American mahjong — the NMJL-style game played with a card of hands, Jokers, and Flowers — uses a simpler dealer and wall-break procedure than Chinese mahjong: one roll, on the dealer's own wall, every time. Here's exactly how it works.
The dealer holds the East seat for the hand. East deals the tiles, rolls to find the wall break, receives 14 tiles instead of the usual 13, and discards first once dealing is complete. In most American scoring, East's wins and losses are also worth more (commonly double).
Common American mahjong procedures pick the first dealer of a session with a preliminary dice roll and count around the table — though your group may use house rules here, since this only matters once per session. After that first hand, the dealer for each following hand is fixed by the previous result, not chosen freely:
See the full breakdown on how the mahjong dealer is chosen for more detail — this part works identically in Chinese mahjong too.
Under NMJL and AMJA tournament rules, East rolls two dice exactly once per hand. That's the entire dealer-side dice procedure for American mahjong — there's no second roll and no counting to a different seat, which is where it differs most from Chinese rules.
The wall that breaks is always East's own wall — never a different player's. Starting from the counterclockwise (right-hand) end of East's wall, count the roll's total in stacks toward East's left. The wall breaks immediately after that stack; push it outward and deal from there. Full walk-through with a diagram: how to break the wall in mahjong.
| Configuration | Total Tiles | Stacks per Wall |
|---|---|---|
| Standard American (NMJL) | 152 | 19 |
| American with Blanks | 160 | 20 |
| Chinese (for comparison) | 136 | 17 |
Standard American mahjong uses 152 tiles: the base 136-tile set plus 8 Flower tiles and 8 Jokers.
Some American mahjong groups — mostly Southern-style house games — play with an additional set of tiles called Blanks. This is an optional house rule, not an NMJL tournament rule: it adds 8 tiles to the set (152 becomes 160, 19 stacks per wall becomes 20) and is used to secretly recover a discarded "dead" tile, not as a wild card. Your group may or may not play with Blanks — if you don't, ignore this section; the rest of the guide is unaffected.
New American mahjong players often assume the dealer/wall-break procedure is more elaborate than it is, or borrow the two-roll Chinese method by mistake. It's genuinely simpler under tournament rules: one roll, East's own wall, count and break. The confusion usually comes from mixing rulesets, or from a house game that's quietly always used the dealer's wall as a habit without realizing that's a rule, not a coincidence.
Mahjong Dealer's American mode runs this exact procedure automatically: tap to roll, and it shows the dealer's seat and lights the exact break tile on East's wall, with an arrow showing which direction to push it. Switch to American mode (with or without Blanks) any time from the menu — the app follows that ruleset's real mechanics, not a generic mahjong convention applied to both game types.
This guide describes common NMJL/AMJA tournament procedures. Individual clubs and home games sometimes use their own house rules — when in doubt, confirm with your group before play.
Mahjong Dealer runs the real American procedure for you — one roll, East's own wall, the exact tile lit up. Chinese rules and Blanks are built in too.
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