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Southern Sparrow Mahjong Tiles, Accessories, Tips & Tricks. Learn to play American Mah Jongg! Play Beautifully.
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Which tiles are you choosing for your Friday mahjong tablescape? Tiles:1. The Riviera Jet Set in Portofino Blue2. The Co...
10/16/2026

Which tiles are you choosing for your Friday mahjong tablescape?

Tiles:
1. The Riviera Jet Set in Portofino Blue
2. The Country Club Set in Winning White
3. The Chinoiserie Set in Polished Pink

10/15/2026

Can you make a Joker exchange to call mahjong? And does that count as self-picked?

Yes to both! This is one of those mahjong rules that can feel a little confusing until you see it played out.

Let’s say you’re one tile away from mahjong, and a joker would complete your hand. You draw a seven dot from the wall. Another player has an exposed group of seven dots with a joker in it, so you exchange your seven dot for that exposed joker.

That joker completes your hand, and you declare mahjong!

Even though you received the joker from another player’s exposure, this is still a self-picked mahjong. You drew from the wall and made a joker exchange during your turn to complete your winning hand.

So, how does the scoring work?

Each of the other three players pays you double the value printed on the card for your hand. If you’re playing a hand worth 25 points, each player pays you 50.

The player whose Joker you exchanged does not owe an additional payment. Giving up an exposed joker in a legal joker exchange is different from throwing the discard someone calls for mahjong.

And one more detail: if you need that joker exchange to complete your hand, your winning hand is not jokerless. The joker you just redeemed is part of your mahjong, so there is no jokerless bonus.

When you’re learning how to play American mahjong, understanding joker swaps, exposures, and self-picked mahjong helps you feel more confident about both declaring your win and scoring it correctly.

Save this mahjong lesson for your next game, and share it with the friend who always has a rules question at the table!

Happy mahj-ing, y’all!

Starting to think about holiday decorations and hostess gifts? We’ve got you covered with the cutest Christmas-y nods to...
10/13/2026

Starting to think about holiday decorations and hostess gifts? We’ve got you covered with the cutest Christmas-y nods to your favorite hobbies! From needlepoint pillows and mahjong ornaments to holiday barware and mahj-themed candles, shop our Merry Mahj-mas collection! https://southernsparrow.com/collections/merry-mahj-mas

10/08/2026

There is No Second Place in mahjong!

So if you’re not going to win, you need to change your strategy from “try to win” to “try not to lose!” Your goal moves from completing your own hand to holding discards that could help your opponent complete hers.

It means you may start to throw tiles that your hand needs for mahjong just so you don’t accidentally discard a tile your opponent can call to win mahjong.

Nothing quite like a post-round clubhouse mahj on a perfect October day!
10/07/2026

Nothing quite like a post-round clubhouse mahj on a perfect October day!

What’s your favorite dragon we’ve ever done? And why is it the Red Dragon pool floatie from The Riviera Jet Set?!?
10/05/2026

What’s your favorite dragon we’ve ever done? And why is it the Red Dragon pool floatie from The Riviera Jet Set?!?

10/05/2026

How to Play Mahjong for Money! A great way to up the level of competition in your next mahjong game is to add some extra steaks to the game. You can do this by playing for money. In mahjong, following the NMJL rules, we play for coins to represent the point value of your hand. There are ways for you to double this win either from one player or from all the players at the table and ways for you to also win double double! Let’s talk about how to keep score when playing for money, how much money you’ll win no matter what when you mahjong, and how to win double and double double payouts from your opponents.

One of the things I love about playing for money in Mahjong is that it’s not very high stakes so you’re never going to walk away from a game having lost a bunch of money, but even when you’re playing for $0.50, it can feel much more competitive than if you and your group normally don’t keep scoring you’ll find that your strategy when you’re playing will change ever so slightly when you decide to play for money because you’ll possibly make different decisions around Joker exchanges, etc. We’ll talk to all of that in this video.

this way of keeping score is slightly different from the way you’ll keep score when playing in a tournament, usually. I’ve linked the video for how to keep tournament style score following National Mah Jongg League rules below.

Which tablescape are you choosing?!?Comment “tiles” to get the links in your inbox!
10/03/2026

Which tablescape are you choosing?!?

Comment “tiles” to get the links in your inbox!

10/03/2026

A lot of you have told me you want to step up your mahjong game to play in a tournament, so let’s talk about how to prepare for your first tournament and things you should be doing with your regular group before tourney day!

Start by taking out your Blanks and extra Jokers. Playing with Blanks really does change the strategy, and while they’re something we love for social play, you’ll need to get used to playing without them for your tournament.

Y’all always ask for more step-by-step breakdowns of how I choose a hand and what happens throughout the game. Here’s a ...
10/01/2026

Y’all always ask for more step-by-step breakdowns of how I choose a hand and what happens throughout the game. Here’s a look at my most recent Siamese game against my husband…spoiler alert I won!!

If you want to watch the videos like this, comment PRACTICE to get the playlist in your inbox! To learn to play 2-person mahj, comment SIAMESE to get the lesson.

After the deal, I get organized across both racks, looking holistically at all tiles I’ve drawn. My husband was East this time, so he drew 28 tiles and I drew 27.

The two sections that popped out at me after the deal were Consecutive Run and 13579. We did a quick courtesy pass and got straight into the game. It was quickly evident exactly which hand I should play in the 13578 section but in the first few draws and discards I ended up with more Flowers and Wests. It was time to pivot out of Consecutive Run and into Winds and Dragons.

As soon as I committed to the pivot, my husband threw about one million Dragons and I started questioning all my life’s choices.

Decided to stick with it for a couple more turns and that paid off with some more Jokers and a called discard helping me prep that top hand for Mahjong!

And finally, I won! Of course, having 5 of 8 possible Jokers was hugely helpful!! Happy mahj-ing, y’all!

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