identical tiles (将).

There is one special shape: seven pairs 七对 — seven distinct pairs, 14 tiles, no melds.

Wins are scored by fan 番 — pattern bonuses such as all-one-suit or all-triplets. The full fan table, shape tiers and add-ons alike, is covered in Scoring & Fan.

7. Battle to the end 血战到底

This is the second rule that makes Sichuan mahjong distinctive, and the reason a round feels so different from other variants.

When someone wins, the round does not stop. The winner is out and collects their points, and the remaining players carry on playing — same wall, same hands, still hunting.

• The round ends when three players have won, or when the wall runs out.
• Because up to three winners are paid each round, a hand that would be a fold in other variants can still be worth chasing later.

8. When the wall runs out

If the wall empties before three players have won, the round is settled with penalties instead of wins:

The moral is consistent: clearing your missing suit and getting ready (下叫) is the floor, not the goal. Everything in this game pushes you toward efficient shape.