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The indicator is displayed at the left-hand corner of the First Dealer to remind the players to change the Wind in each round of the game.
♦ Dealer and Wind Indicator (Jong)
The Indicator, which is used to designate the Dealer in each hand of the game, can be any one of many different designs. When a hand is finished, the Indicator is passed to the next Dealer. The Indicator is also used to indicate the Wind of the round. Accordingly, the Wind sign shown on the Indicator is also changed after each round.
1.3 A Hand of Tiles
A playing hand consists of 13 tiles. A winning hand consists of four matched sets of 3 tiles each and one pair called the Eyes of the hand. A matched set can be a Sequence or a Triplet. Thus, a player is always waiting for either a 14th tile that completes the last matched set or the Eyes to declare a win.
A sequence is composed of any three consecutive numbers of the same suit. (Sun Jee)
A Triplet is composed of any three identical tiles of the same suit. (Hak Jee)
The Eyes can be any 2 identical tiles. (Ngan, Jiang)
1.4 A Few Examples of Winning Hands
A. Chicken Hand: Consists of Sequences and Triplets of more than one suit. It is the easiest way to assemble a winning hand.
B. Common Hand: Consists of only Sequences of more than one suit.
C. All Triplets Hand: Consists of only Triplets of more than one suit.
D. Mixed One-Suit Hand: Combines tiles in one suit and Honor tiles.
E. Pure One-Suit Hand: Consists of tiles in only one suit.
F. All Honor Tiles Hand: Consists of Honor tiles only.
G. 13-Terminal Tile Hand: Consists of one each of numbers one and nine of each Common suit and one each of the Honor tiles, plus one additional tile that matches any of the tiles in the hand.
1.5 Players and Their Respective Playing Positions
A game of mah jongg requires four players. The players sit around a square table, and the game proceeds in a counterclockwise direction. Each player calls the player on his or her right the Lower House, the player on his or her left the Upper House, and the player sitting across the table the Opposite House.
There is a Dealer for each hand of the game. His or her sole function is to commence the game by casting the dice and breaking the walls of tiles.
During each and every hand of the game, the Dealer is called the East House. His or her Lower House is the South House, the Opposite House is the West House, and the Upper House is the North House.
1.6 Playing Directions
The allocation of each player’s seat, the designation of the First Dealer, and the playing of the game proceed in a counterclockwise direction. The order in which the players take turns to retrieve a tile and discard a tile also travels counterclockwise. As has been pointed out, each player calls the player on his or her right the Lower House, the player in front of him or her the Opposite House, and the player to the left the Upper House. The breaking of the walls and the drawing of tiles from the wall proceed in a clockwise direction, however.
Retrieving and discarding tiles
Breaking of the walls and drawing of tiles
1.7 Different Rules of Mah Jongg Game
It is natural that a game played by many ethnic groups for centuries would have developed variations and even very different sets of rules. Today, the most commonly known rules of play are:
(1) The Old Rules, also known as the 13–tile Cantonese Game
(2) The New Rules, also known as the Shanghai Game
(3) The 12-Tile Game
(4) The 16-Tile Game, also known as the Taiwanese Game
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