Majongg

Majongg is a four-player game that originated from China. Skill, intelligence, calculation and a certain amount of luck are all required at Majongg.

Though rules differ per region, the overall aim of Majongg is to get a higher score than the other players. Generally, to get a higher score, a player must be able to call "Majongg" by building complete sets. The three basic sets are as follows:

• A Pong or Pung - a set of 3 identical tiles (similar to a three of a kind in poker but without the kickers), e.g.

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• A Kong - a set of 4 identical tiles (similar to a four of a kind in poker but without the kicker), e.g.

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• A Chow - a run of 3 tiles in the same suit (similar to a straight in poker but with only three tiles), e.g.

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The closest Western analogue to Majongg is perhaps the card game Gin Rummy. Both Majongg and Gin Rummy involve selecting or discarding tiles or cards to form groups or sets of similar suits.

Majongg (Májiàng) or Máquè is Mandarin for the popular game of Chinese game of Mahjong (麻将). In Cantonese (麻雀), the game is called màhjeung or màhjeuk. In English, the game is spelled as mahjongg, majong, majongg, majiang, mah-jong, mah-jongg or just M-J. The spelling "Mah-Jongg" was trademarked by Joseph Park Babcock in 1920.

The Chinese word ?? literally means "hemp general". While the Cantonese alternate writing, 麻雀, literally means "sparrow". In Japanese, 麻雀 means "hemp sparrow" and is pronounced ma-jan.