Mahjong Tiles - All to Know

Mahjong is one of the most played games in online casinos and is quite unique. But what makes it so captivating? The answer is simple: Mahjong tiles! Playing with these special tiles makes the game even more fascinating.

Many players in Nigeria might still be unaware of Mahjong tiles or their significance. To help you out, we've put together this guide. We'll cover everything you need to know about Mahjong tiles so you can jump into the game with confidence. Let's dive in!

How Many Tiles Are In A Mahjong Set?

The number of Mahjong games tiles can differ depending on the region. While sets from some parts of Asia might include extra tiles like flowers or Jokers, most standard sets have between 136 and 144 tiles. Some sets even come with blank tiles, which are handy replacements for any broken or missing ones.

Understanding The Different Mahjong Tile Categories

The Mahjong tiles are generally grouped into six main categories: Suited Tiles, Red Tiles, Honor Tiles, Flower Tiles, Animal Tiles, and Joker Tiles.

Suited Tiles: The Core of the Game

Suited tiles, also called number tiles, each have a suit and a rank, typically from one to nine. There are three suits themed around money. Each combination of rank and suit has four tiles, making a total of 108 suited tiles across all suits. You identify a tile by its rank followed by its suit. The tiles numbered one and nine in each suit are known as terminal tiles. Suited tiles are essential for creating melds.

• Circles: These tiles feature a collection of circles, symbolizing ancient Chinese copper coins known as Cash.
• Bamboo: Mostly depicted as outlines of sticks, except for the '1 Bamboo' which is usually represented by a bird (sometimes seen as a sparrow or peacock, depending on the set's origin). Some older sets might show a string of coins instead of a bird.
• Characters: These tiles are marked with Chinese characters, easily identifiable as the character suit.

Red Tiles: A Japanese Special?

Red tiles are a unique feature mostly found in Japanese Mahjong sets. They don't always have duplicates of their regular counterparts and appear as red versions of tiles from the standard suits. The 'Red 5' tiles for Circles, Bamboo, and Characters became popular in the 70s, followed by Red 1s and 9s, and later Red 3s and 7s, although Red 5s are most common. Some rare sets might even include a red-white dragon that can act as a wild card.

• These tiles can often be excluded from the game by choice.
• When a red tile is used, one of its ordinary, non-red versions is typically removed from play.
• Combining certain red tiles can boost your score significantly.
• Because flower tiles aren't as commonly used in Japanese Mahjong, their 'Four Gentlemen' flowers are often left out to make room for these red tiles.

Honor Tiles: The Power Players

Like suited tiles, honor tiles are also used to form melds, but they don't have a rank or suit. They are divided into two main groups:

Winds

There are four Wind Tiles:

• East
• West
• North
• South

Dragons

There are three types of Dragon Tiles:

• Red: The traditional Chinese character for center or middle is written on a red tile. In sets intended for English speakers, the initial letter of the Wade-Giles may alternatively be represented by a black letter C in a tile corner. These tiles were absent from one of the earlier sets. Red Dragon, a classic Chinese character, may be seen on several tiles.
• Green: Even in sets where the Character tiles are printed in simplified Chinese, green is a tile with a traditional Chinese green character. Other sets, most notably American, substitute a green dragon for the character or an F in black in the tile's corner to indicate the initial letter of the translation. In the first sets, this tile wasn't present. The classic Chinese character Green Dragon may be seen on several tiles.
• White: Although most contemporary sets use tiles with a blue border like White Dragon to differentiate them from replacement tiles, white is a tile that can be without any marks, like White Dragon. A black letter B could also be included in the tile's center in English sets. These unmarked Japanese tiles are sometimes referred to as "tofu" in some Japanese mahjong groups.

Flower Tiles

In mahjong melds, Flower tiles are not utilized. These are put aside after being drawn, and the player then gets to draw again, but from a dead wall. These tiles frequently include stylized images of flowers in a variety of shades. Yet, there are also additional, non-floral motifs that differ from set to set.

Quarters

If a set has flower tiles, it often has two quartets of them, each with a different label's color and design. In ordinary Chinese sets, one quartet will have blue Arabic numbers, and the other group will have red Chinese numerals. Each quartet has four separate tiles that are each numbered from 1 to 4 or clearly labelled.

• Seats are assigned to numbers such as 1 = East, 2 = South, 3 = West, and 4 = North.
• If the number on the flowers equals the seat number, the winner's score is doubled.
• However, there are advantages to gathering a whole quartet, and in certain versions, gathering all the flowers results in a win right away.
• Several games do not include them or view them as optional, since they provide points for purely random events.

Animal Tiles

The player's seat is immediately matched by the animal tile, which is unnumbered flowers. These tiles are typically found in pairs and feature classic Chinese stories as their topics. If two tiles in a pair or all of the animals are gathered, payment is made right away. Thai and Malaysian sets for four players include four pairs of animal tiles, compared to two pairs in Singaporean sets.

Some of them are the following:

• Cat and Mouse
• Rooster and Centipede
• Caishen and Sycee
• Jiang Ziya and Fish
• Liu Haichan and Jin Chan
• Dragon and Flaming pearl

Joker Tiles

Subject to regional limitations, joker tiles can be used to substitute any suited or honor tile while assembling a hand. Certain variations of Southeast Asian and Chinese mahjong, particularly Shanghainese mahjong, occasionally include four jokers. Also, there are eight jokers in American Mahjong.

Common Unique Jokers:

• Circle joker
• Character joker
• Universal joker
• Red jokers
• Suit joker
• Dragon joker
• Wind joker
• Flower joker
• Honor joker

Rank Restricted Jokers:

• Terminal Joker: Replaces one or nine of any suit.
• 147 Joker: Replaces one, four, or seven of any suit.
• 258 Joker: Replaces two, five, or eight of any suit.
• 369 Joker: Replaces three, six, or nine of any suit.

Conclusion

Remembering everything can be a little confusing, but players can just start with the Mahjong Tiles meaning and then move forward. After reading, the players will be able to somewhat understand Mahjong Tiles as they will only be able to understand it fully when they are playing the actual game at top online casinos.

There are six different types of Mahjong Tiles, and all of them are interesting to know about. They have sub-categories, too, so it’s better to learn about them slowly.