Singapore Mahjong
The real four-player game, with the cat, mouse, rooster and centipede tiles. Sit down with three garden animals and let the hints teach you as you play.
Pick a table
How to play
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Next goal: win a hand at the Garden gate.
Quick guide
- Make four sets and a pair. A set is a pong (three the same), a chow (three in a row in one suit) or a kong (four the same).
- On your turn you get a new tile. Tap a tile to pick it, tap it again (or Throw) to discard it.
- When someone throws a tile you can use, buttons appear: Pong or Kong from anyone, Chow only from the player on your left, Win from anyone. Skip if you don’t want it.
- You need at least 1 tai to win. The 💡 hints show where your tai can come from and which tiles you are waiting on.
- Keyboard: arrow keys move along your tiles, Enter picks and throws. W win, P pong, C chow, K kong, S skip.
- Sound is on to start. Tap 🔊 to mute, or 🎵 for music. Earn 3 stickers for your QuickBOP sticker book.
Rules used here
House rules (Singapore style)
- 148 tiles: characters, bamboo and circles 1 to 9, four winds and three dragons (four of each), 4 flowers, 4 seasons and 4 animals.
- Flowers, seasons and animals are set aside as soon as you get them. You take a replacement from the back of the wall. They count toward tai.
- You may pong or kong any discard, but chow only from the player on your left. A win beats a pong or kong, and a pong beats a chow. If two players can win on the same tile, the next one in turn after the thrower gets it.
- A kong can come from a discard, from four tiles in your hand, or from adding a drawn tile to your own pong. After any kong you take a replacement tile from the back. When you add to a pong, another player who needs that tile may take it to win (robbing the kong).
- A winning hand is four sets and a pair, or thirteen wonders. Seven pairs does not count here.
- You need at least 1 tai to win, and tai stop at 5.
- Points: 1 tai is 2 points, and each extra tai doubles it, up to 32 for 5 tai. A self-drawn win scores double. Only the winner scores.
- The last 15 tiles of the wall are never drawn. When only 15 are left, the hand is a draw.
- The dealer sits East. The deal moves to the right unless the dealer wins or the hand is a draw. The round wind stays East.
- Quick games are 4 hands. An East round ends when the deal has gone round all four players, or after 12 hands.
- Left out: the instant extras for kongs and animal pairs, and the rules about one player covering the others. Mahjong is often played for money; this version is points only.
Tai table
| What you have | Tai |
|---|---|
| Each animal (cat, mouse, rooster, centipede) | 1 |
| Your own flower or season (its number matches your seat: 1 East, 2 South, 3 West, 4 North) | 1 each |
| All four animals, all four flowers, or all four seasons | +1 each set |
| A set of dragons (pong or kong) | 1 each |
| A set of your seat wind | 1 |
| A set of the round wind (East) | 1 |
| Little three dragons: two dragon sets and a dragon pair | +1 |
| Little four winds: three wind sets and a wind pair | 4 |
| All pongs | 2 |
| Half flush: one suit plus honours | 2 |
| Full flush: one suit only | 4 |
| Mixed terminals: only 1s, 9s and honours | +2 |
| Ping hu: all chows, the pair is not a dragon or a wind that scores for you, and on a discard you were waiting on two or more tiles. No flowers or animals. | 4 |
| Ping hu with flowers or animals | 1 |
| Winning on a replacement tile, robbing a kong, or on the last tile | 1 each |
| Limit hands: thirteen wonders, big three dragons, big four winds, all honours, all terminals, four hidden pongs, nine gates, four kongs, heavenly hand (dealer wins on the deal), earthly hand (win on the dealer’s first discard), all eight flowers and seasons | 5 |
Tile guide
Every tile and its name
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Why garden animals at the table?
Singapore mahjong already has animals in it. Four bonus tiles show a cat, a mouse, a rooster and a centipede. So the other three seats went to animals too, picked from five: a snail, a rabbit, a hedgehog, a fox and an owl, each a little sharper than the last.
The game is hard to learn from a rule sheet, so this table teaches as you play. Hints suggest a tile to throw and say why, show which tiles you are waiting on, and explain every claim. Each win ends with a list of where its tai came from.
A bit of real mahjong history
Mahjong is often called ancient, but it is not. It took shape in China in the second half of the 1800s, out of older card games with money suits. The oldest known tile sets date from around the 1870s. Nobody knows who made the first one. The port city of Ningbo is often named as its birthplace, but where it really started is still argued over.
Chinese immigrants from southern China brought the game to Singapore in the late 1800s and early 1900s. In the early 1920s it also became a craze in the United States, helped by Joseph Park Babcock’s simplified rule book.
Singapore and Malaysia play a style close to Hong Kong mahjong, with one clear difference: the four animal tiles. They come in two pairs, the cat with the mouse and the rooster with the centipede. We could not find a reliable record of when or why they were added, so we won’t guess.
Mahjong is often played for money in real life. This version is for fun and learning only. It keeps points, and nothing else.
How to play
- Four players each hold 13 tiles. On your turn, take a tile and throw one away. Make four sets and a pair to win.
- A pong is three the same, a chow is three in a row in one suit, and a kong is four the same.
- You can take a thrown tile for a pong, kong or win from anyone. A chow can only come from the player on your left.
- Flowers, seasons and animals are put aside as soon as you get them, and you take a new tile from the back of the wall.
- A win needs at least 1 tai. Tai come from animals, your own flower or season, sets of dragons or of your wind, and hand types such as all pongs, one suit, or all chows (ping hu). They stop at 5.
- House rules differ from table to table in Singapore. The rules and the full tai table used here are in Rules used here, above.
The garden animals
- Snail: keeps the tiles it likes and often throws the wrong one.
- Rabbit: takes every pong and chow that gets it closer, even if the hand ends up worth nothing.
- Hedgehog: counts the tiles it can see and only claims when a set really helps.
- Fox: always knows where its tai will come from, but plays fast and slips up.
- Owl: counts every tile, looks two draws ahead and plays safe near a player who looks ready.
They see only what you see: their own tiles and everything on the table. Nobody peeks.
Tips
Know your tai early. A hand with no tai cannot win, however fast it is. If you have an animal or your own flower, you are safe. If not, keep a pair of dragons, or aim for all chows.
No bonus tiles? Think ping hu. All chows with no flowers or animals is worth 4 tai. Avoid pongs and keep two-sided shapes like 4-5, which can finish with a 3 or a 6.
Throw lone honours first. A single wind that is not yours cannot join a run and scores nothing as a set. Early in the hand, other players are less likely to need it.
Watch the sets on show. A player with three sets out is close to winning. Tiles they have already thrown are the safer ones to let go.
Your turn
Three garden animals are waiting at the Garden gate. Leave hints on for your first few hands, then try the Lily pond and the Old oak.