Each contestant begins with a set of 13 tiles. Each type of honor tiles has a set of four. In addition, there are 4 flower and 4 season tiles. When the player takes the wind, east kick-starts the game by choosing one tile from the wall. Then a counter-clockwise turn of collecting tiles by players ensues while they discard a single tile each turn. A player may claim a discarded tile by another player in a kong or pong scenario and in that case, the one who discarded loses their go-around turn. At any given time, players should hold 13 tiles until a Mahjong hand (with 14 tiles) is declared.
The popular Chinese game, Mahjong is a game of skill based on a set of tiles. There are different regional variations with different game pieces and scoring mechanism. The basic rules are the same across most variants. The main objective is to collect sets of tiles and scoop the highest score. Players choose and discard the pieces in different designs until they create a full combination. A complete Mahjong set has 144 tiles featuring 3 suits i.e. Dots, Characters, and Bamboo. Every suit comprises tiles bearing numbers 1-9, with as set of four for each tile. There are two honor tiles- dragon (Red, White, and Green) and winds (East, West, South, and North).