The FAQ
The questions players actually ask, the Charleston, the card, the jokers, all of it, answered plainly. No jargon, no gatekeeping.
Search by keyword. Try joker, Charleston, or dead hand. Have a specific question of your own? Ask Prim™.
The questions players actually ask, answered plainly, from someone who has watched this hand a thousand times.
American Mahjong is the game four women have been playing on Tuesday afternoons for nearly a century. Joseph Babcock brought a simplified version of the Chinese game home from Shanghai in the early 1920s, and the country went mad for it. By 1937, the National Mah Jongg League had been founded in New York City, giving the American variant its lasting shape: jokers, a card of legal hands reissued every April, and rules that hold from one table to the next.
Four players sit around the table. Everyone rolls dice, and the highest roller becomes East, the dealer. East receives 14 tiles; the other three players receive 13. After the Charleston (a structured tile exchange that opens every game), and a courtesy pass, East discards one tile from her hand. South sits to the right of East and draws next, play moves counter-clockwise around the table. Each player draws a tile and then discards one, until somebody completes a valid hand from the current NMJL card. A player can call a tile that has been discarded if the tile will complete a pung, kong, quint, or sextet. That called tile and the matching tiles that go with it must be displayed on the rack for the remainder of the game. Once a player has a complete hand matching one on the card, that player wins the round by calling Mahjong. The player then shares the hand with the others to show the complete hand.
Two big differences. American Mahjong uses 8 jokers and asks you to build a specific hand from the NMJL card, a sheet of legal patterns reissued every spring. Chinese Mahjong has no jokers, is played differently, and scores differently. The Charleston, that structured pass of three tiles right, three across, three left at the start of every game, is also pure American. Chinese Mahjong doesn't conduct that ritual.
Completely different games that happen to share a name. Mahjong solitaire, the one on your computer or phone, sometimes called Shanghai, is a single-player puzzle where you clear a stack by matching identical tiles two at a time. American Mahjong is a four-player social game where everyone draws and discards tiles to build a specific hand from the NMJL card, with jokers, the Charleston, and real strategy. If you wandered over from the matching game, welcome, this is the original, and it is a great deal more fun. New to the terms? See the glossary.
Not as hard as the tiles make it look. You can pick up the basic flow, Charleston, draw, discard, call, declare Mahjong, in a single afternoon. What takes longer is reading the NMJL card fluently and sharpening your strategy, and that is the part players happily fuss over for years. If you can play gin rummy, you can play American Mahjong. The symbols look intimidating for about twenty minutes, and then they do not. New to the terms? See the glossary.
Four. American Mahjong is built for four players, the Charleston, the seat winds, and the wall configuration all assume a full table. You can play a modified game with three, or even two, but the proper game wants four. Solo mahj is a game for one and is good for practicing, but it does not replace the real game.
A single hand usually takes 15 to 30 minutes. Most groups play multiple hands in a sitting, and a full evening of mahjong runs about two to three hours. Some tables are faster. Some tables are gossipier.
You do not have to play for money at all, plenty of tables play purely for the fun and the company. When money is in it, the stakes are almost always tiny: a penny a point is the classic, so a whole afternoon might swing a few dollars in either direction. It is a game of skill and patience with a dash of luck, much closer to a standing card night than a casino floor. Play for pennies, play for bragging rights, or play for nothing at all. New to the terms? See the glossary.
Yes, several. For absolute beginners, Elaine Sandberg's A Beginner's Guide to American Mahjong and Gregg Swain & Toby Salk's American Mahjong for Everyone are the standard recommendations. For players who know the basics and want one comprehensive reference on the table, Prim's own American Mahjong Learning Guide is a 50-page annotated rulebook covering the Charleston in full, jokers and the Finesse Move, scoring, dead hands, etiquette, and a quick reference, the things experienced players know but rarely write down.
A standard NMJL set has 152 tiles: 36 each of Bams, Craks, and Dots; 16 winds; 12 dragons; 8 flowers; and 8 jokers. Most commercial sets ship with 166 tiles because they include extra blanks and spare jokers, you can set those aside before play.
