Mah Jongg
Group Leader : Doreen Meek
Where : Tower Hotel, Dovercourt
When : Every Wednesday at 6.45 pm.
Vacancies : Yes
Contact : Doreen Meek tel. (01255) 504665
The mahjong group meets at the Tower Hotel every Wednesday evening from 6.45 till 10.00pm. Beginners are very welcome, come along and have a very enjoyable evening.
Mah Jong originated in China and is usually played with tiles made of bamboo and ivory engraved in colour, though it can also be played with cards of equivalent design.
Sets traditionally consist of 136 standard tiles (and eight bonus tiles) as follows:
Three suits with tiles numbered 1 to 9. The usual English names for the suits are dots, bamboos and characters. There are four identical copies of each suit tile - 108 suit tiles in all.
The four directions or "winds" (east, north, west, south) - four copies of each (16 tiles).
Three colours or "dragons" (red, green, white) - again four copies of each, so 12 tiles.
Bonus tiles: four different flower tiles and four different season tiles - so 8 bonus tiles in all, though some sets may have more.
Four players, designated as East, South, West, and North, each build a wall of eighteen tiles long, two tiles in height (all face down) and position them to form a hollow centered wall. In the traditional game, 13 tiles are dealt to each player, and the object is, by a draw and discard mechanism, to form a winning hand of 14 tiles. Tiles are drawn from the wall. At the beginning of the game the wall is "opened". The opening point is generated randomly by the throw of a dice. Discards are put face up inside the wall.
A winning hand normally consists of four sets of three and a pair. A set of three can be three identical tiles or three tiles of the same suit in numerical sequence. Depending on the variation played, the game can also be won with various special hands containing other combinations of tiles. There are numerous extra bonuses for feats such as winning with a single suit, or all winds and dragons.
The literal translation of Mah Jong is "flax/hemp".
"sparrow chattering" is another description of the sound:- players love the sound of the tiles as they are mixed together prior to the start of each hand. Listening carefully, they hear the sound of flax blowing.
we have dinner twice yearly. In 2018 these evening will be when the scores are celebrated.
We have recently tried and tested https://www.4windsmj.com/ a solo against the computer or online against live players version of mahjong fully compatible with local group rules.
Click on a picture below to see it full-size with more details.
