Two things have to happen before a single tile gets dealt: who deals, and exactly where the wall breaks. Both come down to dice rolls and counting — but the actual procedure genuinely differs between Chinese and American mahjong, not just in tile count. Get either one wrong and the whole hand starts from the wrong tile. This guide covers both rulesets step by step, verified directly against primary tournament rulebooks (sources at the bottom).
If you'd rather not count stacks by hand every time, Mahjong Dealer does this exact procedure for you — two real dice rolls, the correct rules for whichever variant you're playing, and a lit tile showing exactly where to start. More on that at the end.
The very first dealer of a session is picked by an initial roll and count around the table; after that, who deals next depends entirely on how the previous hand ended:
This part is identical in Chinese and American mahjong. What differs — significantly — is what happens next.
This is where the two rulesets actually diverge. Toggle between them below — this isn't a minor regional variation, it's a different number of dice rolls and, in Chinese mahjong, a different wall entirely.
Under official Chinese Competition Rules, the wall break can land on any of the four walls — not necessarily the dealer's own. It takes two separate rolls:
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 entirely by always breaking the dealer's own wall, which is actually the American convention, not the Chinese one.
Under National Mah Jongg League and American Mah Jongg Association tournament rules, the wall break is simpler and always predictable:
This is the version most people picture when they think of "rolling to see where to break the wall" — one roll, dealer's own wall, done. It's correct for American mahjong specifically; applying it to a Chinese-rules game will get the wrong wall roughly three times out of four.
Once the break point is set, dealing itself is identical in both rulesets:
Some American mahjong groups — mostly Southern-style house games — play with an additional set of tiles called Blanks. This isn't a toggle here because it isn't really a separate ruleset: it's an optional add-on to standard American play, not an NMJL tournament rule. Blanks add 8 tiles to the set (152 becomes 160, 19 stacks per wall becomes 20) and are used to secretly recover a discarded "dead" tile — not as a wild card or joker substitute. If your group doesn't specifically play with Blanks, ignore this section entirely; the American rules above are unaffected either way.
Beyond the wall-break mechanics above, the two rulesets differ in tile count (136 vs 152, or 160 with Blanks), tile composition (American adds Flowers and Jokers), and scoring — American play works from a published card of hands, while Chinese/MCR scoring is pattern-based. For the full picture on each, see the dedicated guides:
Only in American mahjong. In Chinese MCR/Competition rules, a second roll can send the break to any of the four walls, including a different seat's entirely.
One roll for American tournament rules. Two rolls (added together) for Chinese MCR — the dealer's roll to pick which seat, then that seat's own roll, summed.
Yes, in both rulesets — East retains the deal after winning, and after a wall game with no winner. Only a win by another player passes the deal on.
14, always — one more than everyone else's 13, given out on the final round of dealing.
Chinese: 136 tiles, 34 per wall. American (NMJL): 152 tiles, 38 per wall. American with Blanks: 160 tiles, 40 per wall.
Verified directly against primary sources: Chinese Mahjong Competition Rules (MCR) via mahjongpros.com's summary of the official rule text, and American tournament rules via the American Mah Jongg Association's own rulebook. Not legal or tournament-official documentation — for that, consult the MCR or NMJL rulebooks directly.
Mahjong Dealer runs this exact procedure for you — two real, independent dice rolls, the correct rules for Chinese or American play, and a lit tile showing exactly where to deal from. No more arguing at the table about whose wall it actually is.
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