Prim's full answer: How many Jokers are in an American Mahjong set, and how many tiles in all?
Four things: an American Mahjong set (152 tiles, including 8 jokers and 8 flowers), the current year's NMJL card, four racks, pushers make life easier but are not required, and three other players. That is the whole list. You do not need a special table or a timer. Most new groups share one set and give everyone their own card. Ready to shop? See where to buy, or check the glossary for any unfamiliar terms.
It ranges widely. A basic, perfectly playable American set runs roughly $30 to $60. Nicer sets with a carrying case and heavier tiles climb into the low hundreds, and high-end sets run around $400 and up, with custom sets higher still. The NMJL card is separate and inexpensive, generally around $14 to $15, ordered straight from the National Mah Jongg League each spring. See where to buy for current options.
Not quite any set. The American game needs 8 jokers and 8 flowers, and many imported Chinese sets either skip the jokers entirely or use different bonus tiles. If your set has the jokers and flowers, you are ready to play. If it is missing jokers, you can convert spare blank tiles with joker stickers from the National Mah Jongg League, a lot of sets ship with extra blanks for exactly that reason. The one thing you cannot do is play the American game without jokers; they are built into the card. Shopping for a set? See where to buy.
East goes first, and East is decided by a roll of the dice, the highest roller takes the East seat and the extra fourteenth tile. From there, play moves counter-clockwise: South sits to East's right and draws next, then West, then North. After each hand, the East position passes to the player on East's right, so everyone takes a turn as the dealer. New to the terms? See the glossary.
The dice do two jobs at the start. First, before the very first game, everyone rolls and the highest roller takes the East seat. Then East rolls again to decide where to break the wall, counting in from the right by the number on the dice, so no one can rig where the tiles come from. After that first game, East just passes to the right each hand, and the roll mostly settles the break point as you go.
They are the three suits in an American Mahjong set, each running 1 through 9, with four of every number. Bams (short for bamboo) are the green tiles, usually little stalks, and the 1 Bam is traditionally a bird. Craks (short for characters) carry a Chinese numeral above a symbol. Dots (sometimes called circles) show that many round dots on the tile. Many hands on the NMJL card ask you to build within one suit or to match suits across groups, so learning to spot the three at a glance is one of the first things that clicks. New to the terms? See the glossary.
There are three dragons, with four of each. The Red dragon, the Green dragon, and the White dragon, which everyone at the table calls Soap (White Dragon), because its mostly blank face looks like a little bar of soap. Each dragon pairs with a suit: Red with Craks, Green with Bams, and Soap (White Dragon) with Dots. In certain hands the Soap (White Dragon) also stands in for a zero. New to the terms? See the glossary.
Soap is what we call the white dragon tile, named for its blank face that looks like a small bar of soap. In most hands it functions as a regular white dragon. In specific hands on the NMJL card, it works as a zero instead.
The soap stands in for a zero anywhere a 0 appears on the NMJL card. Year-number hands are the most common place you will see it, the 2026 hand uses two soaps as the zeroes, but any hand with a zero counts. When the soap is doing zero work, it is suit-neutral. It does not need to match the Dots suit.
Prim's full answer: Is the White Dragon really a zero?
No. When the Soap (White Dragon) is doing duty as a zero, it lives in year-number hands and other spots where the card shows a 0, but it can never stand in as part of a consecutive run of numbers. A run wants actual numbered tiles in sequence, and a zero is not one of them. New to the terms? See the glossary.
Prim's full answer: Is the White Dragon really a zero?
Flower tiles are 8 to a set, usually painted with flowers or seasons, and count as a single tile category. Several hands on the NMJL card require flowers as part of the pattern. Jokers can substitute for flowers in the same manner they are used in other hands, never for a single or a pair, but allowed inside a group of three or more. A discarded flower can be called to complete a flower pung, kong, quint, or sextet (a group of multiple flowers together), or as your final tile to declare Mahjong, never to fill a single flower slot. Some flowers have letters or numbers on them. That decoration has no meaning in the game of American Mahjong.
Prim's full answer: How many Flowers are in the set, and are they all the same?
