Ok…I play once a week at a local senior center with some great folks. The key is the excellent teacher and player. We all learn a LOT from her.
From my first class which I went to because a friend wanted to learn.
Teacher to my friend: so why are you here to learn Mah jong?
MY friend: I live half of the year in Florida and everyone plays there.
Teacher: oh absolutely. If you live in Florida part time, mah Jong is a must!
Teacher to Me: so…why are you here to learn mah jong?
ME (while pointing to my friend): because she is…
It was the truth. Since then, the friend has moved away, but others have joined the group. It’s a great group.
I actually like the 2026 card so far. No addition hands (I hated those), any like numbers has no closed hands, and I’m finding it easy to switch hands if I need to which is almost always.
That’s where I play too (also recommended by my teacher!, $5 per month)
My teacher ran a new (2026) card class last week, it was so helpful. She has already played 1,000 games with the 2026 card on realmahjongg and brought along the stats of the most winning hands.
It is a very good site – you can play actual games. It is by subscription only (don’t remember the cost). I joined for a while when I was getting back into the game and during covid, but eventually stopped my subscription.
I play once a month with a group, multiple tables. Many of us took lessons together. I love all the different sets, pretty tiles. We look things up and text in a group chat when questions arise since we all started at the same time about a year ago. None of us are experts. I also follow some IG accounts which I often find helpful.
I have tried to like mah-jongg and I have the current card, but I just haven’t found that I don’t enjoy it and it’s hard for me to “see” the options on the card and what to pass during the Charleston. Much prefer bridge. I feel like I’m “supposed” to learn mah-jongg for social reasons but so far I just don’t like it. I certainly don’t like playing for money. I’d rather just hand them five dollars at the beginning and be done with it.
A lot of people love Mahjong ( including me) but I get that it’s just not going to be everyone’s thing. FWIW my group doesn’t play for money and we are pretty chill.
We do not play for money, and I doubt I ever would agree to play for money. My FL friend says they play for money, but it’s not a lot. Still, I just wouldn’t do it.
It is a tricky game that you have to sort of get used to.
And for new folks…playing online with yourself will help you know the names of the tiles, but it’s not the same as playing for real. In my opinion.
Good that there are multiple options for group “games” (mahjong, bridge, canasta, etc). Something for everyone.
In my area the “money” in MJ games is in increments of quarters with the maximum you can lose often set at around $5 so we’re generally talking very small amounts for an afternoon out.
Agree it’s not the same as playing in person, eg., don’t have to do all the pregame tile sorting, don’t learn the etiquette and it’s not as social.
But, the benefits, especially for new-ish players, are many…it allows you to play a lot of games quickly which helps you memorize the year’s card, gain experience and become a good player in less time, and you can take as long as you want to decide what to do, whether discarding tiles during the charleston, or deciding whether or not to grab a discarded tile. Plenty of people in person can get quite grumpy when a player is taking ‘too long’ to make a decision. And for some of these peeps…’too long’ is anything not nearly immediate.
At this point, so many people I know play online at realmahjongg that there are often at least two of us playing at once (you can play games with friends, the computer, or a combo.)
Sorry…even $5 I would not pay. I’m playing mahjong for fun…not money. Personal preference.
Re: realmahjong online…I’m very fortunate to be playing with a great teacher every week (who is also a fun and very good player). I’ve learned a LOT by playing with this person, and after each hand, she will give advice if she feels it would be worthwhile. And…it’s free. No charge to play at our senior centers.
I started lessons last month through the Osher Lifelong Learning program here. I’m enjoying it mostly, but feel some frustration as well. Mostly in terms of time pressure to pass tiles and “commit” to a line on the card. OLLI has started offering a shared interest group where people can play one afternoon a week at the church where they offer the lessons. A recent announcement at another OLLI class mentioned that there was such strong interest that they may add another afternoon of play each week. I hope to take advantage of that opportunity when I get on the other side of knee surgery next month. I can’t imagine that I would ever want to play fo money.
No one in my mahjong group gets grumpy if someone needs to take their time on anything. That’s what I mean when I say we are chill. I would not enjoy being in a group that wasn’t like this.
I mostly have seen issues at ‘open’ play nights (not with small friend groups), but even then people should be tolerant of newbies. I’ve not played tournaments but people say it can be bad there too.
I think the struggle for me is not getting to play on a regular basis. I’ve only played three times over about nine months. That’s clearly not often enough to learn the game well.
I have one friend who is REALLY into it, and she wants everyone else to be into it. She is SO serious about it though. It doesn’t help that friends say, “Oh, you’d be so good at it!” No idea why they think this, because I am not!! It is not intuitive to me at all. Like @jym626 - I can never, “see,” my best options. The saving grace for me about Mahjong is that it is an individual game played without a partner. So being terrible isn’t letting someone else down.
It honestly feels like a waste of time to me I’m sure I wouldn’t feel that way if I enjoyed it and didn’t feel pressured to learn to play it. And I would probably enjoy it more if I weren’t still so intimidated by it.
I also just play now and again mostly as a ‘fill in” with a friend’s regular group. Definitely not as familiar with the card or as easily able to switch between hands as the regular players but I decided it is fine to just do the best I can and they are always gracious. Even if I drop $5 (I tend to break even) on the afternoon it is still way less than going to a movie or out to lunch.
I have a weekly bridge game and prefer that, but figured it is good to keep up with MJ a bit.
