American Mah Jongg Tutorial, Part I - Game Sets & Tiles

Mah Jongg is played by choosing and discarding tiles, until a player has assembled a winning combination of tiles, at which time, "Mah Jongg" is declared, and that round of the game ends. As far as I know, there is no limit to the number of rounds; Mah Jongg could go on for days, I expect, with the players pausing only to eat and nap.

Mah Jongg appears to be of Chinese origin, and the game became popular in the U.S. in the 1920s and '30s.  Lately, it seems to be experiencing a renewal in popularity.  For example, I've noticed that old Mah Jongg sets are selling on Ebay for increasingly higher prices.

Some early versions of Mah Jongg were played with cards, but most sets contain tiles made of ivory, bone, wood, bakelite, or other synthetic materials.  Each player has a rack to hold the tiles; the racks are often made of the same material as the tiles.  

My set comes in a faux crocodile skin case.  When I take it to someone's house to play, I feel like I'm carrying my briefcase to a meeting.

There's something about playing with the old Mah Jongg sets that satisfies the visual and tactile senses.  The tiles are often the color of butter or butterscotch; they are worn and smooth; the designs on old tiles often have interesting detail.

The exact number of tiles used varies, depending on whether one is playing traditional Chinese Mah Jongg or American Mah Jongg.  The version of American Mah Jongg I play requires 152 tiles and a pair of dice.

As with a deck of playing cards, Mah Jongg tiles are sorted into suits.  Three suits are numbered from 1 to 9, with 4 tiles of each number in the suit.

Bamboos (Bams)

Notice that the "1" Bam is represented by a bird.  This tile is sometimes referred to as the "Bird-Bam."

Characters (Craks)

Circles or Dots

There are two smaller suits: the Winds (North, East, West, and South) and the Dragons (Red, Green, and White).  There are four tiles of each wind and each dragon.

Winds                                                   

 

Dragons

Each dragon color is associated with one of the three major suits: the Red Dragons with the Craks, the Green Dragons with the Bams, and the White Dragons with the Dots.

American Mah Jongg also contains eight flower tiles, but the numbers on the Flowers have no significance.

Flowers

Older sets were originally designed for Chinese Mah Jongg, but American Mah Jongg is played differently, so old tile sets are often modified to accommodate American rules and procedures.  One difference is that American Mah Jongg uses Jokers, so spare tiles were often made into Jokers by painting the tops of them with red nail polish.

Jokers

Here are my Jokers, fresh from a new coat of fingernail polish.  I stood in the cosmetics aisle at Albertson's for quite a while, choosing the correct red for my set.  Of course, the color had to match the red kitchen.

March Mah Jongg Madness

I'm declaring March the "Mah Jongg Month."  It's not an official holiday, as far as I can ascertain, but since the National Mah Jongg League chooses March as the month to issue the annual version of its Official Standard Hands and Rules card, it seems only fitting that March be the designated month in which to celebrate this great game (besides, I like the alliteration).
          In 2009, I was finally able to check off an item on my Lifetime To Do List.  After nearly 45 years of wanting to learn how to play Mah Jongg, it happened.  My neighbor, Joann, invited me to join a group that met about once a month.  At first, it was difficult to find more people who wanted to learn the game, but in less than a year, Joann and I have recruited at least a dozen new players.
          If you are already familiar with American Mah Jongg, you need read no further. I'm an amateur, writing to other amateurs and to those who've never encountered the game.
          If you've never played or never even heard of Mah Jongg, please consider learning, no matter how old you are.  (I'm about the same age as dirt, and I just learned the game last year.)  I suppose it's possible to learn Mah Jongg by reading the rule book, but many people agree that the best way to learn is by playing the game under the tutelage of a Mah Jongg Maven, one who is experienced and knowledgeable.

I was lucky enough to meet Marie Davis, our Pocatello Mah Jongg Maven. Marie's a great teacher; she's patient, funny, and meticulous about the rules. She's been playing American Mah Jongg for most of her life (she's in her 90s now), and she likes to spice up a game with amusing stories and exclamations, most often, "Oy vey!"

Ready to play Mah Jongg in the Red Kitchen

          Mah Jongg is a blend of skill and luck, so even beginners have a chance of winning, while more experienced players can continue to perfect their strategies.  If you've played the solitaire "Shanghai Mah Jongg" that's available online or as a computer game, you should know that "real" Mah Jongg is rather different.
          In the next posts, I'll describe the basic game equipment, rules, and strategies.  When I was first researching the game, I found a great disparity in all three of these areas.  Not only is American Mah Jongg different from Chinese Mah Jongg, but it appears that there are several versions of Chinese Mah Jongg.  It's sometimes difficult to avoid thinking that each Mah Jongg group simply makes up its own rules as it goes along.  What I offer here is American Mah Jongg as I was taught by Marie, my Mah Jongg Maven (Oops! More alliteration!).