Funnel Mahjong Solitaire
About the Funnel Layout
The Funnel is shaped exactly like the kitchen tool it is named for: a wide inverted triangle bowl up top that tapers sharply down into a narrow vertical tube at the bottom. The mouth of the funnel is broad and full of tiles, slanting inward from both sides as it descends, then the shape pinches into a slim straight spout, a thin column of stacked tiles running down to the base. Most of the board's mass and depth live in the upper bowl, while the spout is a long, narrow chute, giving the layout a distinctive V-into-pipe profile.
At 3 out of 5, the Funnel is a board of flow and bottleneck, which is fitting for its shape. The wide bowl at the top gives you lots of free tiles and easy early matches, but everything you do has to eventually pour through the narrow spout, and that thin tube is where the board genuinely chokes. It plays cleanly if you keep the spout draining and the bowl pouring in turn, but neglect the tube and you will end up with a clogged column you cannot clear.
Difficulty: Hard (3/5) | Tiles: 88
How to Clear the Funnel Layout
Open the rim of the bowl first. The top edges of the inverted triangle are the widest and most exposed part of the funnel, so the slanted sides of the mouth give you the freest tiles and the most matches to begin with. Clear along both top edges to get the bowl draining inward.
Keep the spout flowing, do not just dump into it. The narrow vertical tube at the bottom is the bottleneck, and its tiles free almost entirely from the top of the column. Clear spout tiles whenever they become available rather than ignoring them, because if the bowl above empties faster than the tube drains, the spout becomes a deep clogged stack you cannot work into.
The crux is the neck where the bowl meets the spout. That junction is where the wide shape pinches to narrow, and tiles there can bottleneck everything below them. Clear the neck carefully and in step with the bowl so the transition from wide to narrow stays open, since a jam at the neck strands the entire spout beneath it.
The endgame is the spout itself, a thin column you drain from the top down. These are the deepest, last-to-surface tiles on the board, so think ahead and make sure each tile in the tube still has a free twin before you commit elsewhere. If the spout locks up, Shuffle re-deals the remaining tiles into a solvable layout.
The Story Behind the Funnel Layout
A funnel is a humble masterpiece of practical geometry: its wide mouth gathers a large flow and its narrow spout directs it precisely into a small opening, turning chaos into a controlled stream, which is why it shows up everywhere from kitchens to chemistry labs to factory hoppers. The whole point of the object is the journey from wide to narrow.
That gather-and-channel logic is what makes the Funnel such a thematically tight Mahjong board. You literally play it the way liquid behaves, pouring matches from the broad bowl and draining them through the spout, so the shape and the strategy mirror each other and the bottleneck at the neck feels like a genuine part of the puzzle rather than an accident of the design.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the biggest mistake on the Funnel layout?
Emptying the wide bowl while ignoring the narrow spout. The tube only frees from the top, so if the bowl drains faster than the spout, you end up with a deep clogged column you cannot clear. Work spout tiles whenever they open up.
Where do I start on the Funnel?
Clear along the slanted top edges of the inverted-triangle bowl. That mouth is the widest, most exposed area with the most free tiles, so it gives you the easiest early matches and gets the bowl draining inward.
Why does the neck of the Funnel matter so much?
The neck is where the wide bowl pinches into the narrow spout, so a jam there strands every tile in the tube below it. Clear the neck in step with the bowl so the wide-to-narrow transition stays open and the spout keeps draining.
How is the Funnel different from the Spinning Top?
Both taper from wide to narrow, but the Funnel ends in a long straight tube rather than a single point. That extended spout is a deep column you drain from the top down, making the bottleneck longer and more demanding than the Top's single tip.
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