How Hands Work: Pattern Families

The card is a menu

American Mahjong is played against a card of winning hands, published fresh each year by the National Mah Jongg League (~$15 — buy it; it keeps the game alive). Fourteen tiles must match one printed line exactly.

We don't reprint the card — that's the League's copyright. We teach something more durable: the structural FAMILIES every year's lines are built from. Learn those, and any card reads like an old friend.