Mahjong is a social game requiring precision, skill and strategy as well as luck - often being compared with Rummikub, poker or gin rummy.

An basic mahjong set consists of 144 tiles: circles, bamboos and characters suits from one to nine as well as wind and dragon tiles.

Basic rules
Mahjong is an extremely popular game that can be found across different cultures and traditions, such as Korea and Japan, where its rules differ slightly from Western standards. Although the basic rules remain the same, there are often variations regarding points, tiles, point keeps, fourth seat winds or whether there even needs to be one! For more information on Mahjong rules, please visit Bestmahjong.com.

Mah Jong is a tile game that involves placing 14 tiles into four sets and one pair, where each set can contain either two symmetrical tiles, three matching tiles or any three consecutive numbers in the suit (known as Chow). A single tile cannot be used more than once within each set at a time.

Only the winner receives points for their hand; if a player wins with a discard instead, however, then bonus points must be split evenly among all participants. Furthermore, the game can also be restarted if all participants fail to form winning hands within five rounds.

Variations
Mahjong involves drawing and discarding tiles to form melds and pairs, the goal being to form winning hands before any of your rivals do so. There are multiple variations of Mahjong including Cantonese Mahjong; American and European variants also exist.

A standard Mahjong set consists of 136 tiles, representing the suits with 36 characters, bamboos and circles on each tile. Additional bonus tiles may also be included such as four flowers and four seasons tiles - although variations on the rules of Mahjong playing often use similar scoring systems.

Major differences among mahjong variations include the number of points awarded to winners, richi rules (ready hands) and whether there is a fourth seat wind. There may also be specific regulations concerning handling point keeps, tile discards and ghost players.

Tiles
Objective of MahJongg: Constructing four sets and one pair. This can be accomplished either by drawing from the wall or calling tiles from discards, and when this occurs one player declares Mah Jong by paying double value of their winning tiles while remaining players pay only single values of winning tiles.

Each mahjong set includes three pairs of tiles in four suits each and 12 chows (a sequence of three consecutive numbers in one suit that don't count toward scoring but can assist when building mahjong boards). While these chows don't directly score points, they may prove helpful when creating mahjong structures.

Starting a game requires selecting seats according to the four winds (Dong, Nan, Xi and Bei). Seats opposite East represent South, across from it West and left represent North - each seat opposite East is South; across is West while left represents North. A dice roll decides who goes first while during Charleston players may request one courtesy pass or agree to exchange up to 3 tiles at once without passing Jokers during this phase.

Scoring
Mahjong is a game of skill and chance, and there are various methods of scoring your hand. Scoring systems typically use various criteria to select the winner; such as particular melds or tiles held. Once scores have been converted into amounts paid between players based on tournament or online game rules (which is outside the scope of this guide), players may receive their payment accordingly.

One can win at Mahjong by declaring mahjong and revealing a full 14-tile hand of four sets and pairs, called mahjong. If all 14 tiles have been revealed before declaring mahjong is declared, then the game is considered a draw and redealed by the dealer. Players may claim tiles by completing exposed Pung or Kong tiles; should this happen they must then claim an additional tile before immediately drawing another tile again; alternatively they can "rob" an unknown Kong to make mahjong; thus giving them greater chances at creating better hands without worrying about other people claiming your tiles!