How to Read the NMJL Mahjong Card: A Beginner's Guide

Updated October 3, 2026: clarified tile counts, suit relationships, concealed hands, and scoring.

You open the NMJL card for the first time. It is a single tri-fold sheet, smaller than you expected, and somehow more confusing than you expected too. Rows of colored numbers. Asterisks. Little Fs and Ds. The letters X and C marching down the right side. Words like "any 3 suits" in parentheses that you have not been taught yet. It looks like spreadsheet hell printed on cardstock, and your first instinct is to slide it back into the envelope and pretend you never saw it.

Do not slide it back. The card is the most important tool you have, and it is not nearly as complicated as it looks. Once you know what each piece is doing, the whole thing reads more like a menu than a math test. This guide walks you through it row by row, color by color, symbol by symbol, so the next time you open it you know exactly what you are looking at.

TL;DR: How to read the NMJL card in 5 lines

• The NMJL card is published once a year by the National Mah Jongg League in standard and large-print formats. The 2026 card has 55 hands across 9 sections.
• Hands are grouped into sections by theme. 2026, 2468, ALN (Any Like Numbers), Quints, Consecutive Run, 13579, Winds-Dragons, 369, Singles and Pairs.
• Colors on the card tell you about suits inside a hand. Same color = same suit. Different colors = different suits. The specific color does not mean a specific suit.
• The letters at the end of each line tell you whether the hand is exposed (X) or concealed (C), and the number is the point value.
• Start with the easy reads. Three to five hands you can recognize on sight will get you through most of your early games while the rest of the card sinks in.

What the NMJL card actually is

The card is a single sheet of paper, printed in color, that lists every legal winning hand for the year of American mahjong. It is published by the National Mah Jongg League, the organization that codifies the American version of the game. A new card comes out every spring. Use the same card and year as everyone at your table. A group can agree to practice with an older card, while classes and events specify which card to bring.

Buy the current card directly from the NMJL or an authorized seller, and check the available sizes and current prices before ordering. Other organizations publish their own cards, too. Before your first game, ask your group which card and year they use so everyone is working from the same hands.

The card has 55 hands total. That number sounds like a lot at first. By the end of a season most regular players have a working familiarity with all of them and a smaller handful they reach for first.

How the card is organized

The card is broken into sections, and each section is a theme. Every hand inside that section follows the theme in some way. Once you know what each section is doing, you can scan the card much faster because you know where to look for the kind of hand you might want.

The 2026 sections in order: 2026, 2468, ALN, Quints, Consecutive Run, 13579, Winds-Dragons, 369, Singles and Pairs.

• 2026 is the year section. The hands incorporate the digits 2, 0, 2, 6 in various combinations. Every annual card has a year section like this.
• 2468 uses only even-numbered tiles. The 2s, 4s, 6s, and 8s in any of the three suits.
• ALN stands for Any Like Numbers. Most of these hands use the same number repeated across all three suits, with the number itself flexible (any 1 through 9), though one ALN hand uses only two suits plus a Flower sextet.
• Quints use groups of five identical tiles. In practice you lean on jokers to build them, since a real mahjong set only has four of any given suited tile.
• Consecutive Run uses runs of consecutive numbers (like 2-3-4 or 5-6-7) inside a hand.
• 13579 is the mirror of 2468. Only odd-numbered tiles, in any of the three suits.
• Winds-Dragons features hands built around the four wind tiles (North, East, West, South) and the three dragons (red, green, white).
• 369 uses only 3s, 6s, and 9s in some combination.
• Singles and Pairs is the concealed-only section. Every hand here is single tiles and pairs, no pungs or kongs. These hands tend to be the highest point values on the card.

Inside each section, hands are numbered. The first hand in 2026 is 2026 #1, the third hand in Quints is Quints #3, and so on. This is the right way to talk about a specific hand. You will sometimes see people refer to hands as "H1" or "H18," but the cleaner reference is always section name plus line number.

What the suits and tile groups look like on the card

The card shows hands as strings of numbers and letters, not as tile pictures. To read the card you have to know what those numbers and letters mean.

• Numbers (1 through 9) are suited tiles. They appear in three suits: dots (also called circles), bams (bamboos), and cracks (characters). The colors show how the suits relate to each other. They do not permanently assign dots, bams, or cracks to a particular ink color.
• Letters NEWS are wind tiles: North, East, West, South. There are four copies of each wind in a standard American mahjong set, for 16 wind tiles total.
• D represents a dragon. The dragons belong with their suits: red with cracks, green with bams, and white (the soap) with dots. Read the colors and the printed instructions together to see whether a hand needs matching or opposite dragons.
• F is a flower tile. There are eight flowers in a standard set, and the card treats any flower as interchangeable with any other for hands that require flowers.
• 0 (zero) appears as a stand-in for the white dragon. This is the white dragon serving double duty as a zero, both in the year section and in Winds-Dragons #8.
• Jokers are not written on the card. Whether you can use a joker for a group depends on the group's size. Pungs (3), kongs (4), quints (5), and sextets (6) can use jokers. Pairs and singles cannot.

Color coding explained

This is the single most useful piece of information for reading the card faster, and it is the one most beginners miss for months.

The colors on the card do not tell you which specific suit to use. They tell you about suit relationships inside the hand.

Each hand uses up to three colors. Each color stands for one suit assignment within that hand. Two groups in the same color = same suit. Two groups in different colors = different suits. The card does not care which color is dots, which is bams, and which is cracks. You decide that based on the tiles you have.

For numbered tiles, if a hand has three groups all printed in the same color, those groups need to be in the same suit. You pick which suit. All dots. Or all bams. Or all cracks. The hand is finished as long as every group matches.

