Mahjong Guide

You can learn the rules of American mahjong in an afternoon. The card, the Charleston, the jokers — none of it is that hard once someone walks you through it. But there’s a second layer that nobody prints on the rule sheet, and it’s the part that decides whether people actually want to play with…

Walk into any game shop and you’ll see them sitting side by side — same little rectangles, same dragons and winds, same satisfying clack when you shuffle. But here’s the thing nobody tells you up front: American mahjong and Japanese riichi are not the same game wearing different clothes. They share an ancestor and a…