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What does Consecutive Run mean on the NMJL card, and can a run start on any number?

A Consecutive Run is a hand built from numbers in order, with no gaps. Whether it may start on any number depends entirely on the note in brackets beside the line: where it says any consecutive numbers, you choose the starting number; where it says these numbers only, you use exactly the numbers printed. A Soap zero never joins a run, and no discard is ever called to finish one.

Answered by Prim. Last reviewed 2026-10-18.

What the section is

Consecutive Run is a section of the card, and its lines are built from numbers that follow one another: three, four, five, and so on, never three, five, seven. On the 2026 card it holds eight lines, as many as 2468 and one fewer than 13579.

The numbers on a run line are printed in a particular arrangement of groups, some of them pungs or kongs, some pairs or singles. The run is the order of the numbers across those groups. The groups themselves keep their own rules, which is where most of the trouble begins.

The note in brackets decides where it starts

Read the note beside the line before you read the numbers. Where it says any consecutive numbers, or any so many consecutive numbers, the printed numbers are only an example. You may start the run on any number that leaves room to finish it, so a run of three numbers may begin anywhere from 1 to 7.

Where the note says these numbers only, it means precisely that. The numbers printed are the numbers you play, and sliding the run up or down by one gives you a hand that is not on the card. More good racks have been lost to an unread note than to bad luck.

Colors still count

A run line can sit in one suit or spread across two or three, and the colors tell you which. One color is one suit, any suit. Two colors are two different suits, in any order. The color says how many suits, never which ones, and the note in brackets overrides the colors wherever the two seem to disagree.

What a run will not allow

A run is a chain of different tiles, so it is not a set of like tiles. You may not call a discard to complete the sequence. There is no chow in American Mahjong. A discard may be called only to finish a pung, kong, quint or sextet of identical tiles inside the hand, or as the fourteenth tile for Mahjong.

The same logic governs Jokers. A Joker may stand in a pung or a kong within a run line, and nowhere else. It may not fill a single or a pair, and it may not stand in for the missing number in the chain.

Finally, the zero. Soap, the White Dragon, may serve as a zero elsewhere on the card, but never inside a consecutive run. A run is made of the numbers 1 to 9 and nothing else.

New to the words? Consecutive Run · Chow · Soap (White Dragon) · Suit