Trainer 3 · Calling

Call it, or let it go?

These free drills put a fresh discard in front of you, ten situations at a time, and ask for the decision every mahjong player makes a dozen times a game.

The calling rules behind the drills

Only the most recent discard can be called. The moment the next tile is drawn and racked, every earlier discard is dead.

A call builds a group of identical tiles: a pung of three, a kong of four, a quint of five, or a sextet of six, in a hand that may be exposed. The called tile sits on top of your rack and the completed group is shown face up, where it stays for the rest of the hand.

A discard may never be called for a single or a pair on its own, and never for a run of different tiles, such as a year grouping or the four winds read as NEWS. Those groupings are built from singles, and there is no chow in the American game.

One exception overrides everything: the final tile of your hand may be called to complete anything the line needs, including a single or a pair, whether your hand is exposed or concealed. That call is Mah Jongg.

Concealed hands stay dark. On a line marked C on the card, no group may be called or shown during play. Calling anyway ends that hand's concealed plan.

A discarded joker is dead at once and can never be claimed by anyone, for any reason.

A call takes the turn. After you expose and discard, play resumes to your right, and the players seated between the discarder and you lose that turn. Calling is powerful, and it is never free.