Each line on the NMJL card is one winning hand. Colors show suit relationships (each color stands for one suit in that hand), the groupings show pairs, pungs, kongs, and quints, the number at the end of the line is the point value, and C means concealed while X means exposures are allowed.
| Card clue | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Section name | The family of hands (2468, Consecutive Run, Winds and Dragons, and so on) |
| Colors | Suit relationships; each color stands for one suit in that hand |
| Groupings | Pairs, pungs, kongs, quints, and sextets that make up the hand |
| X | The hand can be played exposed; you may claim discards to build it |
| C | The hand must be played concealed; it usually pays more |
| Number at the end | The point value paid when the hand wins |
| Parentheses | Conditions for the hand, like "any 3 suits" |
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.
In this guide
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 and costs $15. 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. The card you played with last year is retired the moment the new one is released, so anyone playing American mahjong is playing off the same current sheet.
The 2026 card costs $15 directly from the NMJL. You can also pick one up from most mahjong instructors and through some retailers. There are a few alternative cards out there too. The Big Card, from The Mahjong Line, has larger print and a different hand selection. The American Mah Jongg Association has published a card of its own too. Both are real, both have followings, and either can be worth knowing about. For most players starting out, the NMJL card is the one you want, because it is the one every public game and most private games are using.
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 card does not name which suit. The color tells you that.
- Letters NEWS are wind tiles: North, East, West, South. One of each in a standard mahjong set, four winds total.
- The letters D, R, G, W or sometimes just D are dragon tiles. Red dragon, green dragon, white dragon (also called the soap). The card style determines whether dragons are color-coded or shown as a single letter.
- 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. The asterisk on certain hands means something specific about jokers, which I will get to below.
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.
So if a hand has three groups, all printed in the same color, every group needs 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.
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 discards to build any group except the very last one (the one that wins you the hand on mahjong). Every other tile has to come to you off the wall, picked on your own turn.
This is the rule that makes the same point value mean very different things. A hand worth 25 points on an X line is significantly easier to play than a hand worth 25 points on a C line, because you have far fewer chances to pick the tiles you need.
Concealed vs exposed hands (and why the point values are different)
This is the part of the card that confuses people the first time they notice it. Look at the right column. Most hands list two point values, one for the X version and one for the C version. The C version is almost always worth more.
That is intentional. Concealed hands are harder to build, so they pay more. The Singles and Pairs section on the bottom right of the card is concealed-only, which is why those hands carry the highest values. You are giving up the ability to call for tiles in exchange for the higher point payoff.
When you choose a hand to play, the X or C designation is part of the choice. A C hand changes your whole turn-by-turn strategy because you cannot lean on discards. An X hand opens up more options but tops out at a lower score. Both are fine. Neither is "better." They are tradeoffs.
Reading the score column on the right
The number at the end of each line is the base value of the hand. That is what you collect from the other three players if you win. On the 2026 card, values run from 25 at the lowest (most exposed hands) up to 75 at the very top. The 75-point hand is the Singles and Pairs concealed hand FF 2026 2026 2026. Most concealed hands sit at 50.
There are a few situations where the score changes:
- Self-pick (you draw your final tile from the wall instead of claiming a discard) is paid double by every player.
- Hands with an asterisk have a "no jokers" rule. If you complete the hand with no jokers anywhere in it, you collect double from every player. The asterisk is the card's signal that this hand has the no-jokers bonus.
You do not have to memorize the bonus rules to start playing. They show up at the end of a hand when you are counting up the score, and your group will catch the bonuses as they come up. The point of the card is to tell you what hands are legal and what they are worth. The bonuses are layered on top.
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 (the NEWS hand)
The Winds-Dragons section has hands built around the wind tiles. A NEWS hand uses one of each wind in groups. The benefit for beginners is that you do not have to track suits at all. You just need wind tiles, which are easier to count and easier to remember to watch for.
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.
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 deeper structured walk through every hand on the 2026 card with strategy notes for each, the 2026 Strategy Edit is the guide I wrote for exactly that purpose. It is a one-time $49 download that takes you hand by hand through the full card. 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
