JILI7 Filipino Mahjong: Tiles, Flowers and How a Hand Is Won
Filipino mahjong is a fast-moving variant played with the standard 144-tile set.
Key facts and contents
- JILI7 Drop Ball Perya
- Drop ball perya is a fair game where balls fall onto marked zones and players bet on where they will land.
- JILI7 KingMidas
- KingMidas Games is a casino game studio whose card fills most of the JILI7 MGA KARD (cards) lane: the lobby's KingMidas card prints 49 titles.
Filipino mahjong takes the world’s best-known tile game and makes it faster. It plays on the same 144 tiles as other styles, but it uses no jokers and treats far more of the honour tiles as bonus “flowers”. Here are the tiles, the way a hand is won and the Filipino twist, as part of the perya meaning pillar on Filipino games.
The 144 tiles
Pagat.com, the card and tile game reference, sets out the traditional set:
| Tiles | Copies | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Three suits (circles, bamboos, characters), numbered 1 to 9 | 4 of each | 108 |
| Winds: east, south, west, north | 4 of each | 16 |
| Dragons: red, green, white | 4 of each | 12 |
| Flowers and seasons | 1 of each | 8 |
| Total | 144 |
How a hand is won
In the traditional game, as pagat.com describes it:
- Each player is dealt 13 tiles.
- Players draw and discard in turn.
- The aim is a winning hand of 14 tiles.
- A winning hand is normally four sets of three and a pair.
- A set is three identical tiles, or three tiles of one suit in sequence.
Special hands and bonuses vary by version, such as winning with a single suit or with only winds and dragons.
The Filipino twist: everything honours is a flower
Wikipedia’s account of the variants describes Filipino mahjong as “a fast-moving variant that uses the standard 144-tile set”. Two differences stand out:
| Feature | Filipino mahjong | Taiwanese mahjong |
|---|---|---|
| Hand size | Standard set and play | Hands of sixteen tiles |
| Jokers | None | Not described |
| Flowers | Dragon, wind, season and flower tiles all count as flowers for bonus points | Bonuses for dealers and repeat dealerships |
Counting the honours as flowers makes bonus points come up far more often, which is part of what makes the game fast.
Mahjong tiles in casino games
Tile art also turns up in slots that have nothing to do with drawing and discarding. PG Soft’s Mahjong Ways 2 slot uses mahjong tiles as symbols on 5x4 reels with 2,000 ways to win. Card games from the same tradition are on the KingMidas studio page, and fair games on drop ball perya.
FAQ
How many tiles are in Filipino mahjong?
The standard set of 144: three suits numbered 1 to 9 with four copies each (108 tiles), 16 wind tiles, 12 dragon tiles and 8 flower and season tiles.
What are flowers in Filipino mahjong?
In the Filipino variant, dragon, wind, season and flower tiles are all grouped as flowers for collecting bonus points, rather than only the eight bonus tiles.
Is Mahjong Ways the same as mahjong?
No. Mahjong Ways 2 is a PG Soft slot that uses mahjong tiles as reel symbols. It has 2,000 ways to win and a published 96.95% RTP; there is no drawing or discarding.