Get to know your American mahjong tiles

Start with the three numbered suits

Dots, bams, and craks each run from 1 through 9, with four copies of each tile. That makes 36 tiles per suit. A 3 dot and a 3 bam have the same number but are different tiles; they do not make a matching pair.

Dots show circles. Bams show bamboo, although the 1 bam usually has a bird instead of one bamboo stalk. Craks, also called characters, usually show a number above a character. Many American sets add a small numeral to make them easier to read.

When you meet a new design, read the number and suit together. Say “five bam” rather than just “five.” This small habit makes it easier to recognize the tile when another player names it.

Meet the winds and dragons

The four winds are North, East, West, and South. There are four copies of each, for 16 wind tiles. Look for N, E, W, or S on a labeled American set. They are their own family, not part of the numbered suits.

The dragons are red, green, and white. The white dragon is often called soap and may look like an empty frame or a bordered rectangle. There are four of each dragon, for 12 in total.

When a hand calls for matching dragons, red goes with craks, green with bams, and white with dots. The white dragon also represents zero in year patterns. Always read the requirements of the particular hand on your card.

Flowers and jokers have different jobs

The eight flowers count as the same kind of tile in standard American mahjong, even when their pictures or decorative numbers differ. A flower slot on the card can use any flower. Do not mistake a number on flower artwork for a numbered suit tile.

The eight jokers can substitute within groups of three or more matching tiles. They cannot replace a single tile or one half of a pair. Keep that distinction in mind before treating a joker as the answer to every missing tile.

Extra blank tiles in a physical set are usually spares. Blank-tile variations are house rules, so check with the table before adding them to a game.

A quick reference for the whole set

A winning hand is not simply any collection of matching groups. In American mahjong, your 14 tiles must match a complete hand on the card you are playing. Learning the tile families is the first step toward reading those hands.

Try this with your next rack

You do not need to memorize every design before playing. Recognizing the families is enough to start asking useful questions: which suit do I have most of, which tiles repeat, and which hands might fit?

• Separate numbered tiles from winds, dragons, flowers, and jokers.
• Within each numbered suit, put the tiles in number order.
• Name five tiles aloud, including both number and suit where applicable.
• Find any exact pairs. Keep matching numbers in different suits separate.