A Mahjong Solitaire set has 144 tiles: three suits (dots, bamboo and characters) numbered 1 to 9, four winds, three dragons, four flowers and four seasons. Every suit, wind and dragon tile comes four times and matches only an identical tile. The flowers and seasons come once each, but any flower matches any flower and any season matches any season.
So although there are 42 different pictures, the board really holds 36 kinds of four tiles, and you clear each kind in two pairs. Below is every tile as it looks in Poozee's Mahjong Solitaire, what the Chinese characters on them say, and what we measured about each kind of tile in 10,000 real deals. For the rules of play (which tiles are free, how the Turtle layout works), see how to play Mahjong Solitaire.
The 144 tiles at a glance
| Group | Tiles | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Dots | 1 to 9 (four of each) | 36 |
| Bamboo | 1 to 9 (four of each) | 36 |
| Characters | 1 to 9 (four of each) | 36 |
| Winds | East, South, West, North (four of each) | 16 |
| Dragons | Red, Green, White (four of each) | 12 |
| Flowers | Plum, Orchid, Chrysanthemum, Bamboo (one of each) | 4 |
| Seasons | Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter (one of each) | 4 |
| Total | 42 different tiles | 144 |
The suits make up three quarters of the set (108 tiles). The winds and dragons together are called honors (28 tiles). The flowers and seasons make up the last 8 tiles.
The names below are the ones Poozee's game uses. Other sets and apps use other names for the same tiles, and we list the common ones as we go.
The three suits
Each suit runs from 1 to 9, with four copies of every number. A tile matches only the same number in the same suit: a 5 of dots matches a 5 of dots, never a 5 of bamboo.
Dots
Count the circles. The One is a single large circle, ringed in green and blue around a red center, so it looks quite different from the rest. Dots are also called circles (Unicode's Mahjong Tiles chart names them "circles", with the alias "bing") or balls.
Bamboo
Count the sticks. They come in green, blue and red, but color never matters for matching: only the number does. The suit is also called bams or sticks, and Unicode gives it the alias "tiao".
The One is the odd one out. On Poozee it is a single tall stalk with a green and a red leaf. In many physical sets it is a bird instead: Tom Sloper's Mah-Jongg Basics page says the One Bam "is usually a sparrow or peacock" and that some American players call it the "One Bird". Whatever it shows, it is still the 1 of bamboo and matches only another 1 of bamboo.
Characters
Each character tile has two Chinese characters: the number on top in black, and the same red character underneath on every tile. On Poozee, the number is also printed small in the top left corner, so you never need to read the Chinese. The suit is also called craks, and Unicode gives it the alias "wan". Sloper's page gives "Ten Thousand" as another of its names, which is what the red character means (see below).
Winds and dragons
The winds are East, South, West and North. Each shows one large Chinese character, and Poozee adds the blue letter E, S, W or N in the corner. A wind matches only the same wind.
The dragons are Red, Green and White. Poozee draws the Red dragon as a red character and the Green dragon as a green character. The White dragon has no character at all: on Poozee it is a blue double frame on a plain face. Sloper notes that American players often call it "soap", because the tile usually looks like a bar of soap. A dragon matches only the same dragon, so a Red never matches a Green.
Flowers and seasons
The flowers are Plum, Orchid, Chrysanthemum and Bamboo. Poozee draws each as a five-petal flower on a stem, in a different color: red for plum, purple for orchid, gold for chrysanthemum and green for bamboo. The bamboo flower is a different tile from the bamboo suit: it matches only flowers.
The seasons are Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. Poozee draws each inside a dashed gold ring: a green sprout, a gold sun, a red leaf and a blue snowflake.
There is only one of each, so they follow their own rule: any flower matches any other flower, and any season matches any other season, but a flower never matches a season. Many physical sets also print a number on each flower and season, and Sloper notes that the numbers matter in some forms of mahjong. In Mahjong Solitaire they don't.
What the Chinese characters mean
These meanings are the definitions in the Unihan database, the Unicode Consortium's database of Chinese characters. Unicode's tile chart also gives the dragons the aliases "hongzhong" (red), "qingfa" (green) and "baiban" (white).
| Tile | Character | Meaning (Unihan) |
|---|---|---|
| Characters suit (bottom, red) | 萬 | ten thousand; innumerable |
| Characters suit (top) | 一 二 三 四 五 六 七 八 九 | one to nine, in order |
| East wind | 東 | east, eastern, eastward |
| South wind | 南 | south; southern part; southward |
| West wind | 西 | west(ern); westward; occident |
| North wind | 北 | north; northern; northward |
| Red dragon | 中 | central; center, middle |
| Green dragon | 發 | issue, dispatch, send out, emit |
So the 3 of characters says "three" over "ten thousand". You never need any of this to play, because the tiles only have to match, but it makes the winds and the character suit much quicker to tell apart once you know the four wind characters.
