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A Mah-Jongg Group Reminiscent of the Catskills

Elissa — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 14:03:33 +0000

After reporting about mah-jongg-related-deep-vein-thrombosis earlier this week (click here for link to that article), the New York Times has now devoted some space to the social resurgence of the game. Since the profiled ladies at Atlantic Beach play a 5 person game, they thankfully are less likely to be sitting in one position for several hours straight. It is fun to learn about their love of the game. (Click here for the new article)

Mah Jongg May Be Bad For Your Health

Elissa — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 00:49:25 +0000

It’s hard to believe that mah jongg can be bad for your health, but the New York Times reported this week that sitting too long while playing mah jongg was linked to a blood clot. Apparently, a 40 year old woman who played intensely for eight hours straight ended up in the hospital. She was diagnosed with “mah-jongg-related deep-vein thrombosis.” Let this be a lesson for all of us: It’s a good idea to take breaks when playing. We should all remember to stand up and stretch between rounds. Playing with a fifth player can also help because it will force everyone to take a break every five rounds and move around. In addition, if you are playing for a long time, be sure to eat and drink! To read the article, click here.

Mistake on the 2010 National Mah Jongg League Card

Elissa — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 16:46:21 +0000

Those of you who have begun playing with the 2010 National Mah Jongg League card may have noticed a confusing hand. The second hand under Like Numbers groups two pairs together without a space — 11DD (in green) and also groups two pungs together without a space — 111DDD (in Red). A strict reading of the card would indicate that the 111DDD is a sextet, and a tile in that sextet can be called only when a player has five of the six tiles in the sextet. However, since the hand is worth only 25 points, it seems strange that a player should need to collect a sextet before calling. Also, calling for that particular sextet would give away the player’s hand immediately since it is the only hand on the card with a sextet made up of pung numbers and pung matching dragons.

It turns out that there is a mistake on the card. I have asked the National Maj Jongg League how to interpret the hand, and they have told me that there should be s space between the “11″ and “DD” and between the “111″ and the “DDD.”

The interpretation of the 11DD is not affected by the lack of a space because with or without a space, the 11 and the DD are pairs that can be called only for mah jongg.

It is up to you and your friends how to play the sextet in the hand. You can play it as written — and call only for the sixth tile — or you can play it as intended — and call separately for the pung numbers and the pung dragons. Before you begin your game, you should discuss the hand and how your group will play it.

Happy Playing!

Project Mah Jongg at the Museum of Jewish Heritage

Elissa — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 22:50:52 +0000

I am very much looking forward to the upcoming mah jongg exhibit at The Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City. The museum has spent many months researching the origins of mah jongg in this country and in the Jewish community. The organizers have been taping real mah jongg games, including a game at the home of yours truly, and the recordings will play in the background of the exhibit. If you attend, you may hear my game and interview! There will also be games played in the center hall and mah jongg related events throughout the year. It should be great fun for everyone who loves this game, so grab your group or your mom and go see it! It opens to the public on May 4, 2010. The New York Times ran a great article about it. Check it out here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/18/arts/artsspecial/18MAH.html

2009 National Mah Jongg League Card: A Review

Elissa — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:04:01 +0000

As the year of the 2009 National Mah Jongg League card winds down, I decided to take a moment to reflect on playing with the card. Every year there are players who like the new card and those who don’t. I find their preference is usually based on whether they win more or less than they did with other cards and whether their favorite hand remains. A player’s favorite card year tends to be the year she or he won the most.

The 2009 card repeated a number of hands verbatim from recent cards.

A few 2008 hands remained, including the 2009 card’s first three Consecutive Run hands, the first two 13578 (“Odd”) hands, the first Quint hand and the second and fourth Singles and Pairs hands.
A few 2006 hands reappeared including the 2009 card’s first, fourth and last Consecutive Run hand, the fifth and sixth Odd hands.
I particularly liked the repeat 2468 (“Even”) multiplication hand last seen on the 2005 card. With five of one number in a single suit, it contains a mandatory joker, like the Quint hands. The mandatory joker aspect adds a nice challenge.
The 2009 math hands were a throw-back to 2004 when, like in 2009, they added to eleven. Unfortunately, in 2009, that section of the card was titled “Seven Hands,” which was the title from 2008 when the hands really did add to seven. I learned from the National Mah Jongg League office that they mistakenly neglected to the change the title of that section when they created the 2009 card.

These kinds of hands that reappear yearly or after a multi-year absence favor seasoned players who are already comfortable with the hands from previous years. Of course, if these hands didn’t work for a player in the past, that player may rue their reappearance.

