Learn · Free
Learn American Mahjong
From your very first tile to reading the whole table, a few friendly minutes at a time.
Every lesson is free to read, here and in the app. There are three paths and each one stands on its own: start at the top if the game is new to you, or jump straight to the stretch that is written for where you already play. After the paths comes this year's card, section by section. The beginner drills are free in the app; the practice in the later lessons is part of Mahjee Pro. Each lesson takes a couple of minutes.
Start here · Beginner
From your very first tile to your first full game.
What this game is, and how you'll learn it.
Meet every tile in the set: suits, winds, dragons, flowers, and the joker.
How to read the year's card: notation, groups, sections, and color.
- What the card isThe menu of hands you're allowed to build.
- Reading a handPairs, pungs, kongs, and quints: groups of the same tile.
- Sections & colorHow the card is organized, and what the colors mean.
- The year handsWhy the top of the card spells out 2026.
- What the points meanWhy some hands are worth more than others.
Read your rack, pick a target, and judge how close you are.
The tile-passing ritual that opens every American Mahjong game.
- What the Charleston isWhy every game starts by passing tiles around.
- Passing wellChoose the three tiles to let go.
- The second CharlestonThree more passes, if everyone wants them.
- The courtesy passOne last swap with the player across from you.
- When you can't pass threeThe blind pass, and when you're allowed one.
Turn order, calling tiles, jokers in play, and how a hand ends.
- Racks, walls and the dealHow the table is set up before anyone plays.
- The flow of a turnDraw, discard, and go around the table.
- Calling & exposuresTaking a discarded tile to complete a group.
- Jokers in playUsing, holding, and swapping for jokers.
- Winning & dead handsHow a hand ends: in a win, a wall game, or a dead hand.
- What makes a hand deadThe mistakes that end a hand early, and how to avoid them.
Put it all together in a full game against bots.
Next · Intermediate
You can read the card. Now learn to read the table.
On the path, this opens when you finish the tier before it. Every lesson is still free to read. If you already play, you can go straight in.
Choosing a hand on more than which one fits.
Passing as attack and defense at the same time.
Where they go, what they cost, and when to spend them.
- Where a joker may goGroups of three or more. Nowhere else.
- Where your jokers are worth mostThe same two jokers are worth more in some hands than others.
- Splitting them upTwo exposures with one joker each beat one with two.
- Redemption, and the timing trapHow to take a joker, and the mistake that kills your hand.
Every call tells the table something. Decide what.
Going deeper · Advanced
Counting, defense, and the last dozen tiles.
On the path, this opens when you finish the tier before it. Every lesson is still free to read. If you already play, you can go straight in.
Not feeding the player who is about to win.
This year's card · The card
Every section of the 2026 card, hand by hand: what to go for, what to avoid, and where the jokers fit.
All nine sections, in card order: which hands to go for, which to leave alone, and where the jokers fit.
- The shape of this year's cardEighty-four hands in nine sections, and where the points are.
- 2026: the year handsFour hands built on the digits of the year, and the soap that plays as zero.
- 2468: the even numbersNine hands, the most joker-friendly section on the card, and one that must stay hidden.
- Any Like Numbers: one number, three waysThree hands where the number is yours to choose, which makes them the most flexible on the card.
- Winds and Dragons: the honor sectionSixteen hands, most of them a variation on two ideas, and the one concealed hand that spells the year.
- 369: threes, sixes and ninesTen hands on three numbers, including a pair-and-kong hand people read the wrong way round.
- Singles and Pairs: no jokers, big pointsSix concealed hands that pay 50 and 75, and why they are almost always the wrong choice.
- Quints: five of a kindThree hands that cannot be made without jokers, and how many you need.
- Consecutive Run: any numbers in a rowThirteen hands, the section that fits the most racks, and the one to check before you give up on a deal.
- 13579: the odd numbersTwenty hands, the biggest section on the card, and how to see it as a few families.
From the table · Weekly
One position a week from a real table: what would you do, and why. A new one lands every Monday.
A new position every Monday. Read it, decide, then practice the same call until it is quick.
Practice makes it stick
Reading is a great start. The app turns each lesson into short, friendly drills that build real fluency. The beginner path is free to practice; Pro opens the rest.
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