You are going to need a pung of 7 bams.
If you know what we mean here, you are a mahjong player. Mahjong is a 19th century Chinese social game, with over 40 game variations. In America, it has a lively following of players who have their own rules. It even has its own national society, The National Mah Jongg League, founded in 1937.
While once mahjong was the favorite of Chinese and Jewish grandmothers, today it reaches people of all ages and has been surging in popularity. Actress Julia Roberts once said she plays regularly. There are even mahjong tutors these days.
If you have never played mahjong or American Mah Jongg, you might be thinking of those little game apps that let you match pairs of identical tiles stacked on top of each other. This is a sort of new mahjong solitaire, but this isn't like the authentic mahjong game of any variation.
American Mah Jongg (note the unique spelling) is played by four people, using 144 tiles, a special language, and a lot of luck. While it is a game of skill, some players estimate that 60 percent of the game is luck.
The idea is to form a winning hand by drawing, discarding, and exchanging tiles to form various combinations, kind of like rummy. Mahjong has numbered tiles grouped as suits (dots, bamboo, characters), honors (winds and dragons), and Bonus (flowers and seasons).
In American Mah Jongg, the league prints an annual card of winning combinations. In 2025, it had a misprint, causing consternation among its many fans and sparking a story in The Wall Street Journal. Just when you think you need a pung of 7 bams, this happens.
