Updated 10 September 2026 · American Mahjong (NMJL card) · rules per Mah Jongg Master Points, item numbers in brackets
Short version: players sit four to a table with seats A, B, C and D (East, North, West, South). A round is four games, about an hour. After each round everyone moves to a new table by a fixed rule, one player collects the four score cards, and you add the round's points to the standings. Four to six rounds make a day. Highest total wins; ties share.
This is the whole day in the order it happens, for the director who has never done it. Where there is an official rule it is stated with its item number in the Mah Jongg Master Points standardised tournament rules; where the choice is yours, it says so.
Aim for a multiple of four. Sixteen, twenty, twenty-four, up to eighty players all seat cleanly. If the count is not a multiple of four you have two choices, and you should decide before the day, not at the door:
Rounds. Four rounds is a comfortable half-day; six is a full day with lunch. Each round is four games, one deal per player [items 22 and 23]. Budget an hour a round plus ten minutes to change tables.
The room. One table per four players, numbered on a tent card in order along a path people can follow, because the rotation sends them "up one table" and "down two". A wall clock everyone can see. A director's table where score cards come in.
Collect names in advance and print the list. On the day, check people in as they arrive; the seating for round one is drawn from the people actually present, not the people who said they would come. Late arrivals go on the list and join at the next round; decide now whether a missed round scores zero or the round's average, and say so on the sign-up sheet so nobody argues later.
Prizes. A common pattern is prizes for the top three, plus a couple of "specials": highest single round, most Mah Jonggs. Whatever you do, write it down and post it. Under MJMP rules, if there is a tie at any level, prizes are shared equally.
Round one is a draw. Shuffle the checked-in names and deal them to tables four at a time; the first name at each table is seat A (East), then B (North), C (West), D (South). Everything after round one is decided by the rotation, so this is the only draw you make. Print two things:
The seat letter matters more than it looks. Under the standard rotation a player keeps their letter all day and moves by it [item 23]; the guide on table rotation covers the rule and its edge cases.
Announce the start and start the clock. Approximately one hour is allotted for each round; at the director's discretion some tournaments allow 50 to 55 minutes [item 22]. Give a ten-minute warning, a five-minute warning and a one-minute warning. When time is called, a game still in progress is incomplete: every player at that table scores zero for it [item 13.4]. That rule is what keeps the room on schedule; say it at the start so nobody feels singled out.
Each table keeps its own score card, one line per game. Scores are verified in pairs: A checks C's card and C checks A's; B and D check each other's, and each initials the card they checked [item 4]. The scorekeeper does not accept an unverified card. All the scoring rules — bonuses, wall games, the penalties for throwing the winning tile — are in the scoring guide; print it for the tables if your players are new to tournament scoring.
After the fourth game one player collects all four cards and brings them together to the director's table [item 22]. Which player is fixed by round: East collects in round one, North in round two, West in round three, South in round four [item 24], then East again. Announce it with the round. A table whose cards come in one at a time is a table that will have a dispute.
Once a card is accepted, it does not change [item 25]. If there is a dispute, all four players come to the director together. Your ruling is final [item 26] — you are ruling on what the table agreed, not re-playing the hand.
Enter each player's round total from the card and post the running standings — on the wall, on a TV, or on players' phones — before the next round starts. Players want to see two things: their own position, and where they are sitting next. Post both. A blank score is not a zero: if a card is late, show a dash, not a 0, or the standings will mislead everyone until it arrives.
Highest total over all rounds wins. Under the MJMP rules ties share the prize equally; if you would rather separate them, choose the tiebreak before the day and print it: most Mah Jonggs declared, best single round, or head-to-head (points scored in the rounds the tied players shared a table). A tiebreak announced after the tie is a tiebreak somebody will resent.
Read out the top three and the specials, hand over the envelopes, and thank the people who collected the cards. Then export the results: rating bodies want the same list you just read.
Mahjong Director does every step on this list. Paste the roster, check people in, seat round one, and it prints the chart, the slips and the score cards; runs the clock with the three warnings; takes scores by table with blanks shown as blanks; keeps the standings with your chosen tiebreak; and exports the results. Free, offline, nothing to install.
Open the appEight is a real tournament (two tables, and the rotation works). Twelve to twenty-four is the comfortable club size. The standard rules and rotation scale to eighty and beyond.
About five hours door to door: half an hour to check in and seat, four rounds of an hour each, ten minutes between rounds, and a few minutes for prizes. Six rounds with lunch is a full day.
Withdraw them: they keep the points they have scored and are left out of every round seated from then on. Their table may become three-handed, or you may move a sit-out in. Do not delete them; their scores are part of the rounds already played.
No. Certification matters only if you want the event to award Mah Jongg Master Points; the rules themselves are freely published and any club can run by them.
Sources: Mah Jongg Master Points, Official Standardized National Mah Jongg Rules for
Tournaments (May 2017), items 4, 5, 13, 22–26.
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