Joker rules

A set has eight jokers, and they are the most useful tiles in the game. They follow a few firm rules.

Where a joker works

A joker can stand in for any tile in a group of three or more identical tiles: a pung, kong, quint or sextet.

A joker can never be used as a single or in a pair. That includes hands built from singles, such as a year like 2026 or the four winds NEWS.

Calling with jokers

When you call a discard to expose a group, the called tile is real, and the rest of the group may be jokers from your rack. A group you expose always shows at least that real tile.

Taking a joker from an exposure

On your own turn, after you draw (or after you call and expose), you may take a joker from any player's exposure, yours included, by giving the real tile it stands for, from your rack. You may make as many exchanges as you can before you discard. The tile you give can't be one you just called from the discards.

A discarded joker is dead

Nobody may call a discarded joker, for any reason. That is why players rarely throw one away.

Winning without jokers

A hand completed with no jokers, in a hand that allows them, doubles every payment. Singles and pairs hands, which can't use jokers anyway, don't double. See scoring.

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