TBH, I don’t “love” it. I much prefer card games, and I do tend to overthink it. I am working on it, though.
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I have started to learn. D2 and D3 play together once a month or so with friends. In the small town that I live in a local restaurant has started a group for everyone. The beginners have their own table and the more experienced players play together. It costs $25, but that includes lunch and prizes. They really make it fun. If you Mah jong you are crowned with a cheesy crown and ribbon. At the end those who Mah jong get to take a prize.
I still feel like a deer in headlights. The first time that I won I had 5 jokers and 2 blanks. The local rules use blanks. Blanks allow one to exchange it for a discarded tile. You can exchange it anytime, but it is better when the rest of the table is distracted, so they don’t know what you took. Our D3 visited this past week, and she came with me and had a blast. She was appalled over our use of blanks but still used them.
I think that I will enjoy playing, but Bridge is my game. I have played for 60+ years. I play for fun but would like to get better.
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@silverlady are you playing American or Chinese Mah Jongg. Most American mahjong sets don’t have blank tiles…or if they do, it’s only a couple (in case a regular tile gets lost). That sounds like a “house rule” and lots of groups that play together have some house rule they all agree to.
Yesterday, I did a practice time with two of the new Mah Jongg players at my lake club. We really had fun, and I think both gained a little confidence figuring out a hand to play…which is all we did.
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We are playing American.
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After gaining confidence playing online (realmahjongg.com on slow and using hints), I have started playing at a local senior center. There are no blank tiles, but some tables play with two sets of tiles. I love it because no one plays for money and I am finding some other beginners. They are expanding to playing two days each week.
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These local rules and customs sound fun!
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One local rule is we play what they call stacks.
No Charleston. You put 7 stacks of three in front of your rack and draw 13 or 14 if you are east.
Discard 3, pick up the first stack right to left. After 3 rounds, the stacks can stop, if everyone agrees the exchanges go on. The last 2 stacks, you have the option to pick up 1 or 2 tiles, it’s called borrowing. Stacks is faster, you can play more games. I think it locks in hands and if you have no jokers, the hand is basically not winnable but others don’t agree lol.
We’ve also done the Charleston where you do right, across, left, optional across and stop. We decided that this abbreviated version was faster and the last couple of passes were redundant. I know you can stop but this version always stops.
We tried to play with blanks but it confused everyone so we don’t do that anymore.
We don’t play for points or money
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If it were up to me, I’d just let people pick their 13 or 14 and start the Charleston. As I’ve written before, some of this seems needlessly complicated.
I’m curious … where do y’all get the blanks? Are some sets sold with them?
We noticed one of the tiles was missing, so the set owner added one of her blanks. Now we just have to remember it was a 4 of Dots…..I think.
I don’t own a set, but the sets that are provided at the restaurant have them. I can’t remember how many blanks that there are, either 4 or 8.
My group sometimes plays what you call “ stacks” if we have only 3 players at a table. I like it because it’s quick.
I bought my set on line and it came with extra flowers, jokers and a few blank tiles. I don’t use them but will if any tiles go missing.
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My set has two sets of flowers. One looks exactly like it belongs in the set as it’s the same one we use at our senior center. The other 8 flowers are VERY odd and don’t look like flowers. But the odd looking flowers don’t have numbers or season abbreviations on them. Honestly mine have those numbers and season abbreviations…why can’t they just look like flowers.
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I play American and my set came with blanks - 6 plus 2 extra jokers. We usually throw them all in for our last game.
I learn something new everyday- never heard of stacks but like the explanation and would like to try. I agree the Charleston seems to drag sometimes.
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Chinese sets don’t have blanks or jokers. 144 tiles and all are used in the game.
I have two chinese sets (that I got in China) and my daughter gave me a set from Hobby Lobby that has a strange number of tiles, like 154? I’m not sure what style it is for, but it has the 144 needed for Chinese so we can just set aside the others.
Has anyone played Mahjong with just one other person? I got together with a friend today (no one else was available/interested) and she taught me how. Basically you each start with 27 tiles and build 2 hands. You have to have 2 Mahjongs to win.
My friend has special tile racks for this. But it really takes some adjusting of the brain. She won the first 2 games and the third was a “wall game”. It was fun and I feel like my brain got a good workout.
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I played two person mah jongg once and didn’t really like it. I think that may have been due to who I was playing with/teaching me how than the actual game. I have friends who play all the time.
I should probably try again.
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That’s Siamese Mah Jongg. The way I learned…you are trying to build two hands, but you only need one mah jongg to win. They make special racks where you can have two hands going. The fun part is you can switch your tiles in your two hands from one hand to the other.
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We were able to switch the tiles around between the two, but needed both Mahjongs to win. That was challenging.
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I played Siamese once. The rules weren’t explained very well.
I was told you needed to mahjong with both hands, my partner tried to mahjong with one. I told her that you couldn’t have a set of rules for one person and another for the other lol!
I’ve never played again and will probably avoid it. Maybe if the rules were explained better
I’m going to ask a couple of people who do this more often. Maybe we were playing with “house rules”.
I agree, the rules weren’t clear to me either.