In the 2000s, when web browser-based games started taking off, another form of mah-jongg brought familiarity to the game. Internet mah-jongg uses those familiar tiles, but the game relies on matching and plays much more like solitaire than rummy. The mah-jongg played in real life at the table is complex — it’s a multi-suited card game played with domino-esque tiles — and it takes some time to teach. Like poker, it has winning hands. But mah-jongg’s winning hands also change each year based on what the National Mah Jongg League’s new card says. Western mah-jongg added new tiles, like the joker, so the league is America’s standard keeper for the modified version of the game.
Most students of mah-jongg start by simply learning what the suits are — dots, bamboos and characters — and what the tiles like dragons, winds, flowers and seasons do. Real-life players also tend to scoff at the Internet stuff, and only one “official” electronic version of “real” mah-jongg exists — at the National Mah Jongg League’s webpage.
Elaine and Susan got into teaching people how to play mah-jongg in real life out of a lack of players. The game plays the best with four to five players, and as with other games like euchre — which requires a group and has a high learning curve — the need for four always draws in more.
“It’s just a great game. You want to spread it,” Susan said.
Part of Susan and her mother teaching classes locally has been personal. The daughter joked that it was all a part of a ploy to convince her mother to move to New Paltz from Rockland County. “She said she wouldn’t move up here unless she found a mah-jongg game,” Susan joked.
In turn, people who’ve learned from Elaine or Susan have stuck with it, sometimes starting mah-jongg clubs of their own. Artie Raphael and Lois Cohn — both of whom played at the Jewish Community Center this week — started a group to teach people mah-jongg at the Gardiner Library.
“My reason for going to the Gardiner Library was because I was looking for people who play,” Cohn said. Mah-jongg requires a focus of unbroken thought. Even a non-contestant asking mah-jongg players a few quick questions seems to throw them off. For Cohn, who usually has a mind full of needed groceries, chores left to do and places she needs to be, that all-encompassing focus is part of the draw.
“When I play mah-jongg, I don’t think about anything else,” she said.
Players in the area tend to play for free — both the Gardiner and New Paltz games don’t charge. However, Susan and Elaine’s mah-jongg game at the Jewish Community Center usually has a jar on the table for donations, which go to help pay the synagogue for utility use in the room. The Jewish Congregation of New Paltz has been really giving in allowing the mah-jongg fans the use of their space.
“We’re so grateful for it,” Susan said. “The synagogue has been great.”
People looking to learn the game actually stand a good chance to learn it here at home. Both Gardiner and New Paltz’s mah-jongg games have tables dedicated to beginners.
Beginners in New Paltz should head to the Jewish Community Center on the first Monday of each month to check out the mah-jongg game at noon. There’s a lot to learn to get off the ground.
“Show up at 12 o’clock,” Susan said. “Come early — don’t come late.”
The Jewish Community Center’s game day isn’t just once a month, however. More advanced players or people wanting to reconnect to their past mah-jongg glories can show up every Monday at noon.
Mah-jongg champs or wannabes in Gardiner only have one date to choose from — Gardiner Library holds their game day only once a month at 1:30 p.m. on every fourth Thursday.
For more information about the New Paltz game, call Susan Stessin-Cohn at 255-2351 or e-mail her at [email protected]. For more information about Gardiner’s game, call the library at 255-1255, e-mail Lois Cohn at [email protected] or visit the library’s website at www.gardinerlibrary.org. ++
