What is New at Glenbrooke? American Mah Jongg!
A number of residents played Chinese Mah Jong in the Lodge in the past. The problem was not enough people participated to sustain the group.
Now, thanks to to Joanie O., there are about a dozen players learning how to play American Mah jongg. The group is currently meeting at the Arbour lodge on Monday mornings at 10:00AM to learn the American Version.
Once people have mastered the game, they may form smaller groups that play in homes or stay at the lodge. All are welcome to come learn this challenging and fun game. There are no dues or supplies needed; the lodge has two Mah Jongg sets and a several people also bring their sets.
So, what is the difference between the Chinese and American version of Mah jongg?
Wikipedia describes the it as:
American Mahjong, more commonly known as Mah Jongg or Maahj, is a variant to the Chinese game mahjong. It is distinct from Asian mahjong in several ways. American Mah Jongg utilizes racks to hold each player's tiles, jokers, and "Hands and Rules" score cards; and has several distinct gameplay mechanics such as The Charleston[1], which is a set of required passes and optional passing of the tiles. Although an American Mah Jongg set can be used to play Chinese mahjong, the rules that follow are for the American game. It is played with four players using tiles stamped with Chinese symbols. The goal of the game is to be the first to match your tiles to a specific hand from the National Mah Jongg League's (NMJL) annually distributed scorecard - by picking and discarding, much like the card game Gin Rummy[2]. Scoring is done by matching the points assigned to each pre-determined hand on the annually distributed NMJL card.
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