American mahjong setup and deal

Give every player one clear position

American mahjong has four players, with one rack at each place. Keep the middle of the table open for the walls and, later, the discards.

Text version, from your seat:

1. Your seat is at the bottom of the frame. The diagram uses your viewpoint.
2. The player to your right sits here.
3. The player across from you sits here.
4. The player to your left sits here.

Your concealed tiles belong on the sloped front of your rack. You can see their faces there, but the other players cannot.

The seat diagram stays in your point of view: one player is to your right, one is across, and one is to your left.

Quick check: each player has one rack and enough room to build directly in front of it.

Shuffle and build four walls

Put every tile face down in the middle and mix them. Then each player builds the wall in front of their own rack.

1. Make 19 stacks, with two face-down tiles in each stack.
2. Count the stacks from one end to the other.
3. Straighten the wall without turning any tile over.

If your mat has wall guides, place the finished wall on the guide in front of that player’s rack. The guide keeps all four walls clear of the discard area.

Text version, from your seat:

1. Shuffle all tiles face down. Keep the center open for four walls.
2. Build one wall at each rack. Each wall is 19 stacks long and 2 tiles high.
3. East opens the wall. Count the dice total in stacks from the right end of East's wall.
4. Draw from the live end. When a wall is empty, continue with the wall to its left.

Common mistake: a wall is 19 stacks long, not 19 loose tiles long.

Choose East

Each player rolls the dice. The player with the highest total is East for the first deal.

East handles three visible jobs: rolling to locate the wall break, beginning to take tiles from the opening, and making the first discard when regular play begins. East is a role at the table, not a fixed compass spot in the room.

Say who East is out loud. That gives the whole table one starting point.

Quick check: everyone can point to East’s rack.

Break East’s wall

East rolls two dice, then counts that many stacks from the right end of East’s wall, moving left. Open the wall after the last stack counted. The stacks to the right of the break are pulled back and reserved until the other wall sections have emptied. The deal begins with the first stack to the left of the opening.

Text version of the wall break and final selection:

1. East rolls an invented 7 and counts seven stacks from the right end of East's wall, moving left.
2. Open the wall after stack seven. The seven counted stacks on the right are reserved until the other wall sections have emptied.
3. Begin serving at the first stack to the left of the opening and continue left.
4. After everyone has 12 tiles, East takes the top tiles from the first and third available stacks. The players to East's right, across, and left then each take the next specified tile in turn.

Count stacks, not individual tiles. Before dealing, have each player point to the same open end so no one starts from the other side.

Deal in groups of four

Starting at the wall break, players take four tiles at a time in turn until everyone has 12. A packet might look like this:

Use the same rhythm for three rounds:

1. East takes four tiles from the opening.
2. Each other player takes four in turn.
3. Repeat until every rack has 12 tiles.

Now slow down for the last tiles. East takes the top tile from the first and third available stacks. Then the player to East’s right takes the next end tile, the player across takes the next top tile, and the player to East’s left takes the next end tile.

The finished count is your best check: East has 14 tiles, and every other player has 13. Count before anyone rearranges a rack. If the totals are wrong, retrace the last four-tile round instead of guessing.

Common mistake: East is the only player who begins with an extra tile.

Know which way the walls empty

Tiles come off the walls clockwise around the table. When the active wall is empty, continue with the wall on its left.

Regular turns move the other way, counterclockwise, from each player to the player on the right. Keep wall movement and player movement as two separate ideas.

Text version, from your seat:

1. Your turn passes right.
2. Right passes across.
3. Across passes left.
4. Left passes to you.

Quick check: point along the walls clockwise, then point to the player on your right.

Make one quiet table check

Before the Charleston, each player should have concealed tiles on the sloped front of a rack. Confirm the wall opening and starting counts one last time: 14 for East, 13 for everyone else.

Nobody needs to recite the whole deal. If all four players can point to the opening and identify East, put the dice aside and continue to the Charleston.