Went to a Chinese friend’s place today to play one of their traditional game—Mahjong, a game originated in China.
It is play by four players together. Each of the players is given either thirteen in the game. When your turn comes, you draw a tile and discard one as well. The goal is to make four and a pair, or “head”. The player will win “on the draw”; by drawing a new or discarded tile that completes his/her hand. Thus a winning hand actually contains fourteen tiles.
The rules of the game are actually quite complicated and hard to explain in detail in a single volume. Skill, strategy, and calculation, as well as a certain degree of chance are all involved in this interesting game. Depending on the variation which is played, luck can be anything from a minor to a dominant factor in success. It is also popularly played as a gambling game in Asia.
Though I think it is very interested, it’s hard for foreigners to learn as you need to know the Chinese characters on the tile to play. So that might be the very reason why it hasn’t become one of the most popular gambling games across the world.