Definition
The card is the annual sheet published by the National Mah Jongg League listing every hand that can win that year, reissued each April with new hands.
Every player needs the current card. We teach how to read its notation and how to recognise which category your tiles are pointing at, and we never reproduce the card itself.
At the table
The card changes every April, and that shapes how to learn this game. Memorising lines is a poor investment because they expire. Reading the notation fluently is permanent. The mistake is treating the new card each spring as a setback rather than as the reset it is, when experienced players are relearning alongside you.
Also called NMJL card, Mah Jongg card.
Read the full guide: How to Read the Mahjong Card: The Notation, Decoded.
Lesson 3, How Hands Work: Pattern Families, teaches this in its step "The card is a menu". The lesson is free. Start Lesson 3, free.
See it on real tiles. The AI coach reads a dealt hand, free, and names the direction it goes for, what to keep and what to pass, at the free read.
Want the coach on call? The Club adds the coach for your own tiles and for each morning’s hand, all 10 lessons, and every new NMJL card taught the week it lands, for $14.99 a month, cancel anytime. See what the Club includes.
Related: Direction, Consecutive Run, 2468, 13579, 369, Winds and Dragons. All 52 terms.