| 🧨️ Happy Mah Jongg Monday!️ | AROUND THE TABLE by Dottie | Hal and I will have been married fifty-three years in February. On Tuesday I called the resort where we spent our honeymoon.
It was in the Poconos and it had a heart-shaped bathtub. It was 1974. We thought it was very glamorous.
The number rang at a pizza place. I asked the young man who answered if he knew what used to be there. He said, “Like, before the pizza?”
We need some place new. Hal’s only request is somewhere warm.
Marlene has already asked if she can come. I told her it’s an anniversary. She said, “So?”
Where would you send us?
Pour the coffee. Let’s go.
— Dottie | | Here’s a quick preview of today’s issue. Scroll down to read each section in full. | 🏆 Kathy Wise Picked the Challenging Bots — Join the Club.
💡 Table Wisdom — When someone else wants your tiles.
📰 In the News — The $30 set that sells for $400.
🖐🏻 A Hand to Play — Which instructor’s pass wins?
❓ It’s Your Call — Should a “dead” hand be “out”?
🥤 A New Table Tradition: The Dead Hand Can
🎥 Max’s Minute — Can Soap go in Consecutive Run?
🛒 Winning Picks — Small gifts your group will love.
🥠 Ask Auntie — When losing makes you snippy.
📸 Spotlight — 84 players, $5,000 for Veterans.
🎂 Birthdays — This week’s AMJA members.
🙋🏻♀️ A Free Strategy Session — See if we called your name.
🏁 Milestones — Progress inside The Winning Hand app.
… and more! | | | | | | | 👀 Kathy Wise Was Nervous and Picked the Challenging Bots Anyway 👀 | Kathy Wise founded Mähj the Magazine, and she’s played Mah Jongg off and on for 30 years. Her advice to newer players is “Don’t worry about winning. Worry about trying things,” because at a real table, “nobody knows what’s in your hand.”
On Behind the Tiles, you know exactly what’s in hers. Kathy sits down against the Challenging bots in The Winning Hand, the ones that play up to four lines on the Card at once, and talks through her choices as she makes them, including the ones she second-guesses out loud.
Behind the Tiles is our weekly series for Mahj Insiders Club members. Each week, you watch a winning player play a game while explaining what they’re noticing in real time: why they keep certain tiles, why they let others go, when they pivot, and when they stay the course. You won’t find this anywhere else. A different guest every month, a full round of four games, every decision explained before anyone knows how it ends. | 👇 Watch the full interview with Kathy here. | | If you join in the next two days, you’ll be ready when Kathy’s first episode drops Wednesday. | 👉 Join the Mahj Insiders Club | |
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| | | | | | | | Someone Else Is Playing Your Hand | Popular tiles aren’t the only reason you and another player end up chasing the same ones. Here’s how to manage it. | Watch the tiles carefully during the Charleston. If you’re not getting any tiles you need, it may be because someone else needs them too. You may think the Pair you have toward a Pung or Kong is good, and that you can easily pick up the remaining tiles, but the deal may also have delivered a Pair to someone else at the table who decided to build around it. | Watch the early discards. If you go through an entire wall without claiming a discard or picking up a tile you need, it may be because another player is holding it. This could signal competition. | So, tell us, if this happened to you, what would you do? | What would you do? | |
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| | | | | | | | 🌟 A workshop co-owner in Taixing, China told NPR his clients sell their American Mah Jongg sets for $300 to $400, sometimes more. His cost? "We make it for them for about 200 yuan [$30] a set." Click here to read the full story from NPR. |
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| | | | | | | | Last Week’s 🖐🏻 Hand to Play Results:
4,580 Insiders played, 76% chose right.
