What's in an American set
Three suits: dots, bams, cracks, one through nine, four of each. Toss in winds, dragons, flowers, jokers, a couple of blanks, and some dice, and that's your set. The nice part: you're not memorizing patterns from scratch like some other tile games. Everyone plays off the same annual card, so a total beginner and a twenty-year veteran are reading from the identical page on turn one.
Setting up
- Every tile goes face down, and you mix them, really mix them, with both hands.
- Each player builds their own wall, two tiles high, then all four walls get pushed together into one square.
- Deal until everyone's holding thirteen tiles. The dealer gets one extra to start things off.
- Stack your tiles on a rack where only you can see them, and open this year's card.
The Charleston
Before anyone really plays, the table passes tiles: three at a time, right, then across, then left, then back around again. Jokers sit this one out; they never travel in the Charleston. The instinct is to hang onto anything good, but the better move is passing away whatever doesn't serve the hand you're chasing, and paying close attention to what comes back. What your tablemates give up tells you more about their hands than almost anything else that happens early on.
The flow of a turn
- Draw a tile from the wall.
- Ask yourself if it actually helps the hand you picked off the card.
- Discard one, face up, and say what it is out loud.
- It passes right, and anyone at the table can call it if it completes a group of three or more.
Words you'll hear
- Charleston
- The passing rounds before real play starts: three tiles at a time, four directions.
- Card
- The sheet of legal hands the National Mah Jongg League reprints every year. Everyone plays off the current one.
- Exposure
- A group you've called and laid face-up for the table to see. No taking it back.
- Joker
- A wild tile: works in a group of three or more, never alone, never in a pair.
- Wall
- The stacked rows of face-down tiles everyone draws from.
- Mahjong
- What you call out when all fourteen tiles in your hand match one on the card, exactly.
Want the longer version, with video? Read the full guide to playing American mahjong, or pick up free printables on the freebies page.