Every American Mah Jongg hand is on the card. There is nothing else to make: fourteen tiles that match one line, exactly, is a win. So the first skill is not tile sense or bluffing. It is reading.
What a line says
A line is a picture of fourteen tiles, grouped. The groups come in sizes: a single (1), a pair (2), a pung (3), a kong (4), a quint (5) and, on some lines, a sextet (6). Count the tiles on any line and they add to fourteen.
Fourteen tiles in four groups: four flowers, the year 2 0 2 6 as single tiles, four Green Dragons and a pair of Red Dragons. 4 + 4 + 4 + 2 = 14.
The colours are the trick. A line is printed in one, two or three colours, and each colour stands for a suit you choose. A line in one colour is a one-suit hand, and it can be bams, craks or dots as you like. A line in three colours needs three different suits, but which suit takes which part is up to you. The colours never name a suit; they say "different from each other".
Numbers are exact, with two exceptions the card always prints next to the line. A line marked any like numbers is printed with one number, often 1, and you may use any number from 1 to 9 instead, the same one all the way through. A line marked any consecutive numbers (numbers in a row) is printed with one example, such as 1 2 3, and you may play any numbers in a row in its place.
The same run line twice: a pair, three and four of 1 2 3 in Dots, and the same shape as 5 6 7 in Bams. Every number moves up by the same amount, so the numbers stay in a row, and none may go past 9.
Dragons follow the colour they sit in: green with bams, red with craks, white (the soap) with dots. The zero in a year hand is always the soap, and as a zero it belongs to no suit.
Each suit and its dragon: Bams with the Green Dragon, Craks with the Red Dragon, Dots with the White Dragon.
The same line, printed and as tiles
A printed card cannot draw tiles, so it writes them. Once you know the letters, the printed line and the tiles are the same thing:
| The card prints | It means |
|---|---|
FF 2222 4444 6666 (1 suit) |
a pair of flowers, then 2, 4 and 6 as kongs, all in one suit |
FFFF 2026 2026 2026 |
four flowers, then the year three times, the 0 being the soap |
NNNN EEEE WWWW SS |
kongs of North, East and West, and a pair of South |
FF DDD DDD DDD (3 suits) |
a pair of flowers and three pungs of dragons, one per suit |
(222 4444) (666 8888) |
the brackets group the suits: the first two share one, the next two another |
A number is that number. F is a flower, D is the dragon belonging to that colour's suit, 0 is the soap, and N, E, W, S are the winds. In a run line the card prints one example, such as 1 2 3 4 5, and the words "any 5 consecutive numbers" beside it: you may play it as 1 2 3 4 5 in one suit, or 2 3 4 5 6, or 5 6 7 8 9.
FF 2222 4444 6666 in one suit, drawn as tiles: a pair of flowers, then four 2 Bams, four 4 Bams and four 6 Bams. In Craks or Dots it is the same line.
The sections
The card groups its lines by theme. The names change a little from year to year, and the hands inside change every year, but the shape holds:
- The year: hands built round the current year's digits and flowers.
- 2468 and 13579: the even hands and the odd hands.
- Consecutive runs: numbers in order, in one suit or several.
- Quints: the only lines that use five of a kind, which means jokers.
- Winds and dragons: the honours.
- 369: threes, sixes and nines.
- Singles and pairs: the hands with no group of three, where jokers are useless and the value is high.
Each line carries its points and a letter. X means exposed: you may call thrown tiles to make its groups and lay them face up. C means concealed: no group may go face up before you win, so the only thrown tile you may take is the one that finishes the hand. A concealed line is worth more because of that.
Reading for your tiles, not for the card
Nobody plays the card from the top. You play from your rack. After the deal, sort your tiles and ask one question of every section: which line here am I closest to? Closest means the fewest tiles still to get. A line that needs five more tiles is a candidate; a line that needs nine is not, however pretty.
A rack after the deal. The run of bams says consecutive runs; the pair of 4 Bams helps two of those lines; the flower keeps a year hand open. The North and South are the first to go.
Keep two or three candidates, not one. They should share tiles, so a pick that helps one helps the others, and the Charleston can pass away what none of them need. Choosing one line on the first look is the beginner's mistake; the card is wide enough that your tiles nearly always fit somewhere else better.
Jokers stand in for any tile in a group of three or more. They never stand in for a single or a pair. So a joker in hand tells you to lean toward lines with pungs, kongs and quints, and away from singles and pairs.
Practise it
The school's drills put a rack in front of you and ask which line it is closest to, then show you the answer and why. Ten minutes a day of that and the card stops being a document and becomes something you glance at.