American Mahjong Tiles: A Complete Guide to the 152-Tile Set

Mahjong Rules & Basics · 3 min read · Updated October 2026

An American mahjong set has 152 tiles (some sets add spare blanks for 160). Here is exactly what is in the box and what each family of tiles does in the game.

The Three Suits (108 Tiles)

Dots (circles), bams (bamboo) and craks (characters) each run 1 through 9, with 4 copies of every tile — 36 tiles per suit. The 1-bam is usually a bird, not a bamboo stick. Suit tiles are the backbone of nearly every hand on the card.

Suits matter because the card’s colors dictate suit patterns. A pung of green 5-dots and a pung of red 5-bams are not interchangeable — learn why in how mahjong hands work.

Winds and Dragons (28 Tiles)

Winds: North, East, South, West — 4 copies each, 16 tiles total. Dragons: red, green and white (called “soap”) — 4 copies each, 12 tiles total. Neither winds nor dragons have a suit, so they combine freely and appear constantly in Winds-Dragons and year hands. In 2026 hands, soap often doubles as the zero.

Flowers (8 Tiles)

Eight flower tiles, usually printed with flowers or seasons, all interchangeable in play. Flowers appear in many hands as pairs, pungs or kongs, and they are never dead weight in the Charleston — someone almost always wants them.

Jokers (8 Tiles)

Jokers are wild cards usable only inside pungs, kongs and quints. They cannot be passed in the Charleston, cannot be called from discards, and cannot fill a pair. They are the most valuable tiles in the set — see how to use jokers for tactics.

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