In 2009, I missed some aspects of the old cards. When I hit the flower jackpot this year, I was disappointed that there was no hand that used six flowers like there was on the cards from 2005 through 2008. I also missed the “Like Number” category of hands that last appeared in 2006.

I found a few aspects of the 2009 card particularly challenging. Souths were elusive tiles in 2009 since they were singles or pairs in all of the hands composed exclusively of winds and dragons. That meant if I discarded all of my numbers in favor of winds and dragons, I had to pick up at least one South to win. If I failed to collect a South tile, I could not switch to another purely wind or dragon hand. I also found it particularly difficult to switch among the Even hands. They shared so few similarities that it seemed like the best way to win with one was to commit early and call often. Switching when some even tiles went dead did not seem to be an option.

Overall, I think I have won far more this year than I did in past years. I expect in 2010 and beyond, I will be the one complaining that I miss the 2009 card!

For the mah jongg player who has everything

Elissa — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 03:57:45 +0000

This is a very fun mah jongg accessory for the player who has everything. It makes mixing the tiles a breeze and serves as a great party trick. On the other hand, I think I would miss the therapeutic and satisfying sound of the tiles clicking together when they are mixed.

Am I destined to play mah jongg?

Elissa — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 23:06:39 +0000

This fun-filled mah jongg video seeks to answer the question faced by many young Jewish women, especially those whose grandmothers live in Florida: am I destined to play mah jongg? Join budding filmmaker Andrea Scott as she grapples with this question:

http://www.vimeo.com/3247555

If you can’t get to the video by clicking the link, then try cutting and pasting it into your browser.

Scott has produced a warm-hearted video that will teach you about the history of mah jongg and remind you of the women you know who played the game. You’ll also learn an important lesson: mah jongg players take their game seriously. The women Scott profiles ran one unfortunate player out-of-town after they discovered her underhanded, cheating ways!

Enjoy!

The Men of Mah Jongg Continue Playing to Great Acclaim

Elissa — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 02:47:58 +0000

I had a nice surprise last week when I received an email from the author of the Men of Mah Jongg, Richard Atkins. He wrote to tell me that he had enjoyed my blog post about his play (click here to read my post). I was very excited to learn that the author of the play found my post and enjoyed it! Atkins also told me that the play has continued to generate rave reviews. The first rate character actor Jerry Stiller has said “It is exactly the type of thing I would like to do,” and Alan Arkin has said “if there ends up being a film version of the play I’d be happy to look at the script.” We hope to see the show again on Broadway and at our local AMC/Loews! You can read more about the play at: http://www.momj.vpweb.com/about_us.html.

High Score – June 24, 2009

Elissa — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 03:18:26 +0000

While playing with my regular game this week, we began to chat about high scores. For years, I’ve been playing with my mom and a friend and her mom. Our moms decided when we began our group that they didn’t want to take money from their daughters (they were confident they’d cream us!), so we play for points instead of money. At the beginning of the evening, everyone gets 1,000 points, and we add or subtract the points of the hands from there. This week I had a fantastic evening, and we began trying to remember if in the history of our game, anyone had scored higher than I did that night. We decided it would be fun to track our highest scores and highest scoring hands, and I decided it would be great to share the high scores with all of you.

My highest scoring hand of the evening was 420 points (or $4.20 for those of you who play in money). I made mah jongg with the last 13579 hand: 111 3 555 (in one suit) and 555 7 999 (in another suit). It is a 35 point hand, and I both had no jokers and I picked my mah jongg tile. Therefore, I received four times the value of the hand from everyone. We weren’t playing with a bettor, so the other three players gave me 140 points (or $1.40) each to equal 420 points (or $4.20).

I ended the evening with 1,585 points, and the next closest person had 975 points. The other two finished the evening with 790 and 655 points. I had a ton of fun, and my mom and friends lamented that I had fun because I won so big!

Tell me about your biggest wins by posting a comment below.

Some people have all the luck

Elissa — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 02:58:14 +0000

One of my students recently told me about his friend who won a Fulbright Scholarship to study mah jongg. Why didn’t I think of that? The lucky Fulbrighter is an anthropology guru who is studying mah jongg and Japanese culture. The game is apparently a Japanese obsession. He recently posted an interesting article discussing the reliance of Japanese mah jongg players on luck to what may seem to outsiders a ridiculous degree. Read it here:

http://metropolis.co.jp/tokyo/777/lastword.asp

You can read the rest of his blog about mah jongg here: