Mahjong is becoming increasingly popular in Uruguay due to its accessibility and fun factor. The objective of the game is to make a hand of fourteen tiles by forming special melds. The player who has the highest total score at the end of the game is declared the winner. To begin playing Mahjong in Uruguay, four players should each take their respective 136 tiles (this includes the joker tiles) and create a wall that is two tiles high and 17-19 tiles long.
Each player then takes 16 tiles from the wall and arranges them in a weighted pattern, commonly known as āevaporating the cloudā or ābuilding the nestā which involves the tiles being placed (left to right) in a stacked manner that is: 2-4-4-4-2 tiles high.
Once the tiles are arranged, each player takes turns drawing tiles and throwing away tiles that they donāt need. The goal of the game is to complete the various melds that are used to score points. For example, when a player has two sets of three identical tiles and a set of four identical tiles, they will form a seven-pair meld, which gains them seven points.
Players can also exchange joker tiles with each other or use their joker tiles to take the place of tiles in the wall. Once a player is able to create a hand of fourteen tiles, they can notify the other players and receive the appropriate amount of points for their hand. Once a winning hand is declared, the points are totaled up and the player with the highest score wins the game.