January 2011
Mah Jongg ; Leader - Celia Hall

Mah-Jongg is played at Celia's own home on the first and third Wednesday afternoons of the month excluding July and August.
The group has players at all levels of ability and knowledge. The majority have now been playing for about 2 years.

There is now a new group for Beginners which meets on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays.

The game was started in China in the latter part of the 19th Century as a gambling game and was promoted strongly in the West, particularly the United States, during the 1920s.
It is played using 144 "tiles" made up of three Suits (each from 1 to 9) containing 108 tiles, four Winds containing 16 tiles, three Dragons containing 12 tiles and optionally 4 Season tiles and 4 Flower tiles.
A set is a sequence of 3 or 4 identical tiles or a numerical sequence of 3 suit tiles. The object is to go out by forming four sets and a pair of tiles. Points are scored depending on the type of sets held

One player known as East starts with 14 tiles and the other 3 with 13 tiles. East discards a tile ,then each player picks up and discards during the course of a hand which ends when one player goes out. The player going out receives the points of his hand from the other three players. The remaining players pay the difference between their points counts to each other.
Unfortunately because of the manner in which the game spread there are many different rules around the World and between regions within China.
We started a "traditional" Chinese version that I prefer based on publications from the 1980s but some members are now playing a Hong Kong version in which only the winner scores points
There is now an International Game with rules totally different from those with which most people are familiar.

For more information email Celia Hall (531445)