The game of Mahjong is most exciting and entertaining. However to enhance the chances of your success you must learn how to play Mahjong. You should also learn about the new rules effective since 1998 and the basics of the game like the types of tiles or cards used, the wind patterns, and mode of playing the game.
Playing Mahjong could be very exciting and entertaining. However to play effectively and register wins you need to know about how to play Mahjong. And to play Mahjong you should learn the basics of the rules regulating the game. Since the game is of Chinese origin, the international rules also originated in China. With the coming up of the new regime in China gambling in any form has been stopped. Initially Mahjong was played as gambling game. To dissociate gambling from the game of Mahjong, the State Sports Commission of China published a set of new rules. These are also called the International Tournament Rules.
So how to play Mahjong with the new rules introduced in 1998? The rules have ensured that there should be no gambling, drinking, or smoking associated with the game of Mahjong. The game has also adopted the role of a new form of sports. Players now group together to form teams to play Mahjong emphasizing its new role as one of the popular sports. These new rules have also made Mahjong highly pattern based. You can have as many as 81 combinations based on various patterns. The scoring elements are popular in classic as well as modern Chinese variants. The game has also taken into its ambit some of the popular table practices prevailing in Japan. You won’t get the flower tiles in your account till you have scored a minimum of eight points. Each flower tile incidentally gives you one point.
Winner of the game will receive the score from such player who had discarded the wining tile. He will also earn 8 basic points from each of the player participating in the game. If the player has earned self drawn win without depending on any tile discarded by other players, he will receive the value of the entire round and additional 8 points from each of the players.
These new rules were first introduced in an international tournament that was staged in Tokyo for the first Mahjong World Championship. The rules were used in the first European Open in 2005 and will also be used in the European Open 2009.
Equipments that are used to play the game include chips, tiles, and the dice. You can play Mahjong either with a set of Mahjong tiles or Mahjong cards. A particular card brand of Mahjong is the Mhing. Many players prefer playing cards as they are lighter as well as space economic. Most of the sets used in the game of Mahjong also include a chip set or at times bone tiles for scoring. They are also used to indicate the dealers and the prevailing trend of the game. A few other sets include racks that are used to hold tiles or the chips. Ordinarily the tiles are quite thick to stand on their own. You can also play Mahjong using computers or against computer opponents.
Tiles used in Mahjong come in three categories, suits, honor, and flowers. Suits are money based. Coppers represent coins. Ropes and myriad represent 100 and 10,000 coins respectively. Stones consist of circles and coins with a square hole. Bamboos represent strings of 100 coins. Characters represent 10,000 coins. Wind tiles representing the north, south, east, and west and Dragon tiles representing red, green, and white are the Honor in Mahjong. Flower tiles contain art works and are used for bonus points, one for each tile and two for the pairs. They represent plum, orchid, Chrysanthemum, and bamboo.
Each player gets 13 or 16 tiles basing on the variation of the game played. You can be immediate victor with a set winning hand that is rare. On turn every player will draw a tile from the wall or the pile and discard another. The next player can draw or take the discarded tile. The game goes on till one of the hands is set for winning.
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