👉 See the correct answer & explanation here. | Most of us are unsure of which tiles to let go of in the Charleston. Players who have developed this skill are the ones winning more hands. | With the deal shown below, which 3 tiles would you pass? | Think about what you’d be willing to hand over to the player on your right. | This week’s choices come from Mah Jongg instructors. Who do you agree with? 👇 | | Which 3 tiles would you pass? | | 👆 Vote to see how other Insiders answered! |
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| | | | | | | | Halloween is behind us, and today much of the world is celebrating Día de los Muertos. So a reader letter about the word “dead” felt right for this week. | Mar C. sent us a copy of a letter to the National Mah Jongg League. It asks the League to stop calling an unfinishable hand “dead” and call it “out” instead. | We already use this terminology very naturally in baseball. A player is not “dead” when that player can no longer continue the play, the player is simply “out.” … Calling a hand “out” rather than “dead” would not change the rules, strategy, or traditions of the game.
- Mar C. |
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| Would you make the switch, or is “dead” part of the game? Cast your vote below and see how everyone else voted! | Should a dead hand be called “out” instead? | |
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| | | | | | | | | Start a New Table Tradition: The Dead Hand Can | Having your hand called dead stings. You stop picking, you stop discarding, and you sit quietly while everyone else plays on. | So here’s a kinder way to do it. Whoever calls your hand dead slides you a Dead Hand Can. That’s a can of Liquid Death, the sparkling water with a name made for exactly this moment. Severed Lime or Cherry Obituary, your choice. Think of them as your Green Dragon and Red Dragon, chilled. | No speeches needed. The can says it all. | Keep a few in the cooler on game day and let’s see how fast this catches on. Try it at your next game and send us a photo of your table! | [PICK YOUR POISON] | Would you start the Dead Hand Can at your table? | |
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| | | | | | | | Max takes two questions from Insiders and answers both in a quick 60-second video. | 🕔 This week’s questions:
1️⃣ What are the next steps when someone calls a tile while you’re in the middle of picking a tile?
2️⃣ Can you use Soap tiles in the last line of Consecutive Run?
➡️ Watch this week’s video here |  | Click to watch the video |
| Have a question for Max?
🎤 [Click to leave a voicemail] |
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| | | | | | | | Little Gifts for Your Group | The gift list starts early at most Mah Jongg tables. These are the small, happy ones for your group, the grab-bag and hostess kind. | 👜 Mah Jongg Tile Bag A crocheted clutch in orange and pink stripes that snaps shut, so the tiles travel to the next house looking good. It is easy to wrap and even easier to love. Pack it up → | 🎁 Travel Body Care Set Sol de Janeiro’s travel-size shower and body favorites in one box, with the warm scent people always ask about. Hand it over as is or tuck it into a stocking. Give the set → | 🧲 Mah Jongg Fridge Magnets Four little tiles that hold up the Card, the recipe, and next week’s schedule. The easiest yes on anyone’s list. Grab a set → | 🧂 Gravity Salt and Pepper Grinders Tip one over and it grinds, with no twisting and no sore wrists, and a small light shows exactly how much you’ve added. A hostess gift that gets used every single night. See the set → | 🔢 Rummikub Large Numbers The other tile game your group already loves, with big numbers that are easy to read across the table. It’s the one to bring out on the nights you are one player short. Grab the game → | Small gifts go a long way at a Mah Jongg table. | (As an Amazon Associate, The Mah Jongg Insider earns from qualifying purchases.) |
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| | | | | | | | ⬅️ Last Week’s Question
I love my group, but when I’m losing I get short with people. Last week I snapped at a new player over a slow discard and watched her face fall. I’m not a mean person. Why do I turn into one at the table?
- A question Auntie hears often |
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| 🥠 Auntie’s Advice 🥠 My friend, nobody wants to be known as the sore loser in her group, and you caught it early. So decide who you’d rather be at the table. The teacher, who’s patient with the slower player. The cheerleader, who’s happy for whoever wins. The friend who’s mostly there for the snacks and the company. Pick one and really play the part. Whichever you choose, remember the odds. Four players sit down and only one of them wins, so you’ll lose most hands. When a hand turns against you, tell yourself, “Here’s the part of the game where I don’t win.” Every game has a part where you win and a part where you don’t, and once you stop expecting only the first, the second stops feeling like somebody’s fault. 📢 Readers’ Responses 📢 🗨 The writer signed “anonymous” because he/she gets short with others when losing the game. First, good for you for recognizing that this is your issue! A couple of suggestions that might help: if you feel yourself getting tense, take a short bathroom or snack break to give your body time to reset so that you don’t snap at others. In addition, focus on whether winning the game or maintaining the friendships is more important to you. If the relationships are (which would then be the promise of more games), try to realize that losing some hands will always happen and is not necessarily a reflection of your abilities. There are too many variables to consider to let losing result in hurtful behavior.
