How to Set Up an American Mahjong Game: Wash, Walls, Dice and the Deal

On this page

1. What you need
2. 1. Wash the tiles
3. 2. Build the walls
4. 3. Choose East (the dealer)
5. 4. Break the wall
6. 5. Deal the tiles
7. Setup questions

What you need

• An American Mahjong set: 152 tiles including 8 Jokers (most sets add blank spares)
• Four racks, ideally with pushers
• Two dice
• A current NMJL card for each player
• A square table, and ideally a mat to quiet the tiles

If you are still choosing equipment, our set buying guide explains what to look for.

1. Wash the tiles

Turn all 152 tiles face down in the middle of the table. Everyone uses both hands to swirl them around for fifteen or twenty seconds. This is the wash, and the clatter is part of the game's charm. Keep going until nobody could possibly know where any tile is.

2. Build the walls

Each player builds one side of a square in front of their own rack.

1. Lay a row of 19 tiles

   Slide face-down tiles from the middle into a straight line in front of your rack until it is 19 tiles long.

2. Stack a second row on top

   Build a second row of 19 and lift it onto the first. Your wall is now 19 stacks long and two tiles high.

3. Push the wall forward

   Use the pusher on your rack (or your hands) to slide the wall toward the center so the four walls form a square.

All 152 tiles are now in the walls (4 × 19 × 2 = 152). If a wall is short or long, count and fix it before rolling.

3. Choose East (the dealer)

The dealer is called East. For the first hand, each player rolls both dice and the highest total becomes East. After that, East usually passes to the right after each hand, though many groups let the winner or a fixed rotation decide. East has a small edge: they roll to break the wall and begin with 14 tiles.

4. Break the wall

East rolls both dice again. The total tells the table two things: whose wall to break, and where to break it.

1. Count walls to the right

   Starting with East's own wall as 1, count counter-clockwise (East, then the player on East's right, then across, then left) up to the number rolled. A roll of 8 lands on the wall of the player to East's left.

2. Count stacks from the right

   The owner of that wall counts that same number of stacks from the right-hand end of their wall and opens a gap after it.

3. Deal from the gap

   Tiles are taken starting from the left side of the gap and continuing along the wall. When one wall is used up, drawing continues from the next wall in the same direction.

5. Deal the tiles

East takes the first two stacks (four tiles). The player to East's right takes the next two stacks, then the player across, then the player to East's left. Go around three times so that everyone has 12 tiles.

Then the final pick: East takes two more tiles (traditionally the top tiles of the first and third remaining stacks), and each of the other three players takes one. East now has 14 tiles and everyone else has 13.

Rack your tiles, keep them hidden, and move straight into the Charleston. During play, East discards first to bring their hand down to 13, and each turn afterwards is draw one, discard one.

Setup questions