They are the names for groups of matching tiles, and they are the building blocks of almost every hand. A pung is three identical tiles. A kong is four. A quint is five. A sextet is six. The larger groups only appear on certain hands, and quints and sextets always lean on jokers to reach those counts. A pair, for the record, is just two matching tiles, and a pair is the one grouping a joker can never help you complete. New to the terms? See the glossary.
Prim's full answer: What is a pung, a kong and a quint?
A NEWS hand is a category on the NMJL card built around the four wind tiles: North, East, West, South. The pattern typically asks for specific arrangements of the four winds alongside other tiles. Because the winds usually appear as singles (one of each tile, no repeated tiles) in these hands, jokers cannot be used to fill the wind slots.
The NMJL card is the annual tri-fold card published by the National Mah Jongg League listing every legal hand for the current year, grouped by category. A table playing the League's card wins by matching one of those patterns. A new card comes out each April. The old one expires the same day. It is the most widely played card, and other publishers print cards too; any of them works when all four players at the table use the same one.
Prim's full answer: Does the NMJL card change every year, and what actually changes?
The National Mah Jongg League releases a new card every April. You can pre-order through the NMJL directly or pick one up from a local distributor. It is good for a year, then a fresh card takes its place.
Prim's full answer: Does the NMJL card change every year, and what actually changes?
Two things people mix up. The X next to a hand means Exposed, you can call discards to build it. The C means Concealed, the hand must be played closed, with every tile self-drawn, and the only discard you can claim is the final tile to declare Mahjong. Suit relationships are not shown by X or C at all; they are shown by color. Number tiles in the same color must be the same suit, and number tiles in different colors must be different suits. Winds and Flowers wear a color too, but they belong to no suit.
Prim's full answer: What do X and C mean at the end of a line on the card?
The National Mah Jongg League card lists every legal hand for the year in a compact shorthand of abbreviations, color blocks, and groupings. Each line is one hand. The card is organized into families: year hands like 2026, the even-number 2468 family, consecutive runs, the odd-number 13579 family, winds and dragons, and singles and pairs. The colors say how many suits a line uses, never which ones, and the small print tells you which groups can take a joker (any group of three or more) and which cannot (singles and pairs). Once that key clicks, each April's new card stops being intimidating. Prim's NMJL Card Decoder walks the card section by section to teach exactly this.
Prim's full answers: What are the sections on the NMJL card, and what is each one for? What do the letters on the NMJL card mean?
On the NMJL card, color stands for suit, not a specific one. A hand printed in two colors means any two of the three suits (Bams, Craks, Dots); three colors means all three, and they can be in any order. The rule is simply: number tiles in the same color must be the same suit, and number tiles in different colors must be different suits. So a two-color hand is not telling you green means Bams; it is telling you to pick two suits and keep them distinct. Winds and Flowers are printed in a color as well, but they belong to no suit and never count toward how many suits a line uses. Dragons are different. A Dragon printed in the same color as a number group goes with that group's suit (Red with Craks, Green with Bams, Soap (White Dragon) with Dots), a Dragon in a color no number group on the line wears must be one that does not match them, and a line that says Any Dragon lets you use any of the three. New to the terms? See the glossary.
Prim's full answer: What do the colors on the NMJL card mean?
The National Mah Jongg League's card is the one most American tables play, but it is not the only one, other publishers put out their own annual cards with different hands. Any of them is perfectly legal to play, with one rule: everyone at the table has to be on the same card, since the hands do not match across them. Most groups pick one and stick with it for the year.
The Charleston is the tile exchange that opens every American Mahjong game. Three tiles right, three across, three left, that's the first Charleston, and it's mandatory. After that comes the optional second Charleston in reverse: three left, three across, three right. Any player can stop the second Charleston before it begins. This cadence is the time to shed the tiles you do not want and see what the table sends back. On the third pass of each Charleston, you can conduct a blind pass. In the first round, that is the pass to your left. In the second round, it is the pass to your right. To blind pass, you can take 1, 2, or 3 tiles that are passed to you and pass them on to the next player to complete the three-tile total. So if you only have one to pass, you can pull two from those passed to you and blindly pass them on.
