The Green Tiles of Game Theory
Mahjong is a game of skill, probability, and luck. It is a recreational game that originated in 19th century China but has gained popularity around the world. The source article touches base on the probability of winning a game of mahjong on a smaller scale.
In a mahjong set, there are 144 tiles. There are 3 main suites: Dots, Bamboo, and Characters. There are a total of 36 tiles in each suite. In other words, four of each card are listed in the image below.
Additionally, there are four of each wind tile and arrow tile. Lastly, there is 1 copy of each flower and season tiles.
(images from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahjong)
Though there are multiple variations of gameplay, depending on the region your game is played, there are a few basic rules. There are four players in each game. To begin each player draws 13 tiles for their starting hand. Throughout the game, players take turns drawing or stealing one tile and then discarding one tile until someone has a winning hand. The purpose of the game is to collecting matching sets. More specifically, 4 sets of 3 identical or consecutive cards and a pair of identical cards.
The beauty of studying mahjong in game theory is the complexity it holds. Because the game is sequential there is no way for players to determine the moves of their opponents. Therefore, there is no strictly dominant strategy. In the article, the computer-generated math calculates the expected payoffs of a randomized game by looking at possible outcomes given the card one player would pull. For those reasons, the way to success is through luck, probability, and knowing the probability of your desired outcomes.
Source: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1707.07345.pdf