MahjCon Tournament Rules

Tournament rules include the National Mah Jongg League (NMJL) guidelines as published in Mah Jongg Made Easy (2024) plus the following.

Table Rotation

If you are sitting in an “A” (EAST) Seat – Stay where seated after each round

If you are sitting in a “B” (SOUTH) Seat – Move DOWN 1 table after each round

If you are sitting in a “C” (WEST) Seat – Move DOWN 2 tables after each round

If you are sitting in a “D” (NORTH) seat – Move UP 1 tables after each round

Scoring

The points for a winning hand will be the value of the hand on the NMJL card plus these applicable bonuses:

• +10 points to the hand value when a player picks their winning tile.
• +20 points to the hand when a player wins a hand with no jokers (excluding Singles and Pairs hands).
• +10 In the event of a wall game. Players who declared Mah Jongg in error or had a hand declared dead are disqualified and will receive zero points for that game.
• -0- in the event a game is not completed in the allotted

Penalties

• -0- (Zero) points to a player with a hand declared
• -0- points to a player with a Mah Jongg in Error
• -0- points to a player who throws in their hand after a Mah Jongg in If all but one player throws in their hand, the player with their hand intact receives ten (+10) points
• -10 points to a player who peeks at a blind pass.
• -20 to a player who discards the winning tile to a hand with 2 exposures
• -25 points to a player who discards the winning tile to a hand with 3 exposures or two exposures in a Quint
• -25 points to a player who misnames a discard resulting in Mah The winner gets the value of the hand they were attempting to play.

Dead Hand Declaration

For the below situations, the erring player stops playing and receives -0- points unless otherwise noted below.

• Picking ahead
• Picking out of turn
• Picking from the Wrong Wall
• Picking from the wrongly pushed out
• Picking from the Wrong End
• Having too few or too many tiles on your rack
• Having an invalid exposure
• Having a hand that is impossible to
• Exchanging a joker before picking
• Discarding before picking
• Declaring another player’s hand dead erroneously (Call Tournament Director over to verify)
• Placing a called (claimed) tile in the sloped part of the

Mah Jongg in error:

• If the three other players expose their hands, all get (0) ZERI points
• If two players do not expose their hands, the game continues with the two remaining players
• If one player does not expose their hand, that player gets +10 TEN points while others get (0) ZERO points
• If a player calls Mah Jongg in error and none or one exposure is placed on the rack, you can retract your Mah Jongg declaration and continue to play as usual.

Calling a Discard

Calling a discarded tile must be verbalized. If a discard is taken without it being announced, the called tile must be returned to the table and is no longer available to the caller. If a discard is called and touched, it must be taken. The called tile must be placed on the flat part of the rack. If the tile is placed in the sloped part of the rack, the hand will be declared dead.

If two people call the same tile for exposure or for Mah Jongg, the tile goes to the next player in rotation. If one player called a tile for exposure and one for Mah Jongg, Mah Jongg always takes precedence.

Making a Joker Exchange

When doing a joker exchange you must first verbalize it, and then it is recommended that you do a hand-to-hand exchange. If the exchange was not verbalized and you place the tile on the table, it will be considered a discard and no joker exchange will be permitted (no penalty applies).

3-Player Table

We will make every effort to seat four players at every table. When a 3-player table occurs, the Charleston must be omitted. For the fourth game, each player rolls the dice, and the highest roller will be East.