Play Wisteria Court Mahjong

How to play Wisteria Court Mahjong

Real four-player mahjong, not the matching game. Draw, discard, call pung and build a winning hand against three patient hosts, in Hong Kong style or American style, with lessons and a coach.

1. Choose Hong Kong or American on the title card, then press Play. During a game, open Menu and select Choose game style to return to that choice. You can continue your hand or confirm a new game in the other style. You hold 13 tiles along the bottom, sorted by suit. Imogen sits on your left, Beatrix across and Leopold on your right. The player marked E is East, the dealer, who starts with 14 tiles and discards first.
2. On your turn you draw a tile from the wall (it arrives at the right of your rack) and discard one. Tap a tile to lift it and tap it again to discard it. Play passes to your right.
3. Hong Kong style: build four sets and a pair. A set is a chow (three in a row in one suit), a pung (three alike) or a kong (four alike). When someone discards a tile you can use, buttons appear: Pung or Kong from anyone, Chow only from the player just before you, Mahjong from anyone, or Pass. A claimed set is laid face up and you then discard.
4. American style: first comes the Charleston. Pick three tiles you do not need and pass them right, then across, then left; the table may go round once more. Then build one of the hands on the practice card. You may call a discard only to finish a group of three or more that your hand needs, or for mahjong. A joker stands in for any tile in a group of three or more.
5. When your hand is complete a Mahjong button appears. The result card shows the winning hand, how it scored and who pays. Hong Kong hands score in faan; American hands score the value on the card.
6. A game is 4, 8 or 16 hands. The deal passes to the right after each hand, and the highest total at the end finishes first.

Controls

• Touch or mouse: tap a tile to lift it and tap it again to discard it, or switch to discarding on one tap in Settings. Claims, passes, the Charleston and Mahjong use the buttons under your rack. Hint, Card (or Scoring) and Menu sit on the shelf at the bottom. Tap the wall counter on the mat to hear how many tiles are left.
• Keyboard: the arrow keys move along your rack and Enter or Space lifts or discards the tile in focus. D discards the lifted tile, P passes on a discard or sends your Charleston pass, M declares mahjong, H shows a hint, C opens the card or the scoring table, S opens the score sheet, N deals the next hand and Escape clears a pick.
• Menu includes Choose game style, New game, lessons, the score sheet, the card or scoring table, Settings, statistics and rules. The toolbar has restart, pause, help, optional sound, fullscreen and the Larger text switch (in the game menu on a phone).