What does the white tile mean in mahjong?

The last character features a blue 白 (bái, white), which represents 白板 (bái ban, white board). The white board means freedom from corruption, a miss in archery, or the Confucian virtue of filial piety. There is a total of 12 arrow, or dragon, tiles in each mahjong set.

What do the colors mean in mahjong?

Three colors are used on the card: blue, green, and red. These colors do not represent any particular suit. Instead, each color can represent any one suit. Within a given hand on the card, all tiles depicted in the same color should be in the same suit.

What are the different tiles in Mah Jongg?

A mahjong game may contain 136, 144, 148 or 152 tiles, the most common being 136 and 144. The tiles are grouped into Suits (consisting of Dot- or Circle tiles, Bamboo tiles and Character tiles) Honour (consisting of Wind tiles and Dragon Tiles) and Flower (consisting of Flower tiles and Seasonal tiles).

What does a white dragon do in mahjong?

The White Dragon [Soap] is used for “0” (zero) in some places (e.g. 2016 or 000). In 2016, for example, the three numbers (2, 1 and 6) must be in the same suit (Bams, Craks or Dots).

What is the rarest win in mahjong?

No prize for guessing, but the Big Four Winds/Big Four Blessings winning hand has the lowest probability in a game of mahjong. With a rare 1 in 57,856 chance of happening, this combination definitely needs to go onto your Instastory!

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What is the soap tile in mahjong?

The white dragon tile on the left is also known as "Soap". Soaps can be used as zeroes when putting together certain hands.

What are Joker tiles for in mahjong?

Joker tiles (百搭牌, pinyin bǎidāpái) can be used to replace any suited or honor tile in putting together a hand subject to local restrictions. Four jokers are sometimes used in certain variants of Southeast Asian and Chinese mahjong, including Shanghainese mahjong. American mahjong uses eight jokers.

What are the four flowers in mahjong?

Depending on the Mahjong set, the flowers are commonly the Plum Blossom, Iris, Bamboo, and the Chrysanthemum. These four flowers/plants represent the Four Confucian Gentlemen/women.

Is there a secret to mahjong?

Have a clear plan of attack – Think about the direction you want to take your hand and stick with it, while also remaining flexible. Picking up tiles for the sake of it won't work, and patience will always win out in the end. If your strategy isn't working, change tactics and look for other winning possibilities.

What do you call out when you win mahjong?

It is traditional when you win a game of mahjong to say: "Sik wu." In Western circles sometimes winners will instead announce "mahjong."

What is the secret to mahjong?

Keep an eye on similar tiles on top of each other

Whenever it is possible to identify two similar tiles on top of each other, solving them should become a priority. Otherwise, these may lead to an unsolvable puzzle. If those two tiles are the only ones left out of their symbol/suit to be matched, the game will be lost.

What do the symbols mean in Mahjong?

Both the circles and bamboo represent ancient Chinese currency. The former represents a tong, a coin with a square hole in the middle, and the latter, strings of such coins.

What does the bird mean in Mahjong?

The number one tile ​does not have a bamboo stick on it. Instead, it has a bird sitting on bamboo, so this set is sometimes also called "bird." There 36 bamboo tiles in a set.

What does Kong mean in Mahjong?

There are three main types of melds: a Pong (three identical tiles), a Kong (four identical tiles), and a Chow (three suited tiles of the same suit in numerical sequence).

What does a closed hand in mahjong mean?

A hand with a C is a closed hand and if a tile you need is discarded, you may not call it from the table. If a tile you need is discarded, and you are playing an open hand, you may call the tile to complete a pung, a kong, a quint or to make mah-jongg.

What is a hot tile in mahjong?

The last stacks of tiles in the wall to be played are sometimes referred to as a "hot wall." If a discarder throws a "hot" tile during this wall (a "hot tile" is one that the discarder can't account for at least 3 of the same tile - either in an exposure, or in their hand, or on the table) and that tile gives someone ...

Why are mahjong tiles called cracks?

The characters suit is also known as the "myriads", "cracks" or "numbers" suit since the top characters are numbers in the Chinese orthography, and the bottom characters (in traditional Chinese characters) are the Chinese orthography of "ten thousand".

Why does my mahjong set have 16 flowers?

The set above has just the standard count of exactly eight flowers, but it is not unusual for sets to come with 16 or more flowers. Flower tiles might represent flowers, seasons, trades (occupations), virtues, historical scenes, games, or animals.

What does the snowflake do in mahjong?

'Frost'(Snowflake) helps to freeze the combo counter until you collect 5 pairs of tiles. The multiplier grows without falling. It helps to earn a higher score in the game.

What is the Flower wall in mahjong?

In Chinese Mah-Jongg, the Flowers and Seasons are optionally used to give a player extra points. If you draw a Flower (or Season; for simplicity's sake these are usually referred to as just Flowers), it is immediately placed in your meld area and replaced by a tile from the back end of the Wall.

How do I get mahjong luck?

Can you call a flower in Mah Jongg?

There are only 4 flowers (1, 2, 3, and 4) and only 4 season tiles (1, 2, 3, and 4). When drawn, they are declared and a substitute tile is drawn. The flower(s) or season(s) corresponding with the winning player's wind may increase the score.

Is mahjong skill or luck based?

Mahjong game is dependent on skills , not luck. Although sometimes , getting a wrong card can also result to winning a game. There are instances where a player have very poor basic cards but good skills, thus they utilized rigorous card control to prevent other players from winning.