Definition
A rack is the stand that holds a player's thirteen tiles upright and hidden, with exposed sets placed on top of it.
Racks with a pusher bar let you push your built wall forward without knocking it over.
At the table
The rack is a screen as much as a stand, and beginners give away more through it than through anything they say. Keep the tiles angled toward you, and resist reorganising every time you draw, because the reshuffle tells the table the draw mattered. Sort once properly, re-sort between Charleston rounds, and otherwise leave it alone.
Read the full guide: Buying Your First American Mahjong Set: What Actually Matters.
Lesson 2, The Table & the Deal, teaches this in its step "Sort your rack". The lesson is free. Start Lesson 2, 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: Soap, East, Suit, Wall game. All 52 terms.