Wellington Shropshire

Mahjong

Four players play the game using numbered tiles or cards. In all, there are 144 tiles, of which 36 tiles are in the Bamboo suit, 36 in the Circle suit, 36 in the Character suit, 16 Wind tiles, 12 Dragon tiles, and 8 bonus tiles (4 Flowers and 4 Seasons).1 Oct 2010

Mah-jong or Mahjong is a card game that originated in China during the Qing dynasty. It is commonly played by four players (with some three-player variations found in South Korea and Japan). The game and its regional variants are widely played throughout Eastern and South Eastern Asia and have a small following in Western countries. Similar to the Western card game rummy, Mahjong is a game of skill, strategy, and calculation and involves a degree of chance.

The game is played with a set of 144 tiles based on Chinese characters and symbols, of which 36 tiles are in the Bamboo suit, 36 in the Circle suit, 36 in the Character suit, 16 Wind tiles, 12 Dragon tiles, and 8 bonus tiles (4 Flowers and 4 Seasons In most variations, each player begins by receiving 13 tiles. In turn players draw and discard tiles until they complete a legal hand using the 14th drawn tile to form 4 groups (meld) and a pair (eye). There are fairly standard rules about how a piece is drawn, how a piece is robbed from another player, the use of simples (numbered tiles) and honors (winds and dragons), the kinds of melds allowed, how to deal the tiles and the order of play. Despite these similarities, there are many regional variations to the rules including rather different scoring systems, criteria for legal winning hands and even private table rules which distinguish some variations as notably different styles of mahjong.

The Mah Jong group is going very well indeed. The eight players were all total beginners a few months ago, but can now play a really good game with very little help from me. We do not take it too seriously, have a few laughs, a cup of tea and an entertaining game. We could manage a few more players now, so if you would like to join us, please give me,

Rita Cole, a ring on 247505 and I will be happy to answer any questions you may have, or try

WWW. Mah Jong U3A .