Read the tiles on sight.

This free trainer shows American mahjong tiles one drill at a time and asks you to name them, sort them, and spot them, until the whole set reads at a glance.

New here?

This trainer teaches the tiles themselves, one family of the 152. If you do not yet know what the tiles are for, Mahjong 101 puts them in context first, in about five minutes: what the game is, what a finished hand looks like, and where each tile family fits. Start with Mahjong 101

Answer each drill. Wrong answers come with the reason, and the rounds never run out.

Score: 0 of 0 Streak: 0

First drill loading.

Here we go.

Meet the tiles: the 152

A standard American mahjong set holds 152 tiles. Counting a new set once, before your first game, is a habit worth having: a set missing two tiles still looks full in the box.

The suits, 108 tiles. Dots, Bams (bamboo), and Craks (characters). Each suit runs 1 to 9 and holds four copies of every number, 36 tiles a suit.
Winds, 16 tiles. East, South, West, and North, four copies each. Winds are honor tiles and belong to no suit.
Dragons, 12 tiles. Red, Green, and White, four copies each. The White Dragon is widely called Soap. Red pairs with Craks, Green pairs with Bams, and Soap pairs with Dots.
Flowers, 8 tiles. All eight are interchangeable. A number, season word, or picture printed on a Flower carries no separate meaning in play.
Jokers, 8 tiles. Wild, with strict limits: a joker may stand in for any tile inside a pung, kong, quint, or sextet, and nowhere else. Never in a single, and never in a pair.

Two tiles surprise every beginner. The 1 Bam usually pictures a bird rather than one bamboo stalk, so the tile you are hunting for may be a bird. And Soap leads a double life: it is the only tile that can stand for the number zero, for example inside a year grouping on the card, and working as a zero it belongs to no suit.

Groups have names you will hear across the table: two identical tiles are a pair, three a pung, four a kong, five a quint, and six a sextet. A quint or sextet always needs at least one joker, because only four natural copies of any tile exist.

Gear for the real table

Buying the 152, plus spares

You just met all 152 tiles. A set you buy ships 166 of them, because it adds spares: extra jokers, flowers, and blanks for the day a tile rolls under the couch. What separates a good set from a frustrating one is the rest of the box.

Count the tiles. A set for the American game ships 166 tiles: the 152 you play with, plus spare jokers, flowers, and blanks. A 144 tile set with no jokers is made for the Chinese game and cannot run an American hand.
Racks with pushers belong in the box. Buying them separately later costs more than choosing a set that includes them now.
Standard tiles are about 1.2 inches tall, big enough to read across a table. Oversized tiles look cheerful in photos and crowd a rack in real life.

First set

Linda Li Blue Paisley Soft Bag Mahjong Set

The gentlest way into a complete kit, and the set GammonVillage calls its bestseller several years running: 166 tiles, four racks with the pushers built in, dice, betting chips, and a beginner rules booklet, carried in a quilted soft bag that travels well to lessons and club nights.

$127.46 at GammonVillage

Price checked Oct 19, 2026. Prices change; the store page shows the current one.

Wooden racks

Yellow Mountain Imports American Mahjong Set, Sakura Pink

The name clubs reach for first. The tiles are melamine with a satisfying weight, the four racks are wood with magnetic pushers, and the kit adds scoring coins, three dice, and a wind indicator in a pink and cream soft case. Built for a group that plays every week.

$156.99 at Yellow Mountain Imports

Price checked Oct 19, 2026. Prices change; the store page shows the current one.

The keepsake

Linda Li Black Poppy Mahjong Set, Artisan Collection

For the player who has caught the bug, or the gift that has to land. The tiles are laser cut and hand painted, the racks and pushers are solid beechwood, the money chips are metal, and the bettor is beechwood too. It plays the same game as the sets above; it just feels like an heirloom doing it.

$395.00 at GammonVillage

Price checked Oct 19, 2026. Prices change; the store page shows the current one.

One more thing every player needs: the current year's card from the National Mah Jongg League, about $15. No set includes it, and the League is the only place that sells the genuine card, so order it from the League directly, and be suspicious of any bundle that promises one free.

Take it to the table

The trainers are free. When you sit down to a real game, these are the two printables readers keep within reach.

Get the free One Page Score Sheet The Beginner Companion, $14.99

The score sheet costs nothing and tracks a full session, hand by hand. The Beginner Companion is the complete beginner guide: how to play American mahjong from the first deal to settling up, in plain words, with a first month practice plan.

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About the rules here

These trainers teach American mahjong in our own words. The rules are summarized from public sources, including published rule guides and instructor materials, and they reflect standard National Mah Jongg League play as we understand it in October 2026.

This section is not published by, endorsed by, or affiliated with the National Mah Jongg League. Nothing here reproduces the League's card, and nothing here replaces it. To play a real game, every player needs the current official card from the National Mah Jongg League. Check any hand, hand value, or rule against the card at your table. The card is the final word, and house rules are whatever your table agrees before the first deal.

If you find an error, or your group plays a point differently, write to us at hello@oasisinvestingllc.com. We check reader corrections against published sources and fold confirmed fixes into updates.

This section is published by Oasis Investing LLC, as part of Parlor and Play.