Mahjong Decoded

Mahjong Decoded starts where most players get stuck: one game, many rule books. It explains the tiles and the shape of a winning hand first, then treats American Mah Jongg, Hong Kong, Japanese Riichi and Chinese Official (MCR) each on its own terms — and lays them side by side in a rule-by-rule comparison.

Every one of the 43 tile faces is drawn and explained, with how each is read in Chinese and how many copies a set holds. Articles carry worked tile diagrams of real hands, from the first draw to famous limit hands like Thirteen Orphans and Nine Gates.

It also covers the game's history from Ningbo to the 1920s American craze, seventeen regional variants, scoring and strategy, and a directory of clubs and teachers in twenty-eight cities — so the next step after reading is a seat at a real table.