What a joker can and cannot do
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Mahj School › Your First Game · Lesson 9 of 10 · 25 seconds
Buying a set? Count the jokers first →
Jokers are the tiles you look at most. A set with jokers worth looking at is a set you keep out on the table.
See the fairy Joker set — $299.99The joker is the most useful tile in American mahjong and the only one that can be taken off you mid-game. Both halves of that sentence matter.
Full transcript
A joker can be any tile you like, inside a group of three or more. Never a pair. Never a single.
And it is not safe once it is showing: on your turn, if you hold the real tile a joker is standing in for, you may swap yours in and take the joker — from anyone's rack, including your own.
Three or more, and never a pair
The line is simple and it catches everybody once. A joker works inside any group of three identical tiles or more — three, four, five, six of the same thing. It does not work in a pair, and it does not work as a single tile in a hand that calls for one. If a line on the card needs two of something, you need two real ones.
The redemption rule is the part new players do not see coming. Once a joker is sitting face up in somebody's exposure, it is redeemable. On your turn, if you hold the natural tile it is standing in for, you put yours into their group and take the joker into your hand. It works on your own exposures too.
That is the real cost of exposing a group with a joker in it. You have not just shown three tiles — you have put a joker on the table where anyone with the matching tile can come and collect it.
- Yes: any group of three or more identical tiles.
- No: a pair. No: a single.
- Never passed in the Charleston.
- Redeemable once exposed — by any player, on their turn.
- That includes your own exposure. Show one and it is fair game.
Mahj School is a free video series from ALOXO. The tiles and tables in this video are illustrations drawn for teaching, not photographs of a particular set.