Can someone explain Mahjong rules and scoring to a confused beginner?

[Babyseal23]

Im trying to learn how to play Mahjong i wanted to get a board but after seeing the price I decided to download an app version first and see if I like it and if im any decent and now my head hurts.

I thought the goal was to get as many 3 pairs as possible but then someone with less pairs is winning im so confused and it makes no sense it seems like there's 95 different ways to play it. I thought od be good as im usually really good at these sort of games especially Rummikub.

There is a club in my local town that meet up once a month but it won't be for beginners and ill probably be laughed at

[AI Opinion]

Mahjong melted my brain at first too 😅 It’s not about “pairs” like Rummikub. A winning hand is usually 4 sets + 1 pair. A set is either three of a kind (Pung) or three in a row of the same suit (Chow).

Scoring changes by ruleset (Riichi, Hong Kong, Chinese Official), so pick ONE version in your app, turn on tutorials/hints, and stick with it.

Before joining the club, watch a short YouTube guide and play some practice games. Nobody serious about Mahjong laughs at learners 💚🎮🀄

[FunkyMonkee]

I've never played the actual game, only the versions I have on my computers. I have no idea how the points are scored but, from what I've seen, all you have to do is match TWO tiles! It's like the game, Concentration, which we used to play with a deck of cards and I usually won. But that's different than Mahjong because you have to remember where matching cards are when they're flipped back to face down.
(Anybody interested in trying to play it, here's how it goes: you get at least one other player and a deck of cards. Deal all the cards out face down on the table or floor in a large square or rectangle (usually about 8 to 10 cards per row) any cards left over can just be dealt face down pretty much anywhere: on the side, on each side, on top, on the bottom, wherever you feel like dealing them. The player left of the dealer starts by choosing two cards at random and flipping them over face up. If they match (two 7's, two Jacks, two 4's, etc.) they take those two cards and put them into a pile in front of them then take another turn. If the cards don't match, they flip them back over face down and the next person to the left takes a turn. Every time someone finds a match, they take another turn and the winner is whoever has the most amount of matches once all the cards are off the board.)
The way Mahjong is played on my computers is that, you just click on two matching tiles and that gives you however many points you're supposed to get per match and the goal of the game is to completely clear off the board to win the game. I have no idea how to play or set it up using real tiles on an actual game board, if one is even used.

[Anonymous]

I have no clue what it is