Mahjong Tiles - All to Know

Mahjong is one of the most played games in online casinos across Singapore, and it's quite a unique one. But what makes Mahjong so interesting? The answer is simple: playing with Mahjong tiles makes it much more fascinating.

Many local players might still not be familiar with Mahjong tiles. For them, we've drafted this guide so you don't have to worry about it anymore. We'll cover everything we know about Mahjong tiles. So, let's get started without any further delay.

How Many Tiles Are There in Mahjong?

The number of tiles in Mahjong games can vary depending on the region. While some sets from the United States or Southeast Asia might include extra tiles like flowers or Jokers, most sets generally have at least 136 tiles, often 144. Some sets also come with blank tiles that can be used to replace broken or missing ones.

Understanding the Different Mahjong Tile Categories

There are six main categories of Mahjong tiles: Suited Tiles, Red Tiles, Honor Tiles, Flower Tiles, Animal Tiles, and Joker Tiles.

Suited Tiles: The Core of the Game

Suited tiles, also known as number tiles, come with both a suit and a rank. With rankings from one to nine, there are three suits associated with money. Each rank and suit combination has four identical tiles, totalling 108 suited tiles (36 tiles per suit). A suited tile is identified by its rank, followed by its suit. The tiles '1' and '9' in each suit are called terminal tiles. You can form melds using suited tiles.

• Circles: This suit uses circles as its symbol, representing the ancient Chinese copper coins known as 'Cash'.
• Bamboo: Except for the '1 Bamboo', which often depicts a bird (like a sparrow or peacock), this suit is represented by outlines of bamboo sticks. This '1 Bamboo' tile has historical variations.
• Characters: This suit is represented by Chinese characters.

Red Tiles: A Japanese Speciality

Red tiles are exclusive to Japanese Mahjong sets. They appear as red versions of tiles from other suits and don't have four duplicates. The Red 5 tiles for the various suits gained popularity after the Red 5 Circle was introduced in the 1970s. Red 1s and 9s appeared later, though they are less common than Red 5s. Red 3s and 7s followed. In some variations, a special red-white dragon tile can act as a wild card if specific conditions are met.

• These tiles can be optionally excluded from play.
• When a red tile is used, one of its ordinary, non-red counterparts is removed from play.
• Using them together can increase your score.
• Since flower tiles are less commonly used in Japanese Mahjong, these sets often omit the Four Gentlemen flower tiles to make room for the red tiles.

Honor Tiles: The Strategic Pieces

Honor tiles can be formed into melds, similar to suited tiles, but they don't have a rank or suit. They are further divided into two categories:

Winds

There are four Wind Tiles:

• East
• West
• North
• South

Dragons

There are three types of Dragon Tiles:

• Red: The traditional Chinese character for center or middle is written on a red tile. In sets intended for English speakers, the initial letter of the Wade-Giles may alternatively be represented by a black letter C in a tile corner. These tiles were absent from one of the earlier sets. Red Dragon, a classic Chinese character, may be seen on several tiles.
• Green: Even in sets where the Character tiles are printed in simplified Chinese, green is a tile with a traditional Chinese green character. Other sets, most notably American, substitute a green dragon for the character or an F in black in the tile's corner to indicate the initial letter of the translation. In the first sets, this tile wasn't present. The classic Chinese character Green Dragon may be seen on several tiles.
• White: Although most contemporary sets use tiles with a blue border like White Dragon to differentiate them from replacement tiles, white is a tile that can be without any marks, like White Dragon. A black letter B could also be included in the tile's center in English sets. These unmarked Japanese tiles are sometimes referred to as "tofu" in some Japanese mahjong groups.

Flower Tiles

In mahjong melds, Flower tiles are not utilized. These are put aside after being drawn, and the player then gets to draw again, but from a dead wall. These tiles frequently include stylized images of flowers in a variety of shades. Yet, there are also additional, non-floral motifs that differ from set to set.

Quarters

If a set has flower tiles, it often has two quartets of them, each with a different label's color and design. In ordinary Chinese sets, one quartet will have blue Arabic numbers, and the other group will have red Chinese numerals. Each quartet has four separate tiles that are each numbered from 1 to 4 or clearly labelled.

• Seats are assigned to numbers such as 1 = East, 2 = South, 3 = West, and 4 = North.
• If the number on the flowers equals the seat number, the winner's score is doubled.
• However, there are advantages to gathering a whole quartet, and in certain versions, gathering all the flowers results in a win right away.
• Several games do not include them or view them as optional, since they provide points for purely random events.

Animal Tiles

The player's seat is immediately matched by the animal tile, which is unnumbered flowers. These tiles are typically found in pairs and feature classic Chinese stories as their topics. If two tiles in a pair or all of the animals are gathered, payment is made right away. Thai and Malaysian sets for four players include four pairs of animal tiles, compared to two pairs in Singaporean sets.

Some of them are the following:

• Cat and Mouse
• Rooster and Centipede
• Caishen and Sycee
• Jiang Ziya and Fish
• Liu Haichan and Jin Chan
• Dragon and Flaming pearl

Joker Tiles

Subject to regional limitations, joker tiles can be used to substitute any suited or honor tile while assembling a hand. Certain variations of Southeast Asian and Chinese mahjong, particularly Shanghainese mahjong, occasionally include four jokers. Also, there are eight jokers in American Mahjong.

Common Unique Jokers:

• Circle joker
• Character joker
• Universal joker
• Red jokers
• Suit joker
• Dragon joker
• Wind joker
• Flower joker
• Honor joker

Rank Restricted Jokers:

• Terminal Joker: Replaces one or nine of any suit.
• 147 Joker: Replaces one, four, or seven of any suit.
• 258 Joker: Replaces two, five, or eight of any suit.
• 369 Joker: Replaces three, six, or nine of any suit.

Conclusion

Remembering everything can be a little confusing, but players can just start with the Mahjong Tiles meaning and then move forward. After reading, the players will be able to somewhat understand Mahjong Tiles as they will only be able to understand it fully when they are playing the actual game at top online casinos.

There are six different types of Mahjong Tiles, and all of them are interesting to know about. They have sub-categories, too, so it’s better to learn about them slowly.