Mahjong is one of the simplest games to learn and to play, but to master in this game is difficult. This is one of the main reasons for it to reach worldwide audience. It is not just enough if you learn how to play this game, but you should know how to be a winning hand. In common Mahjong game, there are totally 144 tiles and thirteen tiles are distributed among four players who are sitting in four different directions. Each player will be given a chance to draw from the left over tiles. A pair of tiles for eye and four melds of three tiles make the winning hand.

Basically the Mahjong set is composed of three different suit tiles alongside flower tiles and honor tiles. Bamboos, dots and characters compose the suit tiles. All three suits have sequence of number from 1-9. Each of these nine numbers exists in quadruplets. A player has to have three tiles of the same suit in a sequence to make a meld. The other option available is three of a kind in the same suit. Honor tiles are further broken down into dragon tiles and wind tiles. The dragon tiles are in three different colors, red, green and white while wind tiles are in four direction, south, north, east and west. Each of wind tiles and dragon tiles are also in quadruplets, but you cannot make meld out of these tiles in a sequence. Again flower tiles cannot be used to make meld but you get bonus points.

Now let us see how to play Mahjong. To be a winning hand you need 4 melds of three tiles and a pair of the same tiles. The player sitting in the eastern spot should start the game as a dealer with the benefit to pass on to each player. If the dealer wins the hand he gets to be the dealer again. Normally the dealer has to draw a new tile from the wall, and he or she can choose to keep or discard the tile. But the dealer has to keep in mind that he should have thirteen tiles in hand.

Meanwhile, when a card is discarded and other player pung that card which is a declaration of three of a kind, then that player has to lay out three of kind before the dealer. That particular player who has laid out three of kind has to discard a tile as he has acquired one new tile for his pung. If the player forgets to discard one tile, then he will have fourteen tiles instead of thirteen.
A pung in Mahjong is advancing a hand with the help of your opponent to make four melds. Chow is another way to make four melds. It is a sequence of three tiles in a same suit. But you can make a chow with a discard tile only from your left. You need to place the chow before and you need to discard one tile. The play then continues only to the person sitting to the right side of the player who discarded a tile out of chow, pung or draw. A winning hand can be constructed with the help of your opponent or with your own luck.