Mah jongg strategy, beyond the card
Most of what is written about American mah jongg teaches a beginner to read the card. That is a fine thing to teach, and I teach it too — but it is the first afternoon, not the game. What follows is the rest of it: how to read a table, not just a rack.
How to Read the Discard Pond Like a Newspaper
The tiles in the middle are the minutes of the meeting. What is dead, what is hot, and why what is missing from the pond is worth ten times what is in it.
What an Exposure Actually Tells You
When she lays three tiles face up she has confessed. How to count her remaining rack, close the card down to two lines, and spot a free joker.
The Charleston as a Conversation, Not a Shuffle
Six exchanges before a tile is drawn. What to pass, what the arriving tiles are telling you, and when to stop the second Charleston.
More coming, one every fortnight
Pivot maps for a dying hand. Natural load. Playing the clock in a timed tournament. Defense as good manners with teeth. If you would like them as they appear, write to me at DottiesMahj@gmail.com and I will put you on the monthly letter.
Or have it drilled instead of read
The Defensive Playbook and the Offensive Playbook are these ideas turned into drills, keyed line-by-line to the current card and rewritten every spring. And if you would rather be taught at a real table, see mahjong lessons in Rochester, Minnesota.
Written by Dottie J. Steinberg. Rewritten each spring when the National Mah Jongg League prints the new card.