Mahjong and Its Tiles

What does one need to play mahjong?

When you hear the word mahjong, probably the first thing on your mind is tiles. For sure, this gambling game has been famous for the use of its tiles, played by four gambling players. This is much like another game, which is called domino, which also uses tiles.

Usually, the amount of tiles in a set of mahjong amounts to 144. However, there are sets with only 136 tiles, and still can be used to play this gambling game. Because this gambling game has numerous variations, you should not be surprised to find out that in other types, they use more tiles to play this gambling game.

What are the different tiles in a complete set of mahjong?

There are three different suits in a set of this gambling game, and they are the bamboo suit, the character suit, and the circle suit. There are also six different tiles, namely, flower tiles, wood tile, and dragon tiles.

The suits in this gambling game are like the suits in a deck of cards. While the deck of cards usually has diamonds, spades, clubs, and hearts as its suits, the mahjong tiles have suits of character, bamboo and circle. These suits are carved on the tiles, instead of painted, like in the case of the cards. Because the suits are carved, some gambling players know which tiles they have without even looking at them. All they need to do is feel the engraving with their fingers, and there, they will know the identity of their tiles, unlike in the deck of cards, which you will not know the identity of the cards facing down, unless you are cheating.

The circle suits are the lowest denomination in this gambling game among the three. In this gambling game, a circle means a coin, while a bamboo means a hundred coins, and a character means ten thousand coins.

On the other hand, the dragon tiles are said to be representations of Confucius' virtues, while the wind tile are the four directions and the flower tile are not really important tiles in this gambling game. A round of this gambling game can go on without the flower tiles.

Some variants of this gambling game have joker tiles added to the set.

Whatever type of this gambling game you want to choose, with how many tiles, just be sure you and your opponents agree on them, and also, do not forget to have fun. This is the truest essence of gambling.