Prim's full answers: In the Charleston, should I pass for my own hand or pass defensively? Can I stop the Charleston, and do I have to say why?
The courtesy pass is the optional exchange that comes after the Charleston concludes (whether it plays once or twice). It is separate from and follows the Charleston. You and the player across the table swap one, two, or three tiles, equal number both ways, but only if both of you agree. Either player can say no, and that is the end of it.
Prim's full answers: Can I stop the Charleston, and do I have to say why? What is the courtesy pass?
A blind pass is when you pass tiles during the Charleston without looking at all of them first. You take the tiles handed to you and pass them straight along. Blind passes are only allowed on the third pass of each Charleston: the pass left that ends the first Charleston, and the pass right that ends the second. They are your escape hatch when you have nothing useful to give up.
Prim's full answer: What is a blind pass in the Charleston?
A joker is a wild tile. It can stand in for any tile inside a group of three or more, a pung (3 matching), kong (4 matching), quint (5 matching), or sextet (6 matching), on the NMJL card. Jokers can never substitute for a single tile or a pair, which is why you will not see one in a NEWS hand, a year-number hand, a run, or anywhere the pattern asks for a tile to stand alone. There are 8 jokers in a standard set.
Prim's full answer: Can a Joker be used in a pair or a single?
No. Jokers only stand in for tiles inside a group of three or more like tiles, a pung, kong, quint, or sextet. Pairs and singles must be the actual tile, no matter what hand you are playing.
Prim's full answer: Can a Joker be used in a pair or a single?
A joker swap is when you offer a real tile from your hand to redeem a joker that has been exposed on any rack at the table, including your own. The swap happens on your turn. You cannot swap for a joker held concealed in someone's hand; only ones that have already been exposed are in play.
Prim's full answers: Can I take a Joker out of someone else's exposure? When should I expose my jokers?
Yes. A joker can stand in for any tile inside a group of three or more identical tiles, a pung (three), a kong (four), a quint (five), or a sextet (six), and there is no minimum number of natural tiles required. A whole pung of three jokers is perfectly legal. Quints and sextets actually need jokers no matter what, since only four of any natural tile exist, and they can be all jokers too, up to the eight in the set. The one limit that never bends: a joker can never be a single tile or part of a pair. Threes and up only.
Prim's full answer: Can a Joker be used in a pair or a single?
Yes. A concealed hand does not lock you out of joker swaps. Redeeming a joker depends on only two things: the joker has to be exposed on a rack, yours or anyone else's, and it has to be your turn. Neither one depends on whether your own hand is open or closed. The swap does not break your concealment because it is not a call for an exposure: you hand one real tile into the other player's exposure and take the joker back into your hand, with nothing of yours ever going face-up. Your hand stays closed, and that joker can fill any pung, kong, quint, or sextet you are building. The only joker you cannot touch is one still hidden in a player's hand, it has to be exposed to be fair game. New to the terms? See the glossary.
Prim's full answers: Does taking a Joker break my concealed hand? Can I take a Joker out of someone else's exposure?
When you discard a joker, you may announce it three ways: say "Joker," say "Same," or repeat the name of the tile that was just discarded before it. All three are legal. Here is the part that trips people up: it makes no difference which one you choose, because a discarded joker is permanently dead, no one can ever pick it up, call it, or use it, no matter what you name it. Naming a joker after the previous discard does not turn it into that tile. Players mostly do it when dogging, playing defensively late in the hand and throwing only safe tiles, because a joker is the safest possible discard, and echoing the previous throw keeps the rhythm without handing the table any information. New to the terms? See the glossary.
Prim's full answers: Can I call a discarded Joker in American Mahjong? Do I have to say the name of the tile I discard?
Yes, as long as that joker sits in an exposure the player made correctly, before the mistake that killed the hand. Those are still fair game: on your turn, you hand over the real tile the joker stands for and take the joker into your hand. What you cannot touch is the exposure that was in error, because that group is the mistake itself and nothing comes out of it, along with any joker that was never exposed and any tile still hidden in a hand. One more case worth knowing: if the player was going for a concealed hand and exposed by accident, the whole hand goes back to the rack and nothing in it is available to anyone. So when a hand at your table is called dead, do not cross its jokers off your count too fast. The ones in its clean, earlier exposures are still yours to claim. New to the terms? See the glossary.
