🀄 MoneyBall Mahjong

🎯 The Goal

Be the first player to form a complete winning hand of 14 tiles: exactly 4 melds + 1 pair. You win either by drawing the winning tile yourself (Tsumo) or by claiming another player's discard (Ron).

🗺️ Board Layout

🀄 The 136 Tiles

There are three suited suits and two honor groups. Every tile exists in 4 identical copies.

• Man 萬 (Characters) — numbered 1 through 9, shown as 1M–9M. 36 tiles total.
• Pin 筒 (Circles) — numbered 1 through 9, shown as 1P–9P. 36 tiles total.
• Sou 索 (Bamboo) — numbered 1 through 9, shown as 1S–9S. 36 tiles total.
• Winds — East (E), South (S), West (W), North (N). 16 tiles total. Cannot form sequences — only triplets.
• Dragons — Chun 中 (Red), Hatsu 發 (Green), Haku 白 (White). 12 tiles total. Cannot form sequences — only triplets.

Winds and Dragons are called honor tiles. They can only form Pong melds, never Chows.

🏗️ Building Your Hand — Melds

A winning hand needs exactly 4 melds. There are two types:

• Pong (triplet) — Three identical tiles.
  Example: 7M 7M 7M  |  East East East  |  中 中 中
• Chow (sequence) — Three consecutive tiles of the same suit (suited tiles only).
  Example: 3M 4M 5M  |  7P 8P 9P  |  1S 2S 3S

Plus one Pair — two identical tiles. The pair is not a meld; it is the "head" of your winning hand.

Example complete hand: [2M 3M 4M] [6M 7M 8M] [1P 1P 1P] [E E E] + [9S 9S] ← pair

🔄 How a Turn Works

1. Draw — Take the top tile from the wall. Your hand is now 14 tiles.
2. Check win — If your 14 tiles form 4 melds + 1 pair, you can declare Tsumo (self-draw win) immediately.
3. Discard — If you can't (or don't want to) win, tap a tile to select it, then tap "Discard Selected" to throw it away. Your hand returns to 13 tiles.
4. Claims — Other players may now claim your discard (see below). If no one claims it, play passes left.

🎲 Claiming a Discard

When someone discards a tile, other players can claim it before the next draw happens. Claims are offered in this priority order:

• Ron (Win) — Highest priority. Any player can claim a discard to complete their winning hand. They declare victory immediately.
• Pong — Any player can claim a discard to complete a triplet. They must already hold 2 matching tiles. After claiming, they must discard one tile.
• Chow — Only the player directly to the discarder's left can Chow. They must hold 2 tiles that form a sequence with the discarded tile. After claiming, they must discard one tile.

If you don't want to claim, tap Pass. You can always skip a claim — sometimes it's smarter not to reveal your hand structure to opponents.

📐 Valid Sequence Examples (Chow)

If you hold these tiles in hand and the discard is shown in gold:

• Hand: 1M 2M  + discard 3M → Chow: 1M 2M 3M ✓
• Hand: 2M 4M  + discard 3M → Chow: 2M 3M 4M ✓
• Hand: 4M 5M  + discard 3M → Chow: 3M 4M 5M ✓
• Hand: 1M 3M  + discard 5M → ✗ Not consecutive
• Hand: 1M 2P  + discard 3M → ✗ Different suits

🏁 End Conditions

• Win — A player completes 4 melds + 1 pair by drawing (Tsumo) or claiming a discard (Ron).
• Draw game — The wall runs out of tiles before anyone wins. No points change hands; start a new round.

💡 Beginner Strategy

• Keep middle tiles (4–6) — They can complete sequences on both sides, giving you more flexibility than edge tiles.
• Prioritize pairs early — Two matching tiles can become either a Pong (collect one more) or your winning pair. Never discard your only pair without a reason.
• Discard isolated honor tiles first — Winds and Dragons can only form Pongs, not sequences. If you don't have 2+ of the same honor tile, discard it early.
• Focus on one or two suits — Spreading across all three suited suits makes it hard to complete sequences. Pick a dominant suit and build around it.
• Watch the discards — If an opponent is not discarding a certain suit, they may be collecting it. Stop feeding them tiles they need.
• Count melds, not tiles — Think in groups of 3. Count how many complete melds you have and how many partial melds (pairs or two-tile sequences) remain to complete.

⚡ Intermediate Tips

• The 3-2 principle — When building toward a win, aim for 3 complete melds + 2 partial melds + 1 pair. That's 7 blocks for 4 melds + 1 pair.
• Danger tiles — Tiles that have been discarded several times are "safer" to discard yourself (opponents are less likely to need them). Tiles never discarded are dangerous.
• Skip Chow, take Pong — A Pong gives you a locked meld from any opponent. A Chow only works from the left player and reveals your hand structure. Pong is often more valuable.
• Don't Pong honor tiles blindly — Claiming a Pong forces you to discard another tile. Make sure your hand can still win after the discard.
• Tenpai awareness — "Tenpai" means your hand needs exactly 1 more tile to win. When you're in tenpai, every discard is a potential Ron. Be cautious about what you discard.
• Closed hand advantage — A hand with no claimed melds (closed) gives you more discard flexibility and keeps opponents guessing about what you need.

🔢 Tile Counts & Probability

• There are 4 copies of every tile. If you hold 2 of a tile, only 2 more exist in the entire game.
• You start with 13 tiles; 3 opponents start with 13 each = 52 tiles dealt. The wall starts with 84 tiles.
• The fewer tiles remain in the wall, the lower the chance of drawing what you need — consider changing strategy late in the game.
• If you need one of 4 tiles to win (e.g., any 5M), your odds are better than needing one specific tile of which 3 are already visible in discards.