Setup and Dealing
How the walls, break, and starting hand are built.
Before a round, all tiles are shuffled face down. Then each player builds their own wall.
In view
See also Table and wall illustrated for the table layout, break, dealing, and flower replacement in 1 visual route.
Setup
36 tiles.18 stacks of 2 tiles.4 walls together form the playing field in the middle.Determining the break
3 dice in 1 roll.This break determines where drawing starts and which part of the wall is used as the flower or kong wall.
Practical at the table
After the roll, place the dice in East's right-hand corner. During play that is also a quick visual indication of who is East or jongh.
Traditional playing style
The traditional source uses 2 dice and 2 rolls. East makes the 1st roll. That result determines who makes the 2nd roll. The total of both rolls then determines the wall and the break. This page deliberately follows the modern playing style with 3 dice and 1 roll by East.
Dealing
From the break, the players take tiles in a fixed order:
4 tiles.2 more times in the same order.3 rounds, each player has 12 tiles.2 tiles: the 1st and 3rd top tiles from the remaining part of the wall.1 tile.After dealing, East has 14 tiles and the other players 13.
Traditional playing style
In the traditional playing style, dealing works differently:
3 times 4 tiles.1 more tile.1 extra tile.Replacing flowers
If there are flowers in the starting hand during the deal, then:
1st discard, you take 1 replacement tile from the flower or kong wall for each flowerA flower drawn later in the game is also replaced immediately in the same way.
Effect at the table
A player who does not replace a flower and therefore ends up with too few or too many tiles can no longer form a valid winning hand. That hand is then dead.
Quick check
- East starts with
14tiles. - Every other player starts with
13tiles. - Flowers in the starting hand are replaced before the
1stdiscard.
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