How to Host an American Mahjong Night at Home

A good mahjong night is a table that does not have to be cleared for dinner at 8. Leave the set out. Put the card where everyone can see it. Make the room bright enough to read green bams at 10 p.m.

The table

You need four seats that do not scrape when someone leans in, and a surface large enough for four racks plus a wall. A dining table works. A coffee table usually does not. If you have a mat, use it — acrylic tiles slide on bare wood and the wall goes crooked.

The host list

• Current NMJL card, plus a spare if someone forgot theirs.
• One 160-tile American set with jokers and blanks accounted for.
• Four racks. Pushers if you have them; racks first.
• Water and something that is not greasy. Oil on tiles is how faces go dull.
• A phone-free corner, or at least a rule: no photos of other people’s racks.

Deal the first wall before the last guest sits down for “just one more story.” The Charleston will socialize the table. The second wall is how you know the night worked.

• Mahjong mats →
• Sets worth leaving out →