I had first heard of Mah Jong when I was young, but living in a small town I knew no one that played or even had the game. Being interested in various games most of my life, this interest lingered but recently I learned through pals Leslee V. and Belinda Z. that not only were there regular players around town, they could teach me to play. I’m in!
Game Play
The game uses 152 tiles, broken into several categories, or suits. Players start with 13 tiles (the dealer actually starts with 14) with the remainder face down between the players. After a few rounds of passing tiles back and forth, the dealer begins the game by discarding their spare tile.
On their turn, each player can pick up a just discarded tile and expose a combination that uses the tile in their hand, or draw from the face down supply. They then discard.
Play continues until someone makes an approved pattern using 14 tiles. The list of approved patterns is updated annually by the American Mah Jong Society. You can see the 2026 card in the photo above. The colors show how many different suits (there are 4) are required in each pattern. The numbers show how many duplicates of the numbers (there are 9 numbers, 4 of each in the game) are required in your hand to win. In addition to numbers, there are limited numbers of dragons, flowers, and winds. All that you need to know is one the card, but it takes a little practice to decipher the array of numbers, symbols, and colors.
Each game takes around 20 or 30 minutes to play.
Strategy
There is a significant amount of luck involved to win but there is also some strategic depth required. Each player must first identify several different patterns that are possible from the tiles that they have. Over the course of the game they will slowly finalize the pattern(s) that they will be pursuing-hopefully without the other players being able to figure out their chosen pattern.
And then, probably late in the game, an opponent will discard the tile you need to complete your pattern or you’ll get one from the face down draw pile, and declare
“Mah Jong!”