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The free practice card.
Fourteen hands, one or two in every section, laid out the way the real card lays them out. Every line is invented, so you can mark it up, print it, and learn to read a card before you buy yours.
Each line is one winning hand, fourteen tiles. The sections in the bands group hands built the same way.
Colors group the numbers, never name a suit. Same color, same suit as each other. Different colors, different suits. Flowers and Winds wear a color and have no suit.
The words in parentheses win when they and the colors seem to disagree. X means you may call discards to build the hand. C means it stays concealed. The number is what it pays.
F is a Flower, D a Dragon, N E W S the Winds, and the 0 in 2100 is a Soap. Jokers go only in groups of three or more.
The Order of the Tile Practice Card, orderofthetile.com/practice-card.html. Every line invented for learning; none is from a published card. For league, club and tournament play, use this year's card from the National Mah Jongg League.
Read three lines with Prim.
A line is shorthand. Here are three of them from the card, each turned into one set of real tiles that wins it. Colors become suits, and you pick which.
A year hand
FFFF 2100 111 111 (Any 3 Suits)
↓ one way to hold it
Four Flowers, then the year in one suit, the 2, the 1 and two Soaps for the zeros. Then a pung of 1s in each of the other two suits. Three colors on the numbers, so three suits.
Like numbers, matching dragons
FF 5555 DD 5555 DD (Any 2 Suits, Any Like Numbers, Matching Dragons)
↓ one way to hold it
Any number you like, as long as both kongs use the same one. Each pair of Dragons matches the suit beside it: green with Bams, red with Craks.
A run across two suits
555 666 555 666 FF (Any 2 Suits, Any 2 Consecutive Numbers)
↓ one way to hold it
Two numbers in a row, a pung of each, in one suit and then again in another. Shown here as 5 and 6, but 2 and 3 or 8 and 9 win just the same.
Before you begin.
Is this the real NMJL card?
No. Every line on it was invented by The Order of the Tile for practice, and none is copied from a published card. It reads exactly the way the real card reads, which is the point. To play a real game you need this year's card from the National Mah Jongg League.
Can I play a game with the practice card?
At your own kitchen table, yes, if everyone agrees to it before the first wall goes up. It is never a card for league, club or tournament play, which all use the current National Mah Jongg League card.
Why is the year 2100?
A real card builds its year hands from the digits of the year it is printed for. We chose a year no real card will carry for a very long time, so this one can never be mistaken for a real card, and its two zeros give you practice reading a Soap as a zero.
Do the colors tell me which suit to use?
No. Colors only group the numbers: same color, same suit as each other; different colors, different suits. You choose which suits. Flowers and Winds wear a color too, and they have no suit at all.
Where to go next
- The Card Decoder, the whole card explained layer by layer.
- Step 3 of the learning path, reading the card, and the steps after it.
- What X and C mean and what the colors mean, answered on their own.