Lesson 4 of 6
Playing a hand
5 min

How to Draw, Discard and Call Tiles in Mahjong

A turn is a draw and a discard, and a discard can be claimed. Play a few turns at the real table: watch a round go by, throw the right tile, call a discard for a pung, and learn when to let one go.

Step 1 of 5

Draw, then discard
Everyone holds 13 tiles between turns. On your turn you draw one from the wall, making 14, then discard one to get back to 13. The table draws for you, so the only choice is the discard. Play goes counter-clockwise: after you comes South on your right, then West, then North.

Watch one time round the table. You throw the 1 Bam you just drew, South throws a 2 Crak, West a 6 Bam and North a 4 Dot. Then the turn is yours again, and an 8 Crak arrives at the right end of your rack. The wall count drops by one with every draw.
Throw the stray
You are building a pung of each wind and a pair, a 30-point line: you hold three East, two South, two West and three North Winds, two Red Dragons, and a joker that can finish one of the wind pungs.

Throw the stray, the tile no line you could reach will use. Two kinds of tile are not worth throwing: a tile your hand already uses, and a joker.
Your move
Discard the tile your winds hand doesn't use.
Call a discard
When someone discards, each of the other players can call the tile to finish a pung, kong or quint, using tiles they already hold. West has just thrown a South Wind, and you hold two.

The called group goes face up in front of you for the rest of the hand. You take the turn at once, with no draw: you discard straight away. North, who sits between West and you, loses their turn. If two players call the same tile, a kong or a quint beats a pung. Otherwise (two pungs, or a kong against a quint) the tile goes to whoever plays sooner after the discarder.
Your move
Call the South Wind for a pung, then discard.
Runs can't be called
West has just thrown a 3 Dot, the one tile your 1-2 Dot needs to become a run.

Can you call it?
Question
When not to call
Calling isn't free. The group goes face up and stays there, showing everyone what you are building, and a hand with a meld face up loses the concealed bonus, the 5 points most lines add.

Your South pung is already face up, and one West Wind finishes the hand. Now West throws a Red Dragon. You hold two, so the table offers you a pung.
Your move
Answer West's Red Dragon: call it, or pass.

What you learned

A turn is draw one, discard one. Play goes counter-clockwise: East, South, West, North.
Throw the tile no line you could reach will use, and never a joker.
You can call a discard to finish a pung, kong or quint, but not a run, unless the tile wins you the hand.
A call puts the group face up, makes you discard at once and skips anyone in between.
Call only when the tile finishes a group your hand needs.