Prim's full answer: Can I take a Joker out of someone else's exposure?
As many as your tiles allow, there is no cap. If it is your turn and you hold the real tiles for three exposed jokers around the table, you can redeem all three before you discard. Just do it on your own turn, one clean swap at a time, and finish by discarding as usual.
Prim's full answer: Can I take a Joker out of someone else's exposure?
No, you have to make your call first. You can't pull a joker off a rack and then use that joker to claim the tile someone just threw. Take the discard (or pick from the wall) and complete your turn first; redeeming jokers is a separate move you make on your own turn. The order matters, and tables enforce it.
Prim's full answer: Can I take a Joker out of someone else's exposure?
If it slips by, the wrong tile goes into the exposure and nobody notices before the next discard, that player's hand is dead. But if someone catches it before the discard, it is a simple fix with no penalty: put the right tile in, or undo the swap. The lesson is to double-check that the tile actually matches the joker before you hand it over.
Prim's full answer: Can I take a Joker out of someone else's exposure?
When there is not a single joker in your completed winning hand. Here is the part people miss: if you used a joker along the way but it got swapped out before you went out, an opponent redeemed it, or you traded it for the real tile, your hand still counts as jokerless. It is the final fourteen tiles that matter. A jokerless win doubles your payout, on every category except Singles and Pairs, where the bonus is already built into the value. New to the terms? See the glossary.
An exposed hand has at least one group of tiles displayed with a tile claimed from another player's discard, with all tiles in that grouping shown face-up on the rack. A concealed hand is built from your own draws and the Charleston, with nothing exposed during play. You can still claim the final discard that completes it and expose to win on it. Concealed hands pay more because they are harder to complete. Jokers can be used in a concealed hand as you would in any other hand.
Prim's full answer: What do X and C mean at the end of a line on the card?
You can call a discarded tile to complete a pung, kong, quint, or sextet. You cannot call for a pair or single, except as your very last tile, when claiming that discard wins the hand and you declare Mahjong. The discard is only available until the next player draws a tile from the wall and racks it (or makes her own discard). After that, the tile is dead. If more than one person calls the discarded tile, it goes to the player next in line to play, unless one of them is calling Mahjong. If a player calls Mahjong, the tile goes to her first. If two players call Mahjong on the same tile, it goes to the one next in order of play.
Prim's full answer: Can I be penalized for calling a discard too slowly?
Yes, but only during that same turn. The moment the claimed discard is placed on the flat part of your rack, or tiles from your hand go face-up, you are committed to using that discard for an exposure. Until you discard, though, you may still adjust the exposure itself: change a pung to a kong or back again, add or remove jokers, or change the number and type of tiles displayed around the claimed tile. Two things end the window: making your discard, or completing a joker exchange that turn (a 2025 NMJL bulletin update). After either one, the exposure is locked exactly as it sits for the rest of the hand, and nothing can be added, removed, or promoted on a later turn. This same window is also your chance to fix a mistaken exposure with no penalty. New to the terms? See the glossary.
The player whose turn comes up first, closest to the discarder's right, going around the table, has first claim, unless another player has already started laying down their exposure for that tile, in which case it is theirs. And Mahjong beats everything: if one player wants the tile for an exposure and another wants it to win, the one calling Mahjong gets it, even if the other was technically next in line. If two people both call Mahjong on the same tile, it goes to the one nearer the discarder's right. New to the terms? See the glossary.
Prim's full answer: If two players call the same discard, who gets it?
Yes. You are allowed to say "wait" or "hold" to freeze the table for a moment while you check your hand against the card. It buys you a beat to decide, but it is for a quick look, not a long deliberation, so don't keep the table hanging. Once you have decided, say your call clearly: "call," "take," or just name the tile.
Prim's full answer: Can I be penalized for calling a discard too slowly?
