Mahjong Strategies

Mahjong is a game that originated in China and came to the West in the 1920s. It has been growing in popularity with its increased accessibility and availability through the Internet. It is common at online casinos in their Asian games section. Mahjong is a game that involves tiles and dice. It relies largely on luck, however requires a fair amount of skill as well. Players are more successful if they develop a game plan and strategy for playing Mahjong.

Choosing a Game

There are different variations of the game of mahjong and you will need to choose one before you begin to play. If you are playing at an online casino, you may only be given one option or there may be a number to choose from. The most important thing is for you to choose a game with rules that you are familiar with. Practice the game for free in fun mode until you are familiar with the rules and practice the strategies that offer the best chance of success in the game.

Discarding Tiles

When playing mahjong, players are required to add tiles to their hand and discard tiles from their hand onto the table. The tiles that remain in your hand are the tiles that you use to complete your melds in order to win the game. Players need to discard tiles they do not need and keep tiles that are important for their hand; however, at the same time, you do not want to allow your opponents to become aware of the tiles you are holding and the melds you are trying to form.

There is an optimal order that you should try to keep to when discarding tiles in the game. As early in the game as possible, before your opponents are able to pung, you should discard special winds of the other players and isolated winds. Discard winds in the order of East wind, followed by the wind of the player to your left, followed by the wind of the player seated opposite you, followed by the wind of the player on your right. In terms of your own wind, you should keep it until you have no use for it or until other players have discarded it at least twice. You can keep double winds longer until you have no use for them.

Mahjong games can be played at the following online casinos

William Hill

Fortune Panda

Once the winds have been discarded, the dragons must be dealt with. These should also be discarded before the other players have a chance to pung. However, dragon pairs are more valuable and you should keep them. The next tiles in your hand to go should be the terminal tiles and then the shortest suits that you are holding.

The most valuable tiles in a game of mahjong are the 4, 5 and 6. Because of this, you should keep these tiles for as long as possible and discard them as late in the game as you can. Simple tiles should be the last to be discarded.