Mahjong Melds Essentials

Mahjong is a familiar game that is played with 144 tiles. Each player gets 13 tiles, while the dealer gets 14. Players aim to form melds by completing a legal hand. Many players are still figuring out how to form a meld, so we've drafted this guide to help you out.

Mahjong melds might seem a bit tricky at first, but we'll break it down for you. Make sure to read to the end to catch all the essential details. Let's get started!

Understanding Mahjong Melds

Your hand in Mahjong is made up of melds, which are sets of Mahjong tiles, and they can be a pong, a kong, a chow, or eyes. You create melds by drawing a tile from the wall or claiming another player's discard. Depending on how the meld is formed, there are specific Mahjong rules that determine which player gets priority for a discard and whether the meld needs to be shown.

What is a Pong?

• A pong is a set of three identical tiles.
• A pong can be formed using any suited or honor tiles.
• You can't use bonus tiles to form a pong, as they're set aside and there aren't three identical ones.
• The key is that the tiles must be exactly the same.
• A pong can be either kept hidden or revealed (exposed).

What is a Kong?

A kong is a complete set of four identical tiles. It's like a pong, but with an extra tile. Here are the three ways you can form a kong:

• Hidden Kong: You can declare a kong if you have three identical tiles and then draw the fourth one from the wall. You reveal this meld by placing two tiles in the centre and two at either end, showing.
• Exposed Kong: You can take a discarded tile to complete a kong if you already have three matching tiles in hand. You then display your three tiles face-up, placing the claimed discard either face down next to the others or on top of the centre tile.
• Exposed Kong from an Exposed Pong: If you have an exposed pong and later draw the fourth tile from the wall, you can declare a kong. You can either place the fourth tile on top of the centrepiece of your melded pong or arrange all four tiles face-up in a row. Importantly, you can't claim a fourth tile from another player's discarded pong; it must be drawn from the wall.

Key Points about Kongs

• When you make a kong, you need to draw an extra tile from the wall and then discard one.
• The fourth tile of a kong doesn't count towards your hand limit of 13 tiles.
• Just like with pongs, you can't form a kong using bonus tiles because there aren't four identical ones.
• Kongs are worth gathering to gain extra points and prevent opponents from the option to get certain tiles.

Chow

• A chow is created by melding three matching tiles in a row.
• The meld needs to be in the same suit and in exact numerical order.
• Players cannot skip numbers or meld from 8 or 9 to 1 or 2.
• Because they have no numerical value, honor tiles and bonus tiles cannot be utilized to create chows.
• Only the player whose turn came just before their own can steal a discard to build a chow. The person who forms a chow with a seized piece gets the lowest priority for that tile.
• Any other player may take control of that tile in place of the other player if they need it to produce a pong or a kong to win.
• The chow is either hidden or visible, like a pong.

Eyes

Eyes, also known as a pair, are two identical tiles essential to a lawful winning hand. A piece cannot be taken to create a pair of eyes unless the player concurrently completes a valid winning hand.

Interruption of Play

The game can be interrupted by four events. They are the following:

Flower or Season

The last tile of the wall is drawn as a replacement tile whenever a player draws a flower or season, ensuring that they have the 14 pieces required before their discard.

Melding Another Player’s Discard

Other players may take a tile that has been discarded by one player to finish a meld. The advantages of stealing tiles include constructing a winning hand more quickly and earning extra points. At the same time, the drawbacks include having to expose a portion of one's hand to other players and being unable to alter a declared meld.

Moreover, the player must specify the type of meld to be proclaimed when declaring it through a discard before exposing the meld by setting the three or four face-up tiles.

Winning A Hand

Play is stopped when a hand is won in order to evaluate the hand's viability. Following confirmation, the player receives the hand's worth in accordance with the rules of the particular game.

Winning a Hand From a Discard

A player declares victory and reveals their winning hand if, at any time throughout the game, they can utilize another player's discard to finish a legal hand. The hand is over at this point, and mahjong scoring starts.

Based on established table rules, there are several methods to handle the scenario if more than one player can utilize a discard to win the hand. The winner may be determined by adding up the points each player would have gained from the discard, selecting the person who is closest to the discarder in turn order, or concurrently awarding wins to many players.

Winning a Hand From the Wall

A player can also succeed by drawing a tile that finishes a valid hand. This can also be referred to as winning from the wall. Winning from the wall in Hong Kong Mahjong doubles the basic points that each loser must pay.

Winning a Hand By False Win

The declaring of a winning hand is technically permissible at any time. The player must have a full and legitimate hand, though. If not, the player is punished.

• The punishment is based on the table rules.
• The player can hand the other players their points back.
• The player who announces the fake win is also subject to a potential punishment of having to play the remainder of the hand with their tiles face up.
• Some strategies impose punishment at the conclusion of the whole contest.

Robbing a Kong

A play known as robbing the kong is an uncommon yet high-scoring element of Hong Kong mahjong. If a player attempts to declare a kong by adding a fourth piece to a melded pong, but another player can use that piece to finish the hand, the winning player has precedence and may remove that piece from the person who was attempting to declare the kong.

Conclusion

Playing Mahjong is not about just learning the rules or tiles. Knowing about the melds, how to make them, and the different types of melds in mahjong is necessary in order to have a successful game.

Mahjong is not as difficult as it seems. It's just there is so much to learn about the game. But when players have a whole understanding, they undoubtedly have fun.