How to Keep Track of the Tiles in American Mahjong

You need one more 5 Bam to finish your hand. You remember one going by in the discards, and maybe another after that. Was it two? Was it three?

Some players keep this count in their heads, and mah-jongg columnist Tom Sloper calls counting tiles a skill. If your head has enough to do already, a sheet of paper can hold the count for you.

What there is to count

An American mahjong set has 152 tiles, and the numbers never change:

• Four of every suit tile. That is 1 to 9 in Bams, Craks and Dots.
• Four of every Wind and every Dragon.
• 8 Flowers and 8 Jokers.

Because the count is fixed, what you have seen tells you what is left. Once three 5 Bams have gone by, only one remains.

New to the tiles? American Mahjong Tiles Explained shows how many of each there are.

How the Tile Tracker works

The RYKZO Tile Tracker is a free one-page sheet with a box for each of the 152 tiles. Each suit has four rows, with its Dragon at the end of the row. Winds, Flowers and Jokers have their own boxes below.

Cross off each tile the first time you see it: in your hand, in an exposure or in the discards. Every open box is a tile you haven't seen yet. It may be in the wall or on another player's rack.

Three things to watch when you cross off

• The Charleston. Tiles change hands here, and you can't tell whether a tile you see later is one you passed. We suggest you start after the last pass, with the hand you keep.
• Tiles that move. Your own discard was crossed off when it was in your hand. A called discard moves from the table to an exposure. Either way, it is one tile and one box.
• Jokers in an exposure. Cross off a Joker box, and leave the tile it stands for open. If someone later trades that real tile for the Joker, the tile is on the table and you can cross it off then.

What the count tells you

You need a pair and three are gone. Say you need a pair of Red Dragons and have none on your rack. If three boxes are crossed off, only one Red Dragon is left, and a Joker can never be part of a pair. Time to choose another hand.

You need a pung or a kong. Groups of three or more can use Jokers, so three crossed-off boxes do not rule that group out. Check the Joker boxes before you give up.

You are counting on Jokers. A discarded Joker is gone for good, because nobody can call it. A Joker in an exposure can still come your way if you hold the tile it stands for. Each open Joker box is one nobody has shown yet.

You need Flowers. There are 8 of them, so a pair of Flowers stays possible until 7 are crossed off.

A tile never shows up. An open box does not promise that the tile is coming. If no 5 Bams have appeared late in the game, another player may be holding them.

Using it at the table

The National Mah Jongg League's rulebook and bulletins say nothing about writing during a game, so this is one to settle with your table. Ask before the first game. In a tournament, ask the director first.

A few habits keep it friendly:

• Keep the game moving. Cross off tiles during other players' turns, and do your thinking then too.
• Keep the sheet to yourself. Don't talk about what it tells you about another player's hand.

Even a few games with the sheet will teach you to watch the discards, because you have to look at each one to cross it off.

Get the free Tile Tracker. It comes by email, as a PDF to print on US Letter paper.

Prefer to use your phone or computer? Open the free Online Tile Tracker and mark each tile the first time you see it. No email needed.

If you want to practice this kind of thinking, our Strategy Workbook has 100 decisions from the middle of a game, and each answer counts the tiles to prove it. It is based on the League's 2026 card, and the book comes with a Tile Tracker too.

Have a question about these rules? Write to us. We read every message, and your question may become a future post.

Sources

We explain the rules in our own words, and everything in this post was checked against the official sources of the National Mah Jongg League:

• Mah Jongg Made Easy (2024 edition): pages 5 to 7 (the 152 tiles), and pages 23 and 24 (trading for a Joker, and a Joker is never part of a pair).
• NMJL bulletin, 2025 questions and answers: question 10 (a Joker is never used for a single or a pair).
• NMJL bulletin, 2026 questions and answers: question 8 (a discarded Joker can never be called).

We found nothing in these sources about writing during a game. The Tile Tracker and the tips on how to use it are our own advice, not rules. The advice on counting tiles and on what a missing tile can mean comes from Tom Sloper's mah-jongg columns at sloperama.com.