A Mah Jong Handbook: How to Play, Score, and Win

Whitney's handbook is the only book that most players will ever need to become a knowledgeable, confident and winning Mah Jong player. The basics of play, including seating, dealer selection, wall-building, tile-dealing and play are laid out clearly with helpful examples and good illustrations. The scoring of Mah Jong is explained with numerous carefully-constructed examples, with helpful diagrams of each tile scenario for good visual reference.

The strategy of the game is brilliantly explained in Part III, again with numerous examples that gradually train beginning players how to quickly make strategic decisions to enhance their play. As Whitney explains, Mah Jong is a game governed by sheer luck of the draw, yet the "skillful player is actually one who knows how to adapt to his luck." Her extensive explanations and examples of both "offensive" and "defensive" strategies are the soul of the book, and I, for one, was amazed how quickly my comphrehension of the game improved after having read the entire chapter.

It is true that the focus of the book is primarily on the Japanese and American rules and variations, but Chinese equivalent terms are included in an extensive Glossary-Index. For the vast majority of players, this will not be a serious problem.

If you buy one book on Mah Jong, it should be this one.


A must for anyone wanting to learn to play Mah Jong Quickly   February 23, 2000
42 out of 43 found this review helpful

How many times have you wanted to play a game of Mah Jong but you you are bombarded with different rule books on the subject - each one giving a more confusing set of scoring instructions There are many times when I have encountered this problem especially when teaching newcomers the game We play using Eleanor Noss Whitney's "A Mah Jong Handbook" as our rules which we find of all the other books on Mah Jong the easiest and most understandable set of rules compared to all teh others which clutter the field with a multitude of sets and scoring tables that make the game a nightmare to play Her rules are Clear, Concise, Unambiguous and simple to use I use her book to teach all newcomers the game and everyone agrees that her rules are the best I show them the scoring from the other books and their examples and explain to them that there are many other variations regarding the scoring and everyone opts for the simple version without any complications

I would heartly recomend this book to everyone if they want to get into playing the game within inside a hour of opening the book There is plain simple concise instuctions that dont confuse you with umpteen different names for the same Mah Jong scoreing hand

If there is one book you should get to learn and play Mah Jong - It should be this one - You wont regret it


A tour de force   August 28, 2002
Sir Bowen (Houston, TX USA)
21 out of 21 found this review helpful

The Mah Jong Handbook presents an amazingly clear method for approaching the game. The book is easy-to-read, but deals with every aspect of the game in detail.

To get the most out of the book, I recommend taking the time to work through the example exercises yourself (before going on to the analysis discussion.) Once you've gone through the book this way, you'll pretty much know everything that an expert player knows. The only thing left is to get in enough playing time to put the theory into practice.

In addition to the game aspects, the book discusses the accompanying rituals and etiquette, as well as many variations on the rules.


simply the best   January 9, 2000
8 out of 8 found this review helpful

The best book there is in English on the game. Organized as follows:

Part One: The Official Game.
1. The Mah Jong Set
2. Preliminaries
3. Playing
4. Scoring

Part Two: Alternatives, Variations and Additions.
1. The Mah Jong Set
2. Preliminaries
3. Playing
4. Scoring
5. American Scoring

Part Three: Strategy.
1. Luck and Skill
2. Offensive Strategy
3. Defensive Strategy


An excellently write book on Japanese mah jong!   June 24, 2001
John Shiomi (Japan)
11 out of 12 found this review helpful

This is an excellent book for the Japanese mah jong enthusiast! If you want to learn to kick some ...in Japanese mah jong definitely buy this book. It is well worth the money. I think that the strategies for offense and defense are really good. It has really helped me improve my game. I have returned to the book over and over for more help. Read and learn and then immediately apply it to your game....