American Mah Jongg is played to a card of winning hands, and the card changes every year. The National Mah Jongg League has published one each spring since the 1930s; most clubs and tournaments in the United States play it, and buying the printed card is how the League is supported. Other cards exist, from clubs, teachers and card makers, and the school plays those too.

What stays the same

The shape of the card holds from year to year, which is why the reading skill carries over:

A line from the odd-numbers section: fourteen tiles in one colour, so any suit you like, with a pair of 7s in the middle. Its shape returns every year; its numbers move.

  • Fourteen tiles to a line, in groups of one to six identical tiles.
  • Lines printed in one, two or three colours, each colour standing for a suit of your choosing.
  • The same families of sections: the year, the evens, the odds, consecutive runs, quints, winds and dragons, 369, singles and pairs.
  • Jokers in groups of three or more, never in singles or pairs.
  • Points per line, with concealed lines worth more.

What moves

The hands themselves. Each year some lines are retired and new ones arrive, the year hand takes the new digits, and the balance between sections shifts a little. A player who memorised last year's card is not at a disadvantage in reading, only in recall, and recall is what the card in front of you is for.

The school does not reproduce any published card. Its own card of the month is generated, checked by the engine, and free to everyone; the practice card is ours as well. To play a published card at the school's table you type it in or scan the printed one you own, and you acknowledge owning it each time you sit down with it. The printed card comes from its publisher: for the League's card, nationalmahjonggleague.org.

How the school plays any card

The table's rules are fixed; the card is an input. Every hand you type in is checked by the validator (fourteen tiles, groups the deck can supply, jokers only where they may go), and the same opponents that play the League's card play yours, because they read the card at the table rather than remembering hands. That is also why the school can grade your play on a card it has never seen before.

Where to start