Chinese Mahjong Dealer & Dealing Guide

Chinese mahjong — played under Mahjong Competition Rules (MCR) — uses a two-roll wall-break procedure that can send the break to any of the four walls, not just the dealer's own. Here's exactly how it works.

What the Dealer (East) Does

The dealer holds the East seat for the hand. East deals the tiles, rolls first to determine the wall break, receives 14 tiles instead of the usual 13, and discards first once dealing is complete. Under MCR scoring, East's points are also typically doubled.

Determining East

Common Chinese mahjong procedures pick the first dealer of a session with a preliminary dice roll and count around the table, sometimes as part of a more formal seating-and-lots procedure in competition settings — your group may use its own house method for a casual game, since this only matters once per session. After the first hand, who deals next follows strictly from the previous result:

• East Retains — East stays dealer after winning, or after a drawn wall game.
• Next Dealer — the deal passes counterclockwise to the next seat whenever anyone other than East wins.

Full breakdown: how is the mahjong dealer chosen — identical in American mahjong too.

How Dice Are Used

Chinese MCR rules use two separate rolls to find the wall break, not one:

1. The dealer rolls two dice. Counting counterclockwise starting from the dealer's own seat (the dealer counts as 1), the total selects a seat.
2. That selected seat — whoever it is, possibly the dealer again — rolls two dice as well.

The two totals get added together in the next step. This two-roll structure is the biggest practical difference from American mahjong's single roll.

How the Wall Break Works

Add the dealer's first roll and the selected seat's second roll together — that sum is the number of stacks to count. Starting from the counterclockwise (right-hand) end of the selected seat's own wall (not necessarily the dealer's), count that many stacks toward the wall owner's left. The wall breaks immediately after that stack. Full walk-through with a diagram: how to break the wall in mahjong.

In practice, this means a Chinese-rules hand can start dealing from a wall that has nothing to do with who's dealing that round — a detail a lot of casual house games skip by always breaking the dealer's own wall, which is actually the American convention, not the Chinese one.

The Dealing Sequence

1. Starting at the break tile, deal 4 tiles at a time to each player, going counterclockwise, for 3 rounds. Everyone now has 12 tiles.
2. Deal one more tile to each player — except the dealer, who takes 2 instead of 1. Everyone else now has 13 tiles; the dealer has 14.
3. East discards a tile face-up to start play.

Tile Counts

Configuration	Total Tiles	Stacks per Wall
Chinese (MCR)	136	17
American (for comparison)	152	19

A standard Chinese mahjong set has 136 tiles: 108 suited tiles, 16 wind tiles, and 12 dragon tiles — 34 tiles, or 17 stacks, per wall.

Why Setup Can Be Confusing

The most common mistake is assuming the dealer's own wall always breaks, borrowed from American mahjong or from house games that have quietly simplified the rule over time. Under real MCR rules, the second roll genuinely can — and often does — send the break to a different player's wall entirely, which surprises players used to the simpler American version.

How Mahjong Dealer Handles This

Mahjong Dealer's Chinese mode runs both rolls automatically and lights up the exact break tile on whichever wall was actually selected, with an arrow showing which direction to push it — no mental counting, no arguing about whose wall it is. Switch between Chinese and American mode any time from the menu.

Related Guides

This guide describes common MCR / Competition Rules procedures. Individual clubs and home games sometimes use their own house rules — when in doubt, confirm with your group before play.