LESSON 1 OF 6 · 4 MIN READ
Start here: what is American mahjong?
Get to know the game, the goal, and what makes the American style different.
In this lesson +
A game you learn around a table
Mahjong is a tile game with roots in China. Over time, communities developed different ways to play. American mahjong is one of those traditions. It is usually played by four people, each building a hand while taking turns drawing and discarding tiles. Your first goal is to understand the rhythm. Speed and strategy can come later.
From left: 3 dot, 3 bam, and 3 crack. A number alone does not identify a tile; the suit matters too.
Explore the visual tile library ↗What are you trying to make?
In the National Mah Jongg League style of American mahjong, the annual card tells you which combinations qualify as winning hands. Think of the card as a menu of possibilities. You compare your tiles with those possibilities, choose a direction, and adjust as the game develops. A winning hand contains 14 tiles that match a permitted pattern and its instructions.
The game on your phone may be different
Many apps labeled mahjong are single-player matching puzzles. Those can be enjoyable, but matching two identical pictures is not how a four-player American mahjong hand works. Other multiplayer styles, including riichi, also use different rules. When looking for lessons or a group, ask which style they play.
Try this before moving on
Say the goal in your own words: “I’m building a hand that matches a pattern on our card.” You do not need to memorize the whole card. In the next lesson, you will learn the tile families so those patterns start to feel less mysterious.
A QUICK CONFIDENCE CHECK
Does a mahjong solitaire app teach the full rules of American mahjong?
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