Complete Book of Mah Jongg. Amy Lo

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      THE COMPLETE BOOK OF

      MAH JONGG

      AN ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO THE ASIAN, AMERICAN

       AND INTERNATIONAL STYLES OF PLAY

      AMY LO

      TUTTLE Publishing

       Tokyo | Rutland, Vermont | Singapore

      TUTTLE STORY

       “Books to Span the East and West”

      Our core mission at Tuttle Publishing is to create books which bring people together one page at a time. Tuttle was founded in 1832 in the small New England town of Rutland, Vermont (USA). Our fundamental values remain as strong today as they were then—to publish best-in-class books informing the English-speaking world about the countries and peoples of Asia. The world has become a smaller place today and Asia’s economic, cultural and political influence has expanded, yet the need for meaningful dialogue and information about this diverse region has never been greater. Since 1948, Tuttle has been a leader in publishing books on the cultures, arts, cuisines, languages and literatures of Asia. Our authors and photographers have won numerous awards and Tuttle has published thousands of books on subjects ranging from martial arts to paper crafts. We welcome you to explore the wealth of information available on Asia at www.tuttlepublishing.com.past—still inspired by Charles Tuttle’s core mission to publish fine books to span the East and West and provide a greater understanding of each.

      Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.

       www.tuttlepublishing.com

      Copyright © 2001 Amy Lo

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage retrieval system, without prior permission of the publisher.

      LCC Card No. 2002727002

       ISBN 978-0-8048-4530-4

       ISBN 978-1-4629-1713-6 (ebook)

      19 18 17 16 15

       6 5 4 3 2 1 1601TW

      Printed in Malaysia

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      CONTENTS

MAH JONGG, THE PEOPLE’S GAME
INTRODUCTION	The Mah Jongg Game
CHAPTER ONE	The Game of Mah Jongg
1.1	The Tiles
1.2	Accessories
1.3	A Hand of Tiles
1.4	A Few Examples of Winning Hands
1.5	Players and Their Respective Playing Positions
1.6	Playing Directions
1.7	Different Rules of Mah jongg Game
CHAPTER TWO	The Cantonese Game
2.1	Seat Allocation
2.2	Building the Walls
2.3	Designating the First Dealer
2.4	Breaking the Walls
2.4.1	Leaping the Tiles
2.5	Matching the Tiles
2.6	Claiming a Discarded Tile
	2.6.1	Sheung — To Match a Sequence
	2.6.2	Pung — To Match a Triplet
	2.6.3	Revealed and Concealed Sets
	2.6.4	Gong — To Match a Quadruplet
	2.6.5	Priority in Claiming Discards
2.7	When to Declare a Win
2.8	Failing to Claim a Discard to Declare Pung or a Win
2.9	The Dealer and the Duration of a Game
2.10	Scoring
2.11	Computing the Fans
2.12	Awarding the Winner
	2.12.1	Jit Woo — To Intercept a Winning Hand
	2.12.2	Table of Awards
2.13	Paying the Winner
2.14	Bao — Penalty to the Risk Taker
2.15	Penalties
	2.15.1	Falsely Declaring a Win
	2.15.2	Long or Short Hand
2.16	Fortune Hand — a Draw
2.17	Playing with Flower Tiles
	2.17.1	Scoring for Flower Tiles
2.18	Five-Player Game — Dreaming
2.19	Three-Player Game
CHAPTER THREE	Basic Strategy
3.1	Speed
3.2	Taking Advantage of Opportunities
3.3	Keeping Alert
3.4	Safe Discards
3.5	Improving Your Winning Chance
3.6	Improving Your Hand for a Higher Score
3.7	Winning Probabilities
CHAPTER FOUR	Courtesies
CHAPTER FIVE	The Shanghai Game
5.1	Terminology
5.2	Designating the Chair of the First Dealer
5.3	Choosing the First Dealer
5.4	Building the Walls
5.5	Discards
5.6	Displaying Revealed Sequences
5.7	Fortune Hand
5.8	Assembling a Revealed 13-Terminal Tile Hand
5.9	Scoring
5.10	Computing the Fans
5.11	Awarding the Winner
CHAPTER SIX	The 12-Tile Game
6.1	Winning Probabilities
CHAPTER SEVEN	The 16-Tile or Taiwanese Game
7.1	Seat Allocation
7.2	Building the Walls
7.3	Designating the First Dealer, Breaking the Walls, Revealing Flower Tiles, and Drawing Make-up Tiles
7.4	Shuh
7.5	Garng
7.6	Winners
7.7	Scoring
CHAPTER EIGHT	The American Game
8.1	The American Mah Jongg Set
8.2	Seats Allocation
8.3	Designation of the First East Player
8.4	Exchange of Unwanted Tiles
	8.4.1	First Pass
	8.4.2	Second Pass
	8.4.3	Third Pass
	8.4.4	Blind