Strategy in American Mah Jongg is a handful of habits, each with its moment in the hand. This page lists them in the order a hand asks for them, with the article that goes deeper on each. None of it is luck management: every habit here is a decision, and every decision can be practised.
1. Read the card for your tiles
After the deal, do not look for the hand you would like to make. Look for the two or three lines your tiles are already close to: count, for each section, how many of your tiles it could use. Sections differ in how much help they get from jokers, and the singles-and-pairs section gets none at all.
A rack after the deal with evens in all three suits, two flowers and a joker: the 2468 section is the obvious first line, and the year hands, which use flowers and the year's digits, a likely second.
How to read the card explains the notation and the sections.
2. Pass what none of your lines want
Decide your direction before the first pass, then pass the tiles none of your candidate lines need. Keep pairs. Pass the same odd suit early. Use the blind pass when you have nothing you are happy to give.
The Charleston, and what to pass.
3. Stay on more than one line in the opening
The first five turns are not about winning, they are about staying able to win. Throw lone winds and isolated numbers first, keep pairs, and watch what the other players throw while nobody is defending yet.
The first five turns, and what they are for.
4. Choose a line from what you hold, and know when it has died
Prefer a line that uses groups of three or more (jokers can fill them), uses tiles you hold two of, and shares tiles with a second line. A line is dead when the tiles it needs are visible elsewhere: four of every tile exist, and a pair or single on the card must be real tiles.
Choosing a line, and when to change it.
5. Call only when it moves you close
Calling a discard locks the group face up and tells the table your plan. Call when it takes you from far to near on the line you are really playing, when it is the last chance to finish a group, and always for mah jongg. Do not call early on a hand you might abandon.
6. Use jokers where only jokers will do
Spend jokers on groups you cannot finish any other way, and remember that a joker in an exposure can be taken by anyone holding the real tile. A joker kept in your rack cannot be touched.
Jokers, and the edges of the rules.
7. Know when to stop attacking
The player who throws the winning tile pays double. When your hand is dead or hopeless and someone else's exposures say they are close, stop feeding the table: throw tiles that have already been thrown, and hold the fresh ones.
Defensive play, and knowing when you are dead.
Measure it, do not guess it
Strategy improves fastest with feedback on every decision. At the school's table, the report card after each hand compares every throw, pass and call with what the Coach would have done and shows the ones worth a second look. The drills ask one decision at a time and score it at once, and the placement test gives you a starting score to beat.
Questions
What is the best strategy in American Mah Jongg?
Stay flexible early and commit late: after the deal, keep two or three lines open that your tiles already suit, pass what none of them want, and only call a discard when it brings you close to the line you are really playing.
Should you go for a concealed hand?
A concealed hand scores more and gives the table nothing to read, but it cannot call any discard except the one that finishes it, so it is slower. Choose it when your tiles are already close to a concealed line, not as a plan from the start.
When should you play defense in mah jongg?
When your own hand is dead or far away and another player's exposures show they are close. The thrower of the winning tile pays double, so throwing tiles that have already been thrown, and holding fresh ones, saves more than a long-shot attack wins.