genius mah-jong

A game invented in China and played using 144 rectangular bamboo, bone or plastic tiles. The 144 tiles are divided as follows: wanzi (万子), suozi (索子) (also known as tiao 条) and tongzi (筒子) (also known as bing 饼). There are 36 tiles in each set: 16 wind tiles (north, south, east and west winds, 4 in each set); 12 tiles called hongzhong (红中), facai (发财), and baiban (白板) (also 4 in each set); four flower tiles for spring, summer, autumn and winter; and four wild tiles (百搭牌). The game is usually played by 4 people, each with 13 tiles. The aim is to create four sets of tiles, each containing three matching tiles or three in sequence. The remaining single tile must match one from the central pool of tiles in order to win.