Lesson 2 of 5
Filipino Mahjong Setup:
Shuffling, Walls, & Dealing
This lesson covers the physical setup of the game.
For an overview of the whole game, see our complete guide to Filipino Mahjong.
The Setup
Shuffling
Shuffling is done by everyone mixing the tiles up and then flipping them all face down.
Building the Wall
Each player then builds their segment of the wall:
2 lines of 18 stacked on top of each other.
Choosing Dealer & Starting Point
Rolling for Mano
To determine the mano (dealer), all players roll two dice.
The player with the highest roll is the máno.
Breaking the Wall
The mano rolls to determine where to break the wall. Using the [rolled-number] you count for the starting point:
Interactive Filipino Mahjong Wall Breaking Demonstration
This interactive tool demonstrates the Filipino Mahjong wall breaking process: 1. Mano (the dealer) rolls two dice to determine the break number. 2. Count walls counter-clockwise starting from Mano (bottom wall). 3. If the roll lands on Mano (rolls of 5 or 9), apply the move-over rule to the right player's wall because dealing never starts from Mano's own wall. 4. Count stacks on the selected wall in the direction away from Mano. 5. Lift the break stack onto the preceding stack to form the 4-tile Flower Wall (highlighted pink) and mark the deal starting position (highlighted light blue).
Counting the Starting Point
- First, starting with the mano count [rolled-number] walls counter-clockwise. If you land on the dealer (5 or 9), go one more wall to the right (can't deal from your own wall).
- Then, count [rolled-number] stacks, always in the direction away from the mano (if it's the wall across from you, you can choose either side to start counting stacks from).
- Break the wall by picking up that last stack and putting it on top of the one right before it. This is the flower-side of the wall.
Dealing
From the break, in the same direction you were counting stacks, tiles are dealt to each player, starting with the mano. Four stacks at a time (8 tiles), until everyone has 16 tiles. Then, the máno gets an extra 17th tile.
Replacing Flowers
Flowers are not used in gameplay and must be replaced. Starting with the mano, each player lays down their Flower tiles and draws a new tile from the Flower wall (the opposite side of wall that was being dealt from).
Setup Complete!
You are now ready to play! To begin the game, the mano discards one of their 17 tiles.