American Mah Jongg, How to Play and Win
Most guides teach the rules. This one teaches you to win.
Somebody invited you to a table. Everyone else reads the card at a glance, calls tiles without hesitating, and passes the Charleston as if it were obvious. You are not slow, and you are not too late: nobody has shown you the thinking underneath yet. This book does, from your first tile to the hand you win.
- Know every tile without asking. The whole set, in full color.
- Read the card like a sentence. Any year's card, not just this season's.
- Pass with a plan, not a prayer. All three passes, and the reason for each.
- Call, expose and score without hesitating. What to say, when, and what it pays.
- Play to win, not just to finish. Hand choice, defense, endgame: a fifth of the book.
Large 8.5 x 11 inch pages in full color, more than 100 diagrams, and Watch Out boxes that flag the classic mistakes before you make them. A table FAQ covers the moments that confuse every beginner, and a glossary and an index settle questions mid-game.
A 3.5-hour video course
Fifty short lessons, watched at your own pace, including ten full games explained decision by decision. Plus printable cheat sheets, score sheets, practice deals and a first-table checklist, so you can practice before you even own a set.
Access details are inside the book.
- Works with any year's card. The official card changes every spring and is sold separately: you need the current one to play at a real table. Every card and hand pictured in this book is an original teaching example, so the book does not go stale when the new card arrives.
- American Mah Jongg only. This is the 152-tile game played with Jokers and a yearly card, not Chinese Mahjong or the tile-matching game on your phone. If you have played rummy or canasta, you are already halfway there.
Then somebody new sits down at the table, and they ask you.