What is Siamese Mahjong, and how do two people play it?
Siamese is a two player version of American Mahjong in which each of you plays two hands at once, on two racks. There is no Charleston, East takes 28 tiles and the other player 27, and the first Mahjong does not end the game: play goes on until someone completes a second hand or the wall runs out.
Answered by Prim. Last reviewed 2026-11-04.
Two players, four hands
The ordinary two handed game leaves two seats empty and two short hands facing each other. Siamese fills the table instead. Each player sits behind two racks and builds two hands from the current card, so four hands are in play and only two people are playing them.
The deal reflects it. East takes 28 tiles, enough for two hands of fourteen, and the other player takes 27. There is no Charleston, since there is nobody to pass to who is not also your opponent. East discards to begin, and from then on the turns simply alternate.
Tiles move between your racks
This is the part that makes Siamese worth learning. A tile hidden on your racks belongs to you, not to one rack or the other, and you may move concealed tiles between your two hands as freely as you like. A tile that looked useless on the left may be exactly what the right hand wants.
An exposure is different. Once you call a discard and lay a set face up, that set stays on the rack where you put it, for the rest of the game. Decide which hand it belongs to before you commit it. Calling, exposing and Joker exchanges otherwise follow the usual rules, and the card is the only authority on what a hand may hold.
The first Mahjong does not end the game
When you complete one hand, you declare it and lay it out as usual. Then you keep going. You discard from your other hand, and play continues until a second Mahjong is declared by either player, or until the wall runs out.
A hand that has been declared is finished. Its tiles stay as they are, and no Joker in it may be taken by an exchange, by you or by your opponent. Every Joker you want from it, take before you declare.
Why it is such good practice
Siamese asks you to read the card twice over on every turn. You learn to see two lines at once, to judge which hand a tile serves better, and to let one hand feed the other. Those are the very habits that win at a full table of four, where switching hands and spotting a second line is half the game.
It also suits the evenings when only two of you are free. Agree on the details first, because tables differ on scoring and on small points of procedure, and then enjoy a game that is every bit as serious as the full one.
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