Lessons

Learn mahjong from zero

No experience, no group, no vocabulary required. Lessons teach American mahjong — the rack-and-joker game — from the very beginning: what the tiles are, how a hand moves. And they happen at a real table, because that’s where the game makes sense.

The game

American mahjong, specifically

Mahjong is a draw-and-discard game for four players, each racing to complete a winning hand of fourteen tiles. American mahjong is its own branch of the family — the version played with racks, jokers, and a card of winning hands that changes every year.

The card is the American game’s signature. Founded in New York in 1937 to standardize the game, the National Mah Jongg League publishes the official card each year: every winning hand, printed on one sheet. A new card means new hands, so the game resets a little every year, and veterans and beginners land on the same page.

Is it hard to learn? Easier than its reputation — the turn-by-turn rules fit in one sitting; the card is where the depth lives, and that part stays interesting for years. None of it needs memorizing before you visit: the point of a studio is that the table teaches you, and the sections below are here so the words sound familiar when you first hear them.

The equipment

One set, 152 tiles

An American set plays 152 tiles. Three suits — dots, bams, and craks — run one through nine with four of each; winds, dragons, flowers, and eight jokers make up the rest.

A few from the rack — dot · bam · flower · wind · soap · joker

The blank one isn’t a mistake — that’s the white dragon, the tile players call the soap. It doubles as the zero when a hand on the card needs one. Details like that are why the game is better learned at a table than from a page.

What’s in the set

Dots: 36
Bams: 36
Craks: 36
Winds: 16
Dragons: 12
Flowers: 8
Jokers: 8
In play: 152

Retail sets often ship spare jokers and blanks. 152 is the game.

The shape of a game

How a hand moves

A hand has a shape, and it’s the same every time: build, pass, draw, win. Four beats.

1
Build and deal
Tiles are shuffled face down and built into walls. Everyone draws thirteen; the dealer takes a fourteenth.
2
The Charleston
Three tiles pass right, across, then left — that round’s required. A second round back the other way is optional, and a courtesy pass across can close it. Jokers stay put: they never pass.
3
Draw, discard, call
The dealer opens play with the first discard — no draw — and turns move around the table: draw a tile, keep it or let it go. A discard someone needs can be called to complete an exposed group of three or more identical tiles — or to finish a winning hand. Jokers stand in inside those groups — never in a pair, never alone.
4
Mahjong
Fourteen tiles matching one line on the card, exactly. The call is the name of the game — you say it out loud.

That’s the loop. Reading the card, joker etiquette, when to abandon a hand — that’s what lessons and table time are for.

What to expect

At the table from minute one

You learn mahjong by playing mahjong. Lessons put tiles in your hands early and build the rules around what you’re already doing — not the other way around.

[Lesson format, series structure, class sizes, and booking — from the client questionnaire.]

Who lessons are for

“I’ve always wanted to learn” counts

Complete beginners

Never seen a tile outside a movie. This is the room where that changes.

Rusty players

Played years ago at a relative’s table and remember the feeling more than the rules. It comes back fast.

Group learners

Want to learn alongside your own people? Bring them — learning as a table is the classic way.

Words you’ll hear

Table vocabulary

The card: The League’s annual sheet of winning hands — every hand you can win with, printed on one page. A new card comes out each year.
Charleston: The opening ritual: three tiles passed right, across, then left — and maybe again — before the first discard.
Pung: Three identical tiles.
Kong: Four identical tiles.
Quint: Five of a kind. With four of each tile it takes a joker — except a quint of flowers, since the set carries eight.
Exposure: A completed group placed face-up on your rack after calling a discard.
Wall: The face-down rows of shuffled tiles everyone draws from.
Rack: The stand in front of each player — your hand faces you, your exposures face the table.
Soap: The white dragon — blank in most sets — and the zero, when a hand on the card calls for one.
Joker: The wild tile. Stands in for anything inside a group of three or more — never in a pair, never passed.
Dead hand: A hand that can no longer win — the wrong tile count, an exposure gone wrong. Once it’s called dead, you stop drawing and discarding for the rest of the hand.
Mahjong: The winning call: fourteen tiles matching a card line exactly. You say it out loud.

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