How each kind of tile turns up in a real deal
Do the flowers and seasons, the tiles that match more than one picture, behave differently in play? We dealt 10,000 games with Poozee's own deal code (seeded, so anyone can rerun it) and looked at every kind of tile at the start of each deal.
| Group | Tiles in the set | Free at the start, on average | Chance a kind has a pair free at the start |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dots | 36 | 8.70 | 29.7% |
| Bamboo | 36 | 8.76 | 30.1% |
| Characters | 36 | 8.77 | 30.2% |
| Winds | 16 | 3.90 | 30.1% |
| Dragons | 12 | 2.94 | 30.0% |
| Flowers | 4 | 0.98 | 30.4% |
| Seasons | 4 | 0.96 | 29.8% |
Every deal starts with 35 of the 144 tiles free, and the average deal offers 11.43 matches right away. Each group gets its fair share of the free tiles: about a quarter of its tiles. And a flower pair is open at the start about 3 deals in 10, the same as a pair of Red dragons or a pair of any one number.
Then we had a computer play all 10,000 deals by taking a random free pair each turn, with no undo or shuffle. It cleared 3,999 and lost 6,001. For the games it lost, we looked for a move that sealed it: a pair that left the last two tiles of its kind one on top of the other, so they could never be matched. That happened in 1,331 of the lost games, and we recorded which kind of tile it was. We also counted how often a kind starts with one of its tiles buried under another of its own kind, directly or with other tiles in between.
| Group | Starts with a tile buried under its twin | Lost games stranded on it (per kind, of 10,000) |
|---|---|---|
| Dots | 3.7% | 37.2 |
| Bamboo | 3.6% | 35.0 |
| Characters | 3.8% | 37.2 |
| Winds | 3.8% | 36.3 |
| Dragons | 3.8% | 41.7 |
| Flowers | 3.6% | 39.0 |
| Seasons | 3.6% | 37.0 |
The rows are the same within the noise of the sample. That is not luck. Under the matching rule, the four flowers are simply four tiles that all match each other, which is exactly what four copies of the 7 of dots are. To the game there is no difference, and Poozee's deals treat every kind the same way.
What this means when you play:
- Flowers and seasons are not wild cards. Don't save them for later in the hope they'll rescue you. They match only their own group of four, like any other kind.
- Track all four of them. Once two flowers are gone, the last two must be matched with each other, and if one lies on the other, the game is lost, just as with any other kind. Because the four flowers look different, this is easy to miss.
- Expect a buried twin. In 75.4% of deals at least one kind starts with one of its tiles under another of the same kind (1.34 kinds per deal on average, and as many as 7 in one deal). You usually can't see the buried one at the start, so when a pair would leave the last two of a kind, find both of them first.
The second point is the first rule in our Mahjong Solitaire strategy guide, and it applies to the flowers and seasons just as much as to the suits.
Pro tip: If two tiles look alike but you're not sure they match, tap one: Poozee highlights it, and tapping a tile that doesn't match just switches your selection. Turning on Show free tiles also dims every tile you can't take yet, which makes flower and season pairs much easier to spot.
Keep playing
Put names to the tiles in Mahjong Solitaire, then sharpen your pair choices with the Mahjong Solitaire strategy guide. If you like clearing a layout in pairs, Pyramid Solitaire does the same with cards, and how to play Pyramid Solitaire explains its rules.
Frequently asked questions
How many tiles are in Mahjong Solitaire?
144. There are 108 suit tiles (dots, bamboo and characters, 1 to 9, four of each), 16 winds, 12 dragons, 4 flowers and 4 seasons.
Do flowers match in Mahjong Solitaire?
Yes. Any flower matches any other flower, even though all four look different, and any season matches any other season. A flower never matches a season.
Are flowers and seasons wild cards?
No. A flower only matches the other three flowers, so the four flowers behave exactly like four copies of one ordinary tile. In 10,000 Poozee deals they were stranded no more and no less often than any other kind.
Why is the 1 of bamboo a bird?
In many physical sets the One of bamboo is drawn as a bird, usually a sparrow or a peacock, and some American players call it the One Bird. It still matches only another One of bamboo. On Poozee it is drawn as a single bamboo stalk with two leaves.