A Mah Jong Handbook: How to Play, Score, and Win

Eleanor Whitney has written an excellent guide for Mah Jong for the American audience.(Please see the attached pictures.)Most Americans' exposure to Mah Jong is the tile matching, solitaire game that comes with Windows. The original Mah Jong is deeper and more strategic.Mah Jong is actually an oriental gambling game that is played with three suits and special tiles. There are four copies of each tile in a complete set. The game is approximately 300 years old and came to the US as a gaming craze in the 1920-30 period.Mah Jong lost its gambling aspect when it came to the US and became more of a Rummy like game, think Canasta, Rummy 500, etc.The basics of the game are relatively straightforward. You have a hand with 13 tiles, and you are trying to get four sets of either three tile runs or sets of three identical tiles. You also need a pair. So, you have 3 x 4 = 12 tiles + pair = 14 tiles.One of the unique aspects of Mah Jong is that you can cut in and take a tile to get your third tile in a set (or the fourth tile if you already have three of the four).Eleanor does a good job at laying out the rules, and she brings back in some of the canonical rules, e.g., how hands are scored and paid off. (The goes back a little to Mah Jong's gambling origins, but you are playing with counters, not real money.)OK, here is a bit of a caveat. Mah Jong is more complicated than it looks.Once you introduce the various levels of scoring and special points, you up the complexity of decisions in the game. Do you go for the more likely hand, or do you try for a hand that is harder to get, but scores 32 times as many points?A lot has to do with your initial starting hand and understanding the odds of getting a particular tile. Eleanor spends a lot of time on how to maximize your chances of getting a run or a set.There is a huge psychological aspect too. If you can infer what tiles your opponents need then you might prevent them from going out.More than meets the eye ...Also, experience Mah Jong players are quick like the wind in practical play. You do not have time to deeply ponder your moves because while you are pondering, your colleagues might take three turns and go out.Mah Jong is fun, and the sets are beautiful.Mah Jong has been a staple family game at the Reasonable Reviewer household for over thirty years, and I highly recommend this book whether you are a novice or a seasoned Mah Jong player.

“A Mah Jong Handbook” by Eleanor Noss Whitney presents a comprehensive overview of the game, with an emphasis on the Japanese version. There is valuable information to be found for all levels of play. There is great scoring info, including a really useful table, outline, and chart at the end of the book (after the index).Some reviewers have commented that they were disappointed by the lack of useful info pertaining to the American National Mah Jongg League version of the game. However, for a fan of the game who enjoys expanding their knowledge regarding all its forms and varieties, the book is very entertaining and worth the read.Compared to other books on the subject, there were surprisingly (and gratefully) few typographical errors, and they were mostly grammatical and didn’t affect the clarity of the technical content. Because they may be useful in correcting future editions of the book, I’ll sum them up here:Page 46, first sentence in “Points for Concealed Hand” section: “form” should be “from”Page 76, captions for first 2 images: not sure, but it seems the captions (“End of terminal sequence” and “Middle of sequence” should be reversed Page 100, third sentence in “Rounding Off the Score” section: “my” should be “may”Page 113, line 6: first word of sentence should be “If” instead of “It”Page 139, Example 39, under “Two chances”: second line “on” should be “no”Although it may be personal preference, it may have improved readability if the statements in bold text on pages 98 and 99 were moved to the beginnings of the related paragraphs instead of appearing at the ends.Overall, interesting and well written.

I'm sure this book is fine. Just know that it does not cover rules for American-style game.

I bought this book together with a Riichi Mahjong set from Yellow Mountain Imports. It was very helpful for both teaching my parents the game, as well as straightening out a few things I had wrong. the book has clear explanations accompanied by color pictures, as well as popular variations in addition to the rules of traditional mahjong. The most helpful part had to be in regards to score calculation, where the book gave a clear, step by step list as well as a chart in the back of the book for all the possible scores. it did not, however explain the denomination of bones if you upped the "Limit" from 500 to 1500, or any sort of ratio for popular programs you could find online, which tend to set the initial starting points to 25000 or 50000, while the book has initial starting points at 2000, (However it clearly explained everything else about those rules in regards to variations and "doubles")

This is not a handbook for American Mah Jong, but for various other types. Sadly, although I perused it carefully, the game(s) it describes are so different that its strategic tips aren't relevant to what I needed. It appears to be a useful book for the kinds of play it discusses: I'm guessing it's what's played in Japan. That said, it would be useful to find the quality of the diagrams, the clarity of the prose, and the focus on strategy in a book on American Mah Jong.

Good book, this covers Japanese MJ. But strategies applicable to other versions as well

Mah Jongg is not the easiest of games to learn - especially because of the number of variants that exist. The best thing to do is to discuss with your friends which version you'll be playing so everyone is on the same page.If you're the first member of the group, pick a rules set that is compatible with your tiles and go.I have half a dozen Mah Jongg books, and this was the one that is most approachable by new players. It focuses primarily on the Japanese Classical set of rules, but has notes on how other variants are played. In some cases, it has enough information that you can play these variants.

Beware, this book covers American and Japanese Mah Jong not Chinese or British / Australian Mah Jong!Totally unsuitable for those of us who play British Association or 'Max Robertson' rules.I've been playing for forty years and found it practically incomprehensible!Even the language is different. She talks about melds and going 'out', when you are 'one from' or 'fishing'.Wasted my money.Please emphasise that the book is aimed at American or Japanese players!!

Good. Book could have been better. Doesn't compare with the Mah-Jongg Book, I had and had lost or mis-placed?

Very helpful for new players. Value for money

This book is considered the go-to for MahJong players who want to play by the international rules. I only gave it four stars because it also has some American rules in it, which leads to some confusion. I wish there was a book that only included the Japanese international rules.

Presenta prácticamente todas las modalidades del juego. De repente se puede uno confundir si no recuerda que está mostrando una gran cantidad de formas en las que se puede jugar.En mi caso, dónde jugamos a nivel círculo familiar es interesante conocer y probar algunas adiciones tomadas de otras opciones de juego