Guide
How to read the yearly card
The National Mah Jongg League publishes a new card each year. The hands change. NowMahj does not reproduce them, and this page will not look like the card. Get the current card from nationalmahjonggleague.org and keep it at the table.
Sections, then lines
The card is grouped into sections. A section collects hands that share an idea, such as like numbers, a run, or winds and dragons. The names and the lines inside them are on your card for that year. Learn the section names before you try to hold a line.
A line is one hand
Each line is one way to finish, and it uses 14 tiles. The marks on the line tell you the groups: same-tile groups, a run, a pair, flowers, or a single, as that line defines them. Read one line across. Then read the note on that line. Some hands are played concealed. The card tells you which. If a mark is unclear, use the card's own legend rather than a diagram from a website.
What a joker changes
A joker can stand in a group of three or more. It cannot stand in a pair or a single. Only four of any numbered tile exist, so a group of five needs at least one joker. That is a rule of the set, not a hand from the card. Details are in joker basics.
How NowMahj uses your card
You bring the card. Practice grades the pass and the discard against the section you are playing, as Best, Good, OK, or Costly. Those grades come from simulated games. They are not a copy of this year's lines. How a move is graded.