Only the one just discarded, and only during its brief window. Once a tile has gone dead, the next player has drawn and racked, it is out of play for good. You can't reach back for something from three turns ago, no matter how badly you need it now. Every discard gets exactly one moment; miss it and it is gone.
Yes, the discarded tile itself is your one "real" tile, and you fill out the rest of the group with jokers from your hand. So if you need a pung of 5 Dot and you are holding two jokers, you can call a discarded 5 Dot and complete the pung with that tile plus your two jokers. The only thing you can't do is build an exposure out of nothing but jokers, but a called discard always gives you that one real tile to build on. Jokers still can't stand in for a single or a pair, as always. New to the terms? See the glossary.
That depends on which tile you needed. A discard is claimed by its name, and a tile cannot be claimed until it is correctly named. Say the player before you sets down a Four Bam but announces "Four Crak," and Four Crak is exactly what completes your hand. You call Mahjong on the name you heard. The game stops, your win stands, and the misnamer alone pays you four times the value of your hand. The other two players pay nothing. If instead the tile as it actually sits is the one you need, ask for the name to be corrected and then claim it in the ordinary way. Either way, look as well as listen, and be sure before you say the word.
Prim's full answer: Somebody named a discard wrong. What happens?
It is the tiebreaker for a hot discard. Normally the player next in turn has first claim on a discarded tile, but if someone else wants that same tile to complete their winning hand, Mahjong wins out. Calling Mahjong outranks calling for an exposure, every time. So even if you were "next," a player declaring Mahjong on that tile gets it.
Prim's full answer: If two players call the same discard, who gets it?
A wall game (sometimes just called a wall) happens when every tile has been drawn from the wall and nobody has declared Mahjong. Nobody wins. Nobody pays out. The hand resets and a new one begins.
Prim's full answer: What happens when the wall runs out with no winner?
No. Once a tile has been named aloud or has touched the table, it is discarded for good, there is no taking it back. Players call this rule "Down is Down." The same idea applies to tiles you have committed to: once you move a tile from the wall or place a called tile on your rack, it is yours to keep. The rule keeps the game honest and the pace moving, so name your discard only when you are sure. New to the terms? See the glossary.
Prim's full answer: Can I take back a tile I already discarded?
As a rule, no, keep your hands to your own rack. Even during a joker swap, you do not reach over and grab the joker yourself: you announce the swap, hand your real tile to that player, and let them place the joker into your hand. It keeps the game honest and keeps the peace. The one thing everyone touches together is the shuffle at the start, when all four players mix the tiles.
Yes, with small adjustments, though four is the true game. With three players you still build all four walls and deal as usual, but you skip the Charleston and East simply opens by discarding. With two players you sit opposite each other, each build your own wall plus the wall to your right, skip the Charleston, and East starts. Neither version carries the full rhythm of a four-player table, but both are good for a short game or for teaching someone new. Solo practice, sometimes called solo mahj, is a fourth option when you just want to drill hands. New to the terms? See the glossary.
Yes, a fifth player can join as the Bettor. After the Charleston, the Bettor quietly picks the player they believe will win (or bets on a wall game, meaning no winner at all) and keeps it secret, writing the name down or using a small betting disk. The Bettor cannot talk, signal, or interfere during play. When the hand ends, the Bettor wins or loses the same amount as the player they bet on. It is the traditional way to seat a fifth person without breaking up the four at the table, they rotate in as seats open. New to the terms? See the glossary.
Prim's full answer: Can a fifth person play American Mahjong?
Two rare, lucky wins, both belonging to East. A Heavenly Hand is when East is dealt a complete, valid hand and declares Mahjong before the Charleston even begins, the passing is waived entirely. An Earthly Hand is when East completes the hand during the Charleston and declares the moment it ends, before any tile is drawn from the wall. Both count as self-picked, so East collects double from every player. You may go years without seeing one, which is exactly why they have names. New to the terms? See the glossary.
