How to play two-player mahjong: One on One Mahj

Walk and talks with one friend and a cup of coffee are my absolute favorite way to connect. I like group hang outs, but I am best as a one-on-one friend. But what do I do on a rainy day? Meet indoors for mahjong and coffee, of course! This calls for “One on One Mahj” which is my version of two- player mahjong.

Gladys Grad inspired two player mahjong

Gladys Grad has the registered trademark for Siamese Mah Jongg®, which is the first two player mahjong I found. I am giving her credit for teaching me her version on You Tube.

I reached out to Gladys for this post, and she mentioned there was most likely an existing NMJL two- player version before her take on two player mahjong. As far as I am concerned, Gladys deserves all the credit for inspiring my favorite version!

For Siamese Mah Jongg®, Gladys builds two walls to start. The most updated version of her two player mahjong game starts the game with both players selecting 27 tiles. East will pick first, giving her the slight advantage.

Gladys encourages play with any card and even has her own Siamese Mah Jongg® League card.

Gladys Grad allows for calling mahjong on one rack at a time and encourages it because of the scoring she has created. To win the full game, two mahjongs must be completed. This is the original way that I learned to play two-player mahjong and it is trademarked as Siamese Mah Jongg®.

Let's play two player Missy's Way!

I have several Missy Mahjong adaptations to two player mahjong. I will explain them here until maybe I come out with a video tutorial … but I am still too shy to be on camera as of fall 2025!

Let’s call Missy’s two player mahjong "One on One Mahj"

I’m going to differentiate my version from Gladys’ version starting with the name. Instead of Siamese Mah Jongg®, I call my version One on One Mahj.

Get the racks ready

Set up two racks for each player. Any racks will do, with connected arm pushers or magnetic pushers. In fact, we won’t be using the pushers in the Missy Mahjong version so they aren’t even important.

Agree on a mahjong card

I welcome NMJL cards and any other American mahjong style card at my table. Both players must agree on which card to use so there can be a little defense played at the table.

Set the card somewhere so it is clearly visible. You may want to have sticky tabs or line markers nearby to help you keep your lines- and mind- organized!

Shuffle the tiles

Give the tiles a good shuffle with your hands or shufflers. Once these tiles are mixed well, work together to make sure all tiles are face down. Give them all another little face-down gentle mix until both players agree.

Leave the tiles just like this for the game. There will be no walls. This is called messy mahjong (a term also coined by Gladys!)… and Missy loves to play messy!

Pick your tiles

The owner of the tile set is the hostess, and therefore I call her East in One on One Mahj.

East will select 28 tiles and random and put them in the sloped part of her racks. The opponent will pick up 27 tiles at the same time and place them in the sloped portion of her own racks.

There is no right way or wrong way to do this, but I like to “randomize” the tiles selected by choosing five each from 7 o’clock, 4 o’clock, 2 o’clock and 11 o’clock and then the rest from the middle.

I like to use my joker magnetism and find all the jokers… ha!

Arrange the tiles

Whoa. It is overwhelming to have so many tiles!

I like to take a minute and arrange the tiles like I would any other mahjong game, flowers first followed by each suit in numerical order, the winds and jokers at the end. The tiles don’t fit on one rack, so do this however it works best for you.

Pick some lines

If I am playing the NMJL card, I can easily pick my directions for both hands because I have memorized the card. How did I memorize the card? Playing online mahjong and lots of games of One on One Mahj, of course!

Remember that you must complete two lines to win. You are playing almost against yourself, so be sure that if you don’t need a pung of the same number in the same suit for both hands. It will be very hard to have six 8 craks even with 8 jokers!

East starts play

East starts play by discarding a tile.

WAIT. WHAT? We skipped the Charleston!

Yes ma’am. There is no Charleston in Gladys’ Siamese Mah Jongg® or Missy’s One on One Mahj.

When playing One on One Mahj, no walls and no Charleston means that we just get right to playing.

Be sure you have your pairs complete and that you have a clear direction of the lines you are playing before you start play.

Pick, rack and roll!

Play continues with each player picking a tile, racking it and discarding a tile to end the turn.

You control your own destiny, so pick any tile that you want, rack it and then discard. I like to pretend that my hand will find the tiles I need to win. One on One Mahj requires a lot of luck with only two players!

Call early

Assuming that you have jokers to start, call tiles early. You already should know what direction you are headed in for both sequences.

Remember that there are only two players, so you have a 50% chance of picking the tile that needs to be replaced so you can get the joker back.

Just like a traditional mahjong game, you can never use a joker with a single or a pair OR call a tile for a single and a pair unless it is for mahjong.

If you must call for a single or a pair, you can call mahjong just for one hand. Once that mahjong is exposed, the jokers cannot be exchanged in that hand. There is no benefit to exposing a mahjong unless you are scoring.

Mahjong!

To win mahjong, you will need to pick up the 28^th tile to complete both sequences for a double mahjong. Make sure everyone checks and agrees it is a mahjong- not a faux-jong!

Shuffle the tiles and play again!

And just like that, a quick and fun game of mahjong is complete. These games are fast so many can be played in a short amount of time.

Created as Siamese Mah Jongg® by mahjong master, Gladys Grad, she is the inspiration for my favorite version of game.

I hope you enjoy playing One on One Mahj as much as I do!