Learn the rankings. Key to winning.
In the casinos in Las Vegas, you can always ask the dealer if you need help setting your hand. However, if you play in another country (e.g. Star City in Sydney, Australia) you MUST know how to set your hand alone. In fact, you are not even allowed to talk to other patrons at the table when a hand is in play. Likewise if you are playing in a card room (where you are essentially playing against other players), you will want to know how to set your hand yourself because it’s a cutthroat environment where everyone is out for themselves and no one will help you.
These are the names of the tiles in rank order, starting at the top left and then moving across and down.
Gee-Joon (Supreme) = highest pair*
Teen (Heaven) = highest ranking tiles
Dey (Earth)
Yun (People)
Gor (Goose)
Moo (Plum)
Chong (Long)
Ban (Bench/Board)
Foo (Axe)
Ping (Partition)
Chit (Seven)
Look (Six)
Chop Gow (Mixed Nines)
Chop Bat (Mixed Eights)
Chop Chit (Mixed Sevens)
Chop Ng (Mixed Fives) = lowest pair
* Note about Gee-Joon – together the 6-3 tiles are the highest pair. Separately, each of these tiles is the lowest ranking tile. Each tile can be used as a 3 or 6 point count. If one of these tiles is paired with a 4, then using it as a 3 would make sense to give 4+3=7. Using it as a 6 would not make sense as 4+6=10=0.