A hand is dead when it can no longer make a legal Mahjong, usually because the player has exposed tiles incorrectly, holds the wrong number of tiles, or made a Joker exchange too early. It is dead only when another player calls it from what the table can see, and only an exposed hand may be verified and called dead. A dead hand cannot win. Once the call stands, that player stops drawing, discarding and calling for the rest of the hand, and pays the winner the full value of the winning hand. No one may declare her own hand dead. If you know yours is dead and no one has called it, say nothing, keep drawing and discarding, and play defense until the hand is over.
Prim's full answer: What is a dead hand, and who can call it?
A hand is dead when it can no longer make a legal Mahjong, and there are a handful of common ways it happens: holding the wrong number of tiles (fewer than 13 or more than 14); exposing tiles that do not form a real pung, kong, quint, or sextet (like exposing NEWS or a year, which are singles); exposing a group that matches no hand on the card; exposing while you are supposed to be playing a concealed hand; swapping a joker before you have picked or called; discarding before you draw; or drawing out of turn or from the wrong wall. It can also be called dead when your exposures show a hand that needs a single or a pair to finish and three or more of the four tiles you need are already discarded or exposed. One important catch: a hand is not dead until another player points it out, you can't declare your own hand dead, and only an exposed hand may be verified and called dead. New to the terms? See the glossary.
Prim's full answer: What is a dead hand, and who can call it?
You can. If a player's exposures, read together with the discards and how many tiles she holds, make it clear she can't possibly finish a legal hand, any player may challenge it and call that hand dead, it is a "death challenge." Keep it civil: the conversation is just between you and the challenged player, and everyone else stays quiet. If you are right, that player sits out the rest of that hand. If the call is disputed, it is settled when the tiles are shown at the end, and whoever was wrong pays the other fifty cents, or fifty points, on top of whatever the winner collects. Only call it when the table can actually see it from the exposed tiles, never from a peek at or a guess about someone's concealed tiles. A hand with nothing exposed cannot be called dead from the discards at all, because no one knows what that player is going for.
Prim's full answer: What is a dead hand, and who can call it?
Your hand stops. You do not pick, discard, or call for the rest of that hand, and you stay quiet while the others play on. At the end you pay the winner the full value of their hand. You keep your tiles on the rack, and any Jokers in exposures you made correctly before the error can still be redeemed by the live players. It is for that hand only, and the next deal starts you fresh. If you do not think you are actually dead, say so. The challenge is settled when the tiles are shown, and whoever was wrong pays the small penalty.
Prim's full answer: What is a dead hand, and who can call it?
No, and this one surprises people. Even if you know in your heart your hand is cooked, you can't announce it yourself; a hand is only dead when another player recognizes it from your visible tiles. The reason: calling your own hand dead would leak information and let you off the hook. So keep a straight face, keep playing defensively, and let someone else make the call, if they even notice.
Prim's full answer: What is a dead hand, and who can call it?
It depends on when it is caught. If it is spotted before the game truly starts, during the Charleston, the tiles are thrown in and everyone re-deals (one exception: the player to East's left may take their rightful tile from the wall if they are simply short one and East has not discarded yet). But once East has thrown the first tile and you are found holding the wrong number, your hand is dead, you pay the winner, but can't win yourself. If two players have the wrong count, the others play on; if three do, the whole hand is replayed.
Call it back fast and you are usually fine. If you announce Mahjong, then catch the mistake before you have exposed your hand and before anyone else has disturbed theirs, you simply take it back and play continues with no penalty. But once you have laid your hand down, that hand is declared dead: you stop drawing and discarding for the rest of that hand, the others keep playing, and when someone does win you pay the winner the full value of the hand. If you declared on a discard and realize you were wrong, you may downgrade your claim to a call for exposure instead. The lesson every table learns the hard way is to count twice before you call. New to the terms? See the glossary.
Prim's full answer: What happens if you call Mahjong by mistake?
It is the game's steepest penalty: one player pays four times the value of the hand for a mistake that spoils the hand for everyone. The classic case is a misnamed discard. If a player announces her discard by the wrong name and someone declares Mahjong on the name she called, the game stops, the Mahjong stands, and the misnamer alone pays that player four times the value of the hand. The other two pay nothing. The same four-times payment falls on a player who draws out of turn and then discards that tile into someone's Mahjong. It is a very good reason to name every discard clearly, and to slow down when the stakes are high.
