r/Mahjong • u/Curious_DaisyFlower • 11d ago

Building Walls

In American Mahjong is there a rule that you put down the bottom of the wall first, then the top?
I played with someone who was new and she previously took a lesson somewhere. she told me that she was taught you must lay the first 19 bottom tiles then do the top, as in it's a strict rule. Is this true? My friends and I always quickly built the walls 2 at a time.

0 Upvotes

33% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

10

u/edderiofer multi-classing every variant 11d ago

The official rulebook, Mah Jongg Made Easy, says the following:

All tiles are placed face down in the center of the table and thoroughly mixed. The one hundred fifty-two tiles are evenly divided into four walls comprised of nineteen double-tiered tiles in front of each rack. The wall of tiles is pushed forward with the aid of the rack to enable each player, starting with East, to reach for the tiles.

So there is no restriction on what order the wall should be built in, other than the obvious restriction that without levitation powers, you cannot build the top of the wall before the bottom.

4

u/LewnyTewn 11d ago

No rule on HOW except 2 high by 19 wide.

2

u/wxursa 11d ago

While we're not playing American mahjong, I saw someone build the wall one level at a time (18 tiles) last week. I think it's slow, but if it works for someone it works for someone.

1

u/6a70 HKOS 6d ago

I don’t play American so I’m not sure if the rules are different from HKOS, but i don’t think you can build the top THEN the bottom

1

u/Curious_DaisyFlower 5d ago

😅 no. But you can do 2 at a time top and bottom, top and bottom.