All's Fair in Love & Mahjong, Want to Learn the Game? Start Here.

What you watched

The game in the movie is the real game.

All's Fair in Love & Mahjong premiered on the Hallmark Channel in May 2026. It follows a school nurse who finds her way back into community through teaching American Mahjong, inspired by the life of Ronni Rice, known to her students as the Marvelous Mrs. Mahj.

The game played in the film is American Mahjong, governed by the National Mah Jongg League since 1937. It descends from the older Chinese game, shares the same family of tiles, and then diverges. American Mahjong adds Jokers. Uses a yearly card of legal hands published by the League. Has its own Charleston exchange, its own scoring, and its own table manners. Same family. Different table.

The honest answer

Yes, you can actually learn this.

Here is the part the movie does not slow down to tell you. American Mahjong looks impossibly complicated for the first ten minutes and then it is not. The tiles number one hundred fifty-two. The hands you can build are listed on a card the League publishes every spring. The Charleston is a series of tile exchanges before play begins. The Joker is wild, but only inside a group of three or more identical tiles.

You can learn the very basics in a three-hour session. The basics of gameplay within about six hours. With regular play, you can be competitive within a few months to a year.

Where to start

Four steps. In this order.

Step One

Become a Favorite Fourth

Free

Prim^™'s table only seats four. The newsletter and the podcast welcome more. Strategy, etiquette, history, and the hands the table is playing this week. Read it, listen to it, or both.

Read by Email Listen on Spotify

Step Two

The Glossary

Free

Every word you will hear at the table, organized by where you will hear it. Tiles, the Charleston, jokers, the card, winning and losing. Read it before you sit down.

Open the Glossary

Step Three

The Learning Guide

Available on Etsy

A proper learning guide for a proper game. Fifty pages covering the Charleston in full, jokers, scoring, dead hands, etiquette, and a Quick Reference at the back. The book you keep on the table next to the card.

Get the Guide

Step Four

The Card Decoder

Coming soon

Prim's guide to reading the NMJL card. After reading it once, you will be able to read any year's card in about ten minutes. The card is the language of the game. Decode it.

Learn More

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Questions Prim Hears Most

The things everyone asks first.

Is the Mahjong played in All's Fair in Love & Mahjong a real game?

Yes. The film features American Mahjong, the variant governed by the National Mah Jongg League since 1937. Same tiles as the older Chinese game, different rules. Hundreds of thousands of people play it across the United States.

How do I start learning American Mahjong?

Vocabulary first, the card second, the table third. Start with the Mahjong Glossary. Then read the Card Decoder. Then find a table.

Where do I buy the NMJL card?

Directly from the National Mah Jongg League. The card is published every spring and expires when the next year's card is released. Without the card, American Mahjong cannot be played. A warning. Cards sold by non-sanctioned third parties on Amazon and elsewhere have been known to ship inaccurate or counterfeit copies. Buy from the League directly, or from a reseller you trust.

How long does it take to learn?

You can learn the very basics in a three-hour session. The basics of gameplay come within about six hours. With regular play, you can be competitive within a few months to a year. The social game is approachable from day one. The competitive game asks for time and patience.

Is American Mahjong different from Chinese Mahjong?

Yes. Both descend from the same nineteenth-century Chinese game and use the same family of tiles, but the rules diverged significantly. American Mahjong adds Jokers, uses an annually published card of legal hands, and has its own Charleston exchange and scoring conventions.

Who is the movie based on?

All's Fair in Love & Mahjong is inspired by the real-life journey of Ronni Rice, an American Mahjong teacher and enthusiast known as the Marvelous Mrs. Mahj. The film was produced by Joel S. Rice, her husband.

Who is Prim

Your hostess at this table.

Prim is the voice of The Order of the Tile^™, a weekly newsletter and podcast for people who play American Mahjong. She writes about tiles, etiquette, history, strategy, and the people who keep the game alive. She is not affiliated with the National Mah Jongg League. She is not affiliated with Hallmark. She is a fan of both, and of you, for showing up.

Read more about Prim, or just join the table below.

Still here? Good.

Then take the first step.

If you have read this far, you are the kind of fourth Prim wants at the table. The newsletter and the podcast are both free and both arrive weekly. Pick one, pick both, take what you need.