That’s right.  NEWS is made up of single tiles.  An “N”, an “E”, a “W” and an “S.”  NEWS is not a kong (a kong is four of a kind). That means that you cannot use jokers for any tiles to make NEWS.  You also can call for a tile to make “NEWS” only if that tile gives you mah jongg.

Each of the tiles in NEWS is a single tile.

“2008″ is similar.  2008 is made of a single “2″, a single “8″ and a pair of zeros.  Therefore, you can’t use jokers to make “2008″, and you can call for a tile in “2008″ only if the call gives you mah jongg.

The "2" and the "8" are single tiles. The White Dragons are a pair.

Because of the no joker and only calling for mah jongg characteristics of NEWS and 2008, these parts of a hand are a little more challenging to collect than Pungs (three-of-a-kind) and kongs (four-of-a-kind).  That difficulty is something to consider when choosing a hand.

The future tile may be the most commonly used house rule.  That’s right, it’s a house rule, not an official rule of mah jongg.  The rules of the National Mah Jongg Leage and tournament rules do not allow for a future tile.

So why do so many players use a future tile? A big reason may be that it speeds up the game.  Because players know the next wall tile they will receive in advance of their turn, then once their turn comes, they can make a quicker decision on whether to keep that tile.

The future tile works like this:

1. When drawing tiles, East picks 14 tiles and everyone else draws 13.  That is the number of tiles the players use during the charleston.
2. After the charleston, everyone chooses one more tile in order (East chooses first) from the end of the wall.  That is each player’s future tile.  Each player’s future tile is placed on the top of their rack so that the player can see what tile it is but no one else can see it.  East leaves the future tile on top of her or his rack and discards a tile from the initial 14 chosen.
3. The player to the right of East then puts the future tile into her or his hand and chooses which tile to discard.  After discarding a tile, that player draws a new future tile from the wall.  The new future tile is put on top of the player’s rack so the player can see it.  The player may look at the future tile while the next players take their turns.
4. The next players then repeat the same process on their turns.
5. If anyone calls a tile on a discard, all future tiles are passed to the right.  Thus, future tiles do not necessarily “belong” to the player who chooses until their turn.

Thus, with a future tile, a player draws a tile from the wall at the end of her of his turn.  With the official rules of the game, a player draws a tiles from the wall at the beginning of her or his turn.

Because future tiles are house rules, players who have never played together before should discuss whether a future tile will be used.  If a player is not accustomed to using a future tile and agrees to do so, be patient.  They may confuse the order of picking and throwing the tiles, which often becomes habitual.  Also have patience with a player accustomed to using a future tile who agrees to play without it.

Many think of American Mah Jongg as a women’s game.  The two week run of “The Men of Mah Jongg” at the Queens Theatre in the Park in Flushing Park, New York, disputes that misnomer.

The Men of Mah Jongg, written by Richard Atkins and directed by Tony Award winning Mark Medoff (Children of a Lesser God) tracks four elderly gentlemen as they deviate from their regularly scheduled poker night to play mah jongg instead.  The foursome tries mah jongg after one of them, the grumpy Sidney who has spent two years grieving the loss of his wife, Mildred, by refusing to leave his Upper West Side apartment, receives a package in the mail addressed to Mildred.  The package contains a DVD of lessons on how to become a mah jongg master.  After watching the video and practicing the game with Mildred’s set, Sidney convinces his reluctant friends to try it.   They quickly become addicted.  Sidney feels close to Mildred by playing the game she loved, and it helps him heal.

Between mah jongg rounds the foursome grapples with love, loss, friendship, dating and with the question of how to embrace life.  While the first scene dragged a bit as the characters and their angst were introduced, the play became funnier and the characters more endearing as the play progressed.  There are many laugh-out-loud moments, and the acting is first-rate.  We inadvertently met one of the actors, Jasper Jamrog, who plays Jerry, on the way into the Theater.  He was a pleasure, and his transformation from the regular sixty-something we met in the lobby to they endearing, witty, improv-singing octogenarian we saw on-stage was impressive and entertaining.

All self-respecting American Mah Jongg aficionados will notice a particular hole in the plot.  The men play American Mah Jongg, complete with a card from the National Mah Jongg League.  However, the woman speaking on Sidney’s DVD is Asian.  There are many varieties of Asian Mah Jongg, including Chinese and Japanese Mah Jongg.  The Asian games have very different rules compared to American Mah Jongg.  It is likely that any DVD featuring an Asian teacher focuses on one of the Asian varieties of Mah Jongg and not the American game.  Therefore, it is unlikely that Sidney and his friends could have learned Mildred’s game from that DVD.  Still, we were willing to suspend disbelief to embrace the story-line.

The audience for the Men of Mah Jongg was a balance of men and women whose ages ranged from late twenties to retirees.  There was a mix of couples and groups of friends.  While many audience members were friendly and pleasant, my unfortunate husband sat next to an elderly curmudgeon who scolded him for laughing too loud and moving too much in his seat.  Further, when we arrived, there was an elderly man in our assigned seat who expressed great displeasure that he had to move over to vacate one of our seats and remove his coat from our other seat.

All-in-all, if you’re looking for an enjoyable outing with your mah jongg group or other friends or family, I recommend the Men of Mah Jongg.  You can find more information here:

http://www.queenstheatre.org/08mahjong.htm

Travelling Tile enjoys the Men of Mah Jongg.  The set of the play is visible in the background.

checking out the scenery

the scenery is one of the best parts of skiing

Traveling Tile knows how to relax