Gathering notes from Averill

A 8 set, a $160 set and a $350 resale all get called an American mahjong set. Here is what the higher number actually buys, and when it is worth paying.

The rules did not change. The room did. What is actually driving the American mahjong boom, which parts of it are optional, and the three things you need to sit down at a table.

Where mahjong came from, how it reached American living rooms in the 1920s, why the annual card exists, and how to read the age of a set you inherited.

You know the rules and still lose most weeks. Seven habits that hold up no matter which hands the card carries this year.

How to find mahjong lessons worth attending, what a first class actually feels like, what they cost, and how to keep the game going after the course ends.

The published rules settle which hands exist and how jokers work. They say nothing about the ten seconds after a miscall, which is where groups actually break.

The fourth cancelled at five o'clock. There is no official three-player American mahjong, so here is what actually breaks with three at the table, the three workarounds groups use, and the honest cost of...

Four people and a repeating date is all a mahjong group needs to begin. Here is how to find the players, choose a place, decide how many sets to buy, and settle table rules...

What actually changes at the table as eyes and hands age, what to look for in a set beyond tile size, and where to find a standing weekly game.