Mahjong Tiles - All to Know

Mahjong is one of the most popular games you can find in online casinos, and it's a truly unique experience. But what makes Mahjong so captivating? The answer lies in its diverse and fascinating tiles.

Many players in India might still be unfamiliar with Mahjong tiles. That's why we've put together this guide to clear up any confusion. We'll dive into everything you need to know about Mahjong tiles, so let's get straight to it!

How Many Tiles Are There in Mahjong?

The number of tiles in Mahjong games can vary depending on the region. While sets from places like the United States or Southeast Asia might include extra tiles such as flowers or Jokers, a standard set usually contains at least 136 tiles, most commonly 144. Some sets also come with blank tiles that can be used to replace any that might be broken or missing.

Understanding the Different Categories of Mahjong Tiles

Mahjong tiles are generally divided into six main categories: Suited Tiles, Red Tiles, Honor Tiles, Flower Tiles, Animal Tiles, and Joker Tiles. Let's break them down.

Suited Tiles: The Building Blocks of Your Hand

Suited tiles are also known as number tiles. Each tile has both a suit and a rank, typically from one to nine. There are three suits, historically linked to wealth. Each rank within a suit appears four times, making a total of 108 suited tiles (36 tiles per suit). A tile is usually referred to by its rank followed by its suit. The tiles numbered one and nine in each suit are called terminal tiles. You can form melds using these suited tiles.

• Circles (or Coins): This suit is represented by a collection of circles. In terms of their monetary origin, these circles symbolise the ancient Chinese copper coins known as 'Cash'.
• Bamboo (or Bams): The bamboo suit is mostly depicted as outlines of bamboo sticks, with the exception of the '1 Bamboo', which is often represented by a bird. In Japanese Mahjong, the '1 Bamboo' is sometimes called the sparrow, though it's also commonly depicted as a peacock. Early Mahjong sets sometimes featured a single string of coins with a red knot instead of a bird.
• Characters (or Craks): This suit uses Chinese characters to denote its rank.

Red Tiles: Adding a Splash of Color for Bonus Points

Red tiles are a unique feature found primarily in Japanese Mahjong sets. Unlike their regular counterparts, they don't typically have four identical copies and appear as red versions of certain tiles from the other suits. The concept of red tiles initially centred around the Red 5 tiles in each suit, gaining popularity in the 1970s. Later, red versions of the 1s and 9s emerged, though they are less common than Red 5s. Red 3s and 7s appeared even after that. In some variations, a rare red-white dragon tile can also act as a wild card.

• These tiles can often be excluded from the game by choice.
• When a red tile is played, one of its ordinary, non-red counterparts is typically removed from play.
• Collecting combinations of these red tiles can often lead to a higher score.
• Since flower tiles are not commonly used in Japanese Mahjong, sets often omit the 'Four Gentlemen' flower tiles to make space for these special red tiles.

Honor Tiles: The Powerful Pieces of Your Hand

Like suited tiles, Honor tiles are used to form melds. However, they don't have a suit or a rank in the traditional sense. They are divided into two main groups, which are:

Winds: East, South, West, and North

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.