Gaming Mahjong

Mahjong: who needs four players?

Written by Jenn Barr

This article first appeared in the May/Jun 2012 issue of World Gaming magazine.

Most people believe mahjong is a four-player game. If you don’t have four people then you can’t play, right? Wrong! Mahjong can be adapted for two, three or even five players. The Japanese version of the game that I usually play is based on four players, but in the Kansai region three-player mahjong is even more popular than the original game! Even two-player mahjong is played in many video games and mahjong websites.

For an explanation of some basics of mahjong and terminology used in this article, read “Get yourself ready” from our Jan/Feb 2012 issue – just go to wgm8.com and enter “get yourself ready” (including the quotations) in the search box. You can also visit my website reachmahjong.com.

A two-player game is easy to set up, and follows the same rules as the four-player game. Self-drawn wins and discarded wins count the same, and since there are so many draws for each player, the first to “ready” will usually win. This is a speed game! Playing with five players is just as easy. Each player takes a turn to sit out while the other four play a standard game. We usually let the second placed player of the previous game sit out. Other games have the fourth placed player sit out.

Setting up a three-player game is more complicated, but definitely workable. The preferred way is to play with only two suits. Take out numbers 2 to 8 of the crak suit. Keep the 1-craks and 9-craks and use them for sets of three or four. The dealer will be the east wind, the player to the right will be south and the player to his right will be the west wind. There is no north wind player, so count north as a “house wind” for either all of the players or none of them. “Chow” is also now allowed, so all runs of three must be concealed. Feel free to “pung” to your heart’s content. With these few adjustments, you can use the same scoring methods as a four-player game. There are only a few strategy points that will change with this variation.

Hands will be ready faster than in the four-player variation. A lot of times it’s going to be a race to ready, so make sure you select a hand that is easy to win with.

There will be more “flush” (single-suit plus “honors”) hands. With just one suit missing the tile distribution changes a lot and you’ll find yourself discarding single suits. This isn’t always the best way to go as you’re not always guaranteed a fast flush, so make sure you make smart decisions. If you already have partial sets in both suits, keep your options open. It is just as important to keep others from winning their hands as it is to get points yourself.

Swings are going to be bigger so don’t get discouraged when you lose big hands. You’ll get it back in one of your own big hands!

It doesn’t take much to adapt the rules of mahjong to meet the needs of your own group, so don’t give up starting a game just because you don’t have a fourth. Mahjong is always the right answer.