Beginner’s Series: Learning the Tiles
I think the easiest way to learn mahjong is to start with learning the tiles.
In mahjong, there are three suits: Bam, Dot, and Crack. In each of those suits, there are numbers 1-9 with a matching dragon. There are 4 of each of these tiles in a set.
Winds are a non-suited group of tiles. There are North, East, West, and South and there are 4 of each in a set of mahjong tiles. They are represented as NEWS on the NMJL Card.
Flowers also do not have a suit. There are 8 flowers in a set of mahjong tiles and they are represented as F on your card.
Jokers are wild tiles and can be used in any group of three or more tiles in your hand. The set comes with 10 Jokers, but in NMJL rules, you only use 8 Jokers.
Blanks are a (controversial) House Rule that some folks choose to use to recover a dead file during game play.
We’re going to keep adding to this beginner series, so let us know what you want to see next in the comments!