- Barb C. 🗨 To the person who gets snippy when losing. Really, get over it. It’s just a game and you should be having fun, meeting new people and learning. No one wants to play with a mean or nasty player! And no one wants to play with a sore loser. If you were in my game, I would never ask you to fill in.
- Lori S. 🗨 You are not alone. Practice makes perfect!
- Terry K. |
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| | | ➡️ This Week’s Question
I’ve recently received a serious medical diagnosis. Right now, Mah Jongg is the one place where I feel like myself and not like a patient. I don’t want to change the mood of the group or make anyone uncomfortable, so I haven’t shared what’s going on. Additionally, there is someone else in the group who also has a medical issue so I don’t want to ‘one up her’. Can you think of any good reason why I should share or is it okay to keep things private? |
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| 🤗 Want to share your advice?
🤔 Have a Mah Jongg manners or table moment dilemma? | 📩 Send it to Auntie: auntie@themahjongginsider.com |
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| | | | | | | | | Mahjong & More at the Shore brought together 84 Mah Jongg players for a wonderful day of fun, laughter, friendship, and community spirit, all while making a meaningful difference for our Veterans. | Thanks to the incredible generosity of our participants, donors, and supporters, we raised over $5,000 for the Veterans Home in Vineland. These funds will help enhance the quality of life and experiences for the Veterans who call the Home their home. | It was more than just a day of Mah Jongg. It was a day of community, compassion, and giving back to those who have given so much for us.
- Lynne Catarro | | 📸 Share your Mah Jongg moments!
Send us a photo and a quick note — big wins, themed nights, or fun group shots — for a chance to be featured. | 📩 Email: hello@themahjongginsider.com |
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| | | | | | | | The American Mah Jongg Association would like to wish these members a very Happy Birthday! | November 2
Barbara P. (FL), Kay F. (TX), Mary Jo F. (OH), Sharon L. (OK), Susan R. (NC), Shelley D. (NY) | November 3
Anne K. (NJ), Bar K. (SC), Catherine R. (FL), Liz R. (MA), Lynn F. (NJ), Andrew D. (FL) | November 4
Carmen J. (NC), Julianne C. (SC) | November 5
Cindy A. (DE), Lisa S. (CA), Mara N. (TX), Roberta H-G. (MA), Theresa F. (NC), Trudy E. (CA) | November 6
Becca W. (TN), Deb Y. (AZ), Di T. (FL), Emily W. (IL), Peggy A. (NC) | November 7
Debra H. (PA), Kathy T. (PA), Kathy F. (FL), Robin D. (TX), Sylvia M. (CT), Kim B. (NC) | November 8
Carolyn P. (MA), Mitzi S. (FL), Ruth B. (AL), Shannon R. (NC), Amy B. (IL) |
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| | | | | | | If your name is Paige, enjoy a FREE Strategy Session 🙋🏻♀️ on us!* | *Just reply to this email by this Friday at midnight, your email name must match! |
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| | | | | | | | These milestones come from players using The Winning Hand, the app included with membership in the American Mah Jongg Association. [Join Here] | 16,486+ members use it in different ways: To warm up. To stay sharp. Or simply to spend more time with the game you already love. | 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 500 games played
Alyse C 🔥🔥 200 games played
Beverly Davis 🔥 100 games played
Rekha Greaves
Patricia Kurtz
Lynn Pfullmann
Nancy Wiedlin 👏 The more you play, the better your game gets. |
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| 🎥 New to The Winning Hand app?
Short videos walk through each game mode:
🤖 Bot Play
➕ Hand Builder | ☑️ Finish the Hand | 🔃 Scrambled Hand | 💃🏻 Charleston |
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