The Tiles in Mahjong Solitaire: A Player's Guide to the American Mahjong Set

Mahjong Solitaire is played with the full 144 tiles of a real American Mahjong set — Bams, Craks and Dots numbered one through nine, four Winds, three Dragons, and eight Flowers — not a simplified or match-three deck.

What tiles are in Mahjong Solitaire?

Every board is dealt from the same 144-tile family used in the four-player game: Bams, Craks, and Dots numbered one through nine, four Winds, three Dragons, and eight Flowers. If you've ever seen a Mahjong set on a table and wondered what all the suits meant, Solitaire puts every one of them in front of you, one board at a time.

How tiles match

You clear a board by matching pairs of free tiles — tiles with nothing covering them and at least one open side. Blocked tiles are dimmed, so it's always obvious what you can play. Tap two matching playable tiles to remove them, and clear the whole layout to win.

Most tiles match only their own exact twin. Flowers are the one exception: any Flower matches any other Flower, even when the painting is different. That single rule is worth knowing before your first game, because it's the one pairing that doesn't work like the rest.

Bams, Craks, and Dots

These are the three numbered suits, each running one through nine, and each drawn differently so you can tell them apart at a glance: Bams are shown as bamboo sticks, Craks as Chinese characters over a number, and Dots as circles. Once you know which picture belongs to which suit, spotting a pair gets faster every board.

Winds and Dragons

The set also includes four Winds — one for each compass direction, North, South, East, and West — and three Dragons. Winds and Dragons each match only their own exact twin, the same as the numbered suits, so a North Wind pairs with a North Wind and nothing else.

Flowers — the one tile that's flexible

The eight Flower tiles are the only ones that don't require an exact twin: any Flower pairs with any other Flower regardless of the artwork on it. It's worth repeating here plainly: Flower matches Flower, full stop.

Why this matters beyond Solitaire

Solitaire uses these tiles; American Mah Jongg is the four-player game they were built for. Spending time with Bams, Craks, Dots, Winds, Dragons, and Flowers in a low-pressure solitaire board is a natural way to get comfortable with a set that can look intimidating from the outside. If you'd like to go further and learn the four-player game itself, Mahjong Lexington teaches it from the first hand through tournament play. If you'd like to see how a tile is treated as playable, see the full how-to-play guide at mahjonggsolitaire.app.

Play it yourself

Mahjong Solitaire runs free, full screen, in your browser at mahjonggsolitaire.app — no download or registration required to start. Every deal is checked before it reaches you, so you can focus on learning the tiles instead of fighting a bad shuffle. The free tier includes the first ten levels of the Journey and a new Daily board every day, with every helper (hint, undo, rescue) available from the start.