Every hand on the NMJL card has a point value next to it, typically somewhere between 25 and 75 points. The player who calls Mahjong collects from each opponent based on that point value. The opponent who discarded the winning tile pays double. A jokerless hand doubles the payout. Concealed hands carry no separate bonus, since their higher value is already printed on the card. Most tables play for small stakes, a penny per point is common, though the specifics vary by group.
Prim's full answer: Who pays, and how much, when someone wins at American Mahjong?
When you win off a tile someone discarded, that person, the one who threw your winning tile, pays double the hand's value, and the other two players pay the single printed value. If instead you pick your own winning tile from the wall, all three players pay double; that is the reward for going out on your own. And a jokerless hand doubles the payout again on top of either of those.
Prim's full answer: Who pays, and how much, when someone wins at American Mahjong?
Two different things. A jokerless hand, no jokers at all in your final fourteen tiles, doubles your payout, on every category except Singles and Pairs, where it is already built in. Concealed hands work differently: there is no separate concealed bonus added on. The card simply prints a higher value for hands that must be played concealed, so the reward is already in the number you collect. Stack a jokerless win with a self-picked win and you reach the ceiling: four times the hand's value from each player. New to the terms? See the glossary.
Winning comes down to three habits. First, pick a direction early, look at what you are dealt, find the hands on the card that fit, and lean that way during the Charleston instead of chasing tiles. Second, stay flexible: keep a backup hand in mind, because the tiles passed to you will rarely match your first plan. Third, watch the table, every discard and exposure tells you what your opponents are building, so you can stop feeding them. Late in the hand, when your own win looks unlikely, switch to defense and throw only safe tiles. And guard your jokers, because a wasted joker is usually a wasted hand. New to the terms? See the glossary.
Defensive play is what you do when your own hand has stalled and you would rather no one win than hand the round to someone else. The classic move is called dogging: you break up your hand and throw only safe tiles, often whatever the player just before you discarded, since it clearly was not claimed. The goal is to avoid throwing a hot tile that an opponent obviously needs. It matters because you cannot win second in American Mahjong; once someone declares Mahjong the hand is over, so a good defensive game protects the whole table from a player who is one tile away. New to the terms? See the glossary.
Prim's full answer: When should I fold in American Mah Jongg?
A hot tile is one an opponent obviously needs, something you can read from their exposures, the hands on the card, and the tiles they have pointedly not discarded. Throwing a hot tile late in the hand is how you hand someone the win. Learning which tiles have gone cold, or safe, and which are running hot is a big part of playing good defense. New to the terms? See the glossary.
A few show up at every new table. Committing to one hand too early and refusing to pivot when the Charleston hands you something else. Passing tiles in the Charleston that obviously help a neighbor. Wasting jokers on groups you could fill with real tiles. Forgetting to play defense once your own hand stalls, you can't win second, so a hot tile thrown late hands someone the round. And calling Mahjong before counting to fourteen. None of them are fatal, and all of them fade fast with a few games. New to the terms? See the glossary.
A few places that actually work: the Bam Good Time directory of local games, Meetup for mahjong groups in your city, local Facebook groups for players in your area, and your nearest Jewish Community Center (JCC), community center, or senior center, many of them host weekly games. If you have never played, ask anyway. Most tables welcome a beginner. In fact, many cities now have gathering parlors specifically for mahjong.
Yes. The main platforms NMJL players use most are I Love Mahj, Real Mahjong, and Mahjong 4 Friends. More are being released this year. All three support live play with friends, and most offer practice modes against the computer when you cannot get a table together.
For a casual game at home, absolutely, plenty of tables add little house rules, as long as everyone agrees before the hand starts. House rules are real rules: they are what your table agreed to play. Most tournaments play the League's rules, so if a tournament is in your future, practice a few games that way too.
Prim's full answer: Why does every mahjong group play by different rules?
The glossary covers every word you'll hear at the table, and Prim's weekly letters answer the rest. Bring your questions, that's how everyone learns.