Mahjong: Art, Film, and Change in China

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A high-scoring hand formed using only circles, known as a pure hand. The hand is made of chows, pongs, and the eyes of circles.

The act of winning a hand interrupts play to assess the validity of the hand won. Upon confirmation, the player is awarded the hand's value per the specific game's rule.You have 14 tiles and you get Mahjong by getting all 14 tiles into four sets and one pair. Sets of tiles are called pung or chow and they equal: See also: Mahjong and artificial intelligence Students in the United States learning how to play Mahjong There are many governing bodies which often host exhibition games and tournaments for modern and traditional Mahjong gaming.

Fujian mahjong, thirteen tile hands. Certain tiles can be wild. No dragons. Winds are treated as bonuses. Japanese and Korean mahjong have some special rules. A player cannot win by a discard if that player had already discarded that piece, where players' discards are kept in neat rows in front of them. Players may declare ready, meaning that they need one tile to win, cannot change their hand and win extra points if they win. Some rules may replace some of the number 5 tiles with red tiles, as they can earn more points. Korean mahjong does not allow melded (stolen) chows. Studies by doctors have also shown in Hong Kong that the game is beneficial for individuals suffering from dementia or cognitive memory difficulties, leading to the development of Mahjong therapy. [47] Mah-Jongg was inspired by the competitive board game popular in China and other parts of Asia named Mahjong. Despite the name similarity, the two games have very little in common and are played differently. Superstitious skills of Mahjong]. 麻将经网 (in Chinese). Luoyang, China: 洛阳信息港建站中心 . Retrieved 5 September 2019.

A player completes a winning hand with the dealer's first discard (in most variants, provided the dealer does not draw a kong). Most players play with a table minimum, meaning a winning hand must score a minimum number of points (which can be seen in the scoring section). In Hong Kong mahjong the most common point set is three, but can be higher or lower depending on house rules. Researchers have also used artificial intelligence techniques to develop Mahjong-playing agents using neural networks and reinforcement learning. They have shown that a self-learning machine can be trained to compete with some of the best Richi Mahjong players. [48] Hong Kong mahjong or Cantonese mahjong is a more common form of mahjong, differing in minor scoring details from the Chinese Classical variety. It does not allow multiple players to win from a single discard. [ citation needed]

American mahjong has distinctive game mechanics and the article on American mahjong details these. Some differences include many special patterns, a different scoring system and the use of jokers and five-of-a-kind. Playing free Mahjong games is a great way to test your ability to think strategically. There are different versions of the game you can play online and the simplest way to learn how to play it is to start with traditional Mahjong.

Similarly to card games, in Mahjong, tiles are assigned a suit and a rank. There are in total 7 suits: circles, bamboo, symbols, dragons, winds, flowers, and seasons. Ranks differ from suit to suit. There are 9 ranks for circle, bamboo, and symbol tiles, 3 ranks for dragons, and 4 ranks for winds. Season and flower tiles are an exception; we’ll look at them in a second.

Korean mahjong is unique in many ways and is an excellent version for three players. One suit is omitted completely (usually the bamboo set or 2–8 of bamboo) as well as the seasons. The scoring is simpler and the play is faster. No melded chows are allowed and concealed hands are common. Riichi (much like its Japanese cousin) is an integral part of the game as well. [14] Why are so many players of American mah-jongg Jewish?". Sloperama.com . Retrieved 7 September 2012.Eyes (also known as a pair) are two identical tiles which are an essential part of a legal winning hand. A piece cannot be stolen (melded) to form a pair of eyes unless the player simultaneously completes a legal winning hand. [9] Competition mahjong is an international standard founded by All-China Sports Federation in July 1998 that some mahjong societies have adopted for competition play and in some cases for all play. It includes a large variety of different scoring rules in a way that emphasizes strategy and calculation ability. [ citation needed] Many variations have specific hands, some of which are common while some are optional depending on regions and players. One example is the Pure Green hand made of chows or pongs using 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 of bamboo and green dragon. Prolonged playing of Mahjong may trigger epileptic seizures according to a 2007 study. [44] [45] To date there are 23 reported cases of Mahjong-induced seizures in the English medical literature. Some doctors speculate that this may be due to stress and complex manual movement correlated with intense brain function similar to playing chess or card games such as poker. [46]