remember this scene from crazy
recreations my mom taught me how to play
he told me ma John would teach me
important life skills or this scene from
The Joy Luck Club for 30 years these
women feasted for God past wrongs
laughed and played lost in one and told
the best stories they're all playing
mah-jongg a Chinese tile game that's
over 100 years old
it's fast paced very competitive and
sometimes involves money the goal is to
create matching sets of tiles and
because there are 144 tiles there are
many many variations on the rules
there's even an American version but
today we'll teach you a basic version
called competition mahjong which is used
in tournaments all around the world
[Music]
here's what you'll need four chairs a
table for people and a mahjong set at
first glance the tiles might look
daunting but once you see them as suits
becomes much simpler there are three
suits bamboo dots and characters each
suit contains four sets of tiles number
1 2 9 then there are 16 wins tiles and
12 dragon times there are also eight
bonus tiles for flowers and for seasons
if you're playing with points or money
drawing them needs more points or more
money throughout the game people will
keep throwing out and picking up tiles
to create sets there are three types of
sets you can make Poong is a set of
three identical tiles Tong is a set of
four identical tiles sure is a sequence
of three tiles of the same suit your
goal is to create four sets of three and
a pair all right that's all you need to
know for now let's play
[Music]
first each player rolls the dice
the person who rolls the biggest number
becomes the dealer shuffle the tiles and
create four walls
this becomes the deck from where
everyone draws tiles each player gets 13
tiles but the dealer gets 14 and starts
the game by throwing one then the next
player on the dealer's right takes one
from the draw pile and has to pick one
out to throw out you could keep playing
the game this way but it will get pretty
boring until you hear this so so what do
these mean remember those sets we were
talking about earlier you can make those
sets by stealing tiles from the table
say you have two of these planets and
you notice another player throwing out
the exact same one you can take it and
shout the punk and reveal the triple
keep them though because you'll need
them later to win but you can only pong
as soon as someone throws out the tile
and you have to shout by the way so
don't so now let's say you have these
two titles and you want to make a
sequence you can only steal that tile
that completes it if the player on your
left throws it out soon
that's called a should set the triple
aside and then throw out a tile and what
if you're lucky enough to have three of
the exact same tiles if someone throws
out the fourth one you can make a
complete set you home
put that aside because it's for bonus
points later you can then take one tile
but let's say two people shout pong and
should at the same time who gets it it
goes to the pump
but how do you win you need to have four
sets of three including the triples
you've revealed and a pair of identical
tires which means there are two ways to
win
you can either steal the last tile you
need from someone who throws it out or
draw it from the deck
that's called it simple here are some
possible winning combinations if you get
really into it you'll learn that some
combination gives you more points than
others because they're harder to make
and now you know why gaze a macho thing
that's so low
here's a bit of history about the game
the actual origins of modular are
unclear a popular legend says that
Confucius invented the game inspired by
his love of birds but actual records of
mahjong only date back about 150 years
to the 1870s before mahjong there were
similar card games like yet survive
which dates back to the Tang Dynasty it
was played with 32 cards made of ivory
or wood as time passed the number of
cards increased and the game became more
complicated by the late 1800s the cards
were replaced with tiles one popular
story attributes the reason to a sailor
who had his cards blown away while
playing the game on a ship regardless of
how mahjong actually came to be the new
game became a craze in China and is
still considered the national pastime
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