How Many Jokers Are in American Mahjong?
Eight. And here is why your set might have come with a different number.
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Eight. Not ten, not twelve, and not however many were loose in the bag your aunt handed you.
The confusion is real and it has a cause. Chinese sets don't contain jokers at all, so manufacturers selling into both markets improvise. Some sets ship with four. Some ship with ten and expect you to set two aside. Some arrive with blank tiles and a sheet of stickers. The American game is played with eight, and that's what your table will use.
Where the eight sit in the set
| Group | Count |
|---|---|
| Craks, bams and dots — 1 to 9, four of each | 108 |
| Winds — east, south, west, north | 16 |
| Dragons — red, green, white | 12 |
| Flowers | 8 |
| Jokers | 8 |
| Total | 152 |
That total is the fastest way to check a set. A Chinese set has 144 tiles. Add eight jokers and you have an American one. If someone tells you the game uses 144 tiles, they're describing a different game.
Why not more?
Because the game would stop being interesting. A joker stands in for any tile inside a group of three or more, so every extra joker makes the card easier and the wins cheaper. Eight is the number the National Mah Jongg League settled on, and hands are valued on the assumption that you have eight to fight over.
There's even a bonus for going without: finish a hand with no jokers in it and the payout doubles again.
My set came with the wrong number. Now what?
If you have too few
You need eight to play properly, so you'll want replacements. Tiles vary in size between manufacturers — 32mm, 36mm, 40mm and up — so measure yours before ordering anything. A joker that's two millimetres off looks obvious from across the table and feels worse in your hand.
Two routes: buy loose replacement tiles matched to your set's size, or buy joker stickers and apply them to spare blank tiles. Most American sets ship with a few blanks precisely because tiles get lost.
If you have too many
Put the extras in the box. Don't play with ten because they came in the bag.
Count the whole set first, not just the jokers. Sets that arrive short on jokers are often short elsewhere too, and it's a much cheaper conversation with the seller in the first week than in the third month.
Related things people ask in the same breath
When you have read it all: the rules workbook, 105 questions with an answer key that cites the rule behind every answer, $19.
Where this comes from
The tile inventory follows the American Mah-Jongg Association's published rulebook and is cross-checked against the National Mah Jongg League's own description of the game, which notes that the American set uses more tiles than the Chinese one, the joker being the difference.