American Mahjong strategy for beginners
Eight habits that make the biggest difference in your first months, and what to practice first. They assume you know the rules.
Start with a family of hands, not one hand
When you first see your tiles, sort them by and look for what repeats: , the same number in different suits, a run of numbers, a lot of one suit. Those repeats point at one part of the card.
Pick that part of the card first, then two hands inside it that share most of your tiles. Two is plenty. One hand leaves you stuck if a tile dries up, and five leaves you keeping tiles for everything and building nothing.
In the Charleston, pass the loners
The is where a hand takes shape. Pass tiles that fit neither of your two hands and have no partner on your . Keep your , and keep anything that works for both hands.
are never passed, so that choice is made for you. Pay attention to what comes back: if a neighbor keeps sending you , she is probably not collecting them, and the ones you need may come your way.
Check the pairs first
and single tiles are the hardest part of any hand. A cannot stand in for a pair or a single tile, and you cannot call a to make a pair unless it is the tile that wins.
So before you fall for a hand, look at its . If you already hold them, good. If you need to draw both tiles of a pair yourself, that hand is harder than it looks. Many players choose between two hands by asking which one needs fewer pairs they do not have yet.
Do not call the first tile you can
feels like progress, but it costs something. The group goes face up on your for the rest of the game, everyone can see what you are building, and you are tied to hands that use that group.
Early on, let the tile go by unless you are sure of your hand. Later, when you have settled on one hand and the tile you need is running out, call it. And remember that a hand cannot call at all, except for the winning tile.
Put Jokers where they count
only work in , and , so lean toward hands built from those groups while you are learning. A hand full of and single tiles gets no help from them.
Watch the groups other players lay down. If one holds a and you have the real tile it stands in for, you may swap on your turn and take the Joker. Take it even if you are not sure you need it. And if you ever have to throw a Joker away, it is a safe : nobody can call it.
Count what is gone
A set has four of every tile. Every and every group laid face up tells you how many are left. If you need a of Red and three are already on the table, that pair is not coming.
Glance at the each time around. It takes a second, and it is the only way to know whether the hand you are building can still be finished.
Switch hands on purpose, not in a panic
When the tiles you need are gone, change to the other hand you kept in mind, or to a nearby one that reuses most of what you hold. That is why you started with two.
But switch for a reason you can name, such as a that can no longer be made, or a group somebody else is clearly collecting. Changing hands every time you draw a tile you do not like is the most common way beginners end up with nothing.
Late in the game, play safe
When the is getting short, think about what you throw. A tile that is already in the is usually safe, because nobody wanted it the first time. A tile nobody has thrown yet is a risk, and so is anything that fits the groups a player has face up.
This matters more than it sounds. The player who throws the winning tile pays double. If your own hand can no longer win, stop feeding it and spend the rest of the game throwing the safest tile you have.
What to practice first
Strategy only helps once the basics are quick. If you still stop to work out what a tile is, or it takes a few minutes to find a hand on the card, practice those first. The rest follows from seeing your tiles clearly.