• 1-Bam is an image of a bird.
• Bam matches Green
• Dot matches Soap
• Crak matches Red
• Soap—when used as a “0”
• Flowers
• Jokers
• Winds
• Pair—2 matching tiles (No Jokers)
• Pung—3 matching tiles (Use up to three Jokers)
• Kong—4 matching tiles (Use up to four Jokers)
• Quint—5 matching tiles (Use up to five Jokers)
• Sextet—6 matching tiles (Use up to six Jokers)
Let’s now turn our attention to the next phase of the basics of the game. In the next chapter, we are going to learn to unlock the mysteries of the mah jongg card. Like Sherlock Holmes, we are going to “Crack the Code.”
Unraveling the Mystery of the Tiles
1. What are the three Suits?
2. Which Dragons match which Suits?
3. How many Flower tiles are there?
4. The Soap tile is a Dragon. What is the other use for the Soap?
5. Explain neutral tiles. Which tiles are neutral?
6. How many total Dot tiles are there? How many total Dragons?
7. Which tile shows an image of a bird?
8. In what combinations can Jokers be used?
9. How many Wind tiles are there?
10. What are matching tiles?
11. How many Jokers can you use in a Pair? Pung? Kong?
12. Do you need an identifying tile when you use all Jokers in a combination?
ANSWERS
1. Bams, Dots, Craks.
2. Green matches Bams. Red matches Craks. Soap matches Dots.
3. 8.
4. Soap is also used as “0.”
5. A neutral tile can be used with any tile in the set. Neutral tiles are Winds, Flowers, Jokers and Soap, only when it is used as a “0.”
6. 36, 12.
7. 1-Bam.
8. Jokers may be used in a Pung, Kong, Quint or Sextet.
9. 16.
10. Matching tiles are tiles of the same Suit and number, same Dragon, same Wind or Flower. A Pair, Pung, Kong, Quint and Sextet are matching tiles.
11. None. Up to three. Up to four.
12. No.
Cracking the Code
Acard, a card! My kingdom for a card! Well, maybe you wouldn’t trade your kingdom, but you need a mah jongg card. Why? Because in American mah jongg you cannot create your own hands, only the hands specified on a card are acceptable. The hand a player completes must correspond to a hand on a card. The player who is the first to assemble the cor rect combinations of tiles needed to match one of these hands, wins.
The card is made up of nine or ten different categories, each requiring a specific kind of tile. Within each category there are several individual hands, for a total of about 50 to 55 hands on any card. Each hand designates the specific combinations of tiles needed to complete it. New cards are published each year, usually containing the same categories, but within these categories the individual hands vary. Because the hands change annually, you will want to get a new card each year to keep current.
For purposes of learning, we will be referring to the standard card, called the “Official Standard Hands and Rules,” published by the National Mah Jongg League (NMJL). With generous permission from the NMJL, the card published for the year 2004 is reproduced here. It makes no difference in what year the card is printed, because the principles to understand it remain the same.
The card is written in a kind of code or shorthand describing which kinds of tiles and which combinations each hand requires. Before you can play, it’s necessary to learn how to read this shorthand or “crack the code,” because you need to translate what’s printed on the card into the combinations of tiles needed