If a hand has two groups in one color and one group in a second color, the first two groups have to share a suit and the third group has to be in a different suit. Again, you choose which suit goes where based on what you can build.

If a hand has three groups in three different colors, every group has to be in a different suit. You will use all three suits to complete the hand.

Flowers, winds, and a white dragon used as a zero need special attention: their ink color does not assign them to a numbered suit. Always read the parentheses on the card, including instructions for dragons.

This is why two hands with identical-looking numbers can play completely differently. The colors are the rule that tells you how the suits relate. Once you see it this way, the whole card stops looking like color-by-numbers and starts looking like a logic puzzle you already know the rules for.

What "X" and "C" mean on the right side of the card

At the end of every line, after the point value, you will see either an X or a C.

• X means the hand can be played exposed. You are allowed to claim discards to build the hand. When you take a discard for a pung, kong, quint, or sextet, you have to lay that group face-up on top of your rack for everyone to see. That is what "exposed" means. Most hands on the card are X hands.
• C means the hand has to be played concealed. You cannot claim a discard to make an exposure along the way. You may claim the final tile that completes the entire hand for mahjong, including a single or pair. Concealed means keeping the hand unexposed until mahjong; it does not mean that every tile must have been drawn from the wall.

That distinction changes your options. With an X hand, you can use eligible discards to make exposures. With a C hand, you must keep your hand concealed until you can declare mahjong.

Concealed vs. exposed hands and point values

Each printed hand has a point value and an X or C designation. It does not automatically have separate exposed and concealed prices. An X hand may stay concealed throughout the game, but keeping it concealed does not by itself double its value.

C hands require you to keep the hand unexposed until mahjong. The Singles and Pairs section is concealed-only, and jokers cannot fill its singles or pairs. Read each hand's printed value instead of assuming all concealed hands pay the same.

When you choose a hand, its X or C designation is part of the choice. Think about which tiles you can still obtain and whether you will be able to call for an exposure. The right choice depends on your rack and the table.

Reading the score column on the right

The number printed beside the hand is its base value. Use that number as the starting point for payment, then apply the NMJL payment rules:

• Winning on a discard: the player who discarded your winning tile pays double the hand's value; the other two players each pay its value.
• Self-pick: when you draw your winning tile from the wall, all three other players pay double.
• Jokerless bonus: a hand that can use jokers earns double value if it contains no jokers when you declare mahjong. This combines with the discard or self-pick payment rule. Singles and Pairs hands do not receive an extra jokerless bonus.

For a 25-point hand won on a discard, that means 50 from the discarder and 25 from each other player. If the same hand is also jokerless and qualifies for the bonus, those payments become 100, 50, and 50. Keeping an X hand concealed does not create an additional bonus.

Read the payment rules on your card and agree on stakes or tournament scoring before you begin. The American mahjong scoring guide walks through more examples.

3 hands to learn first

If you are brand new to the 2026 card, do not try to memorize all 55 hands. Pick three you can recognize on sight, and play them every chance you get. The rest of the card will sink in around them.

Here are three I would start with:

1. 2468 #1

The 2468 section is one of the friendliest places on the card for new players. The hands use only even-numbered tiles, which cuts your search down significantly. Pick a 2468 hand that uses one or two suits, and you have a clear target with a clear set of tiles to look for.

2. Winds-Dragons #1

On the 2026 card, Winds-Dragons #1 uses pungs and kongs of the four winds. It is not a group of four NEWS singles. Compare the two printed arrangements and check which winds need three tiles and which need four. There are no numbered suits to track in this hand, so you can focus on the wind groups and what is still available.

3. 369 #1

369 hands use only 3s, 6s, and 9s in some combination. Like 2468, the limited tile range makes them easier to scan for. If you are dealt a few 3s or 6s and you do not know what to do with them, the 369 section is the first place to look.

Three hands. That is your starting point. Pick them, mark them lightly with a pencil, and play them until they feel obvious. Then add a fourth. Then a fifth. The rest will follow.

Once the card feels more familiar, practice choosing a hand and planning your next move with the American mahjong strategy guide.

The card is a tool, not a test

The NMJL card looks like a wall of information because it has to fit a whole season of mahjong onto one sheet of paper. Once you know what the colors are telling you, what the X and C mean, and how the sections are organized, that wall comes down. The card becomes a menu you scan, not a test you study for.

Your strategy with the card should not be "memorize everything." It should be "read and decide." Pick three hands you know cold. Add to them as you go. Watch the table for what is being passed and what is being discarded, and use the card to tell you which of your options is still alive. That is how regular players read the card, and it is the habit worth building from your very first game.

If you want a structured way to make decisions with the 2026 card, the 2026 Strategy Edit is the guide I wrote for exactly that purpose. The one-time $49 purchase includes lifetime access to a private member page with the section-by-section playbook, tile demand chart, pivot framework, worksheets, and recorded Q&A. If you are looking for ongoing practice with real games and weekly strategy, the Confidence Club is where I work through hands with members every week.

And if you want a few specific places to keep learning the card, start with the easiest hands on the 2026 card, then dig into the Winds-Dragons section strategy for a deeper read. The Charleston guide covers the part that happens before your first turn. If a term in this post did not land, the mahjong glossary has every definition in one place. And if you are brand new to the game and want to back up a few steps, start here. The free cheat sheet is the one-pager you can bring to your first game while the rest of this sinks in.

From reading the card to playing it: American mahjong tiles explained covers what those colored numbers stand for, the joker rules in American mahjong decide more close hands than anything else, and how American mahjong scoring works turns point values into payouts.

See you at the table.

Lara

Card and rules references

Use your official 2026 National Mah Jongg League card for the complete hands, conditions, and payment rules. For additional explanations, see Mahj Life's How to Score and Payout for a Jokerless Hand, which identify their NMJL rule sources.