Discover & Learn the Game

29/3/25
LESSON 6:  
MAHJONG HANDS FOR BEGINNERS

​​​​​​​Beginners often feel overwhelmed when they look at their tiles for the first time and don’t know what to do. Most don’t know where to look in the mahjong book. Then they start going through the book from the 1st page to the last. Meanwhile the fellow players have started to yawn. Next they start putting their tiles together in pairs (if any) in order to get going with the game. Nothing wrong with putting the tiles in pairs and planning to do a Pair Hand; however, they may miss other hands that are easier to play and will miss winning the game.

Here is how to start your first few sessions and try to create order out of chaos.

What to look for: 

• How many Honours tiles you have

• Are there any Chows or possible Chows

• Could it be a run of one suit 

• How many pairs you have 

Then consider the following hands. They are considered easy hands and have a high probability to achieve except the one suit and the pair hands unless you have at least 5 pairs to start with and/or a broken run to start with and/or with joker(s).

These handful of hands are enough for you to win a tournament! Keep playing the hands below until you feel confident. When you start to play with better players and see how they pick a hand from the book, you’ll soon form that habit too.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

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