How to Declare Mahjong in the American Game

Going mahjong in the American game is not a hidden poker tell. You complete one printed line on the current NMJL card: fourteen tiles, the right exposures, jokers only where they are legal. Then you say it so the table can check.

From a discard or from the wall

If the last tile you need is discarded, you may call it even on a concealed line. If you draw it, expose the hand and name the line. Either way, the wall stops. Do not keep drawing “to be sure.”

Let the table read the card

• Point at the line. Do not make four people hunt.
• Show jokers inside legal pungs, kongs, or quints — not inside a pair.
• If the hand is wrong, the table rewinds. Most home games do not punish an honest misread.

The value is the number printed on that line. Pay what the card says, or play for pie if that is the house. The declaration is the same either way: one legal line, said out loud.

• Concealed vs exposed →
• Read the card line →