The basics
Reading the card
Every line on the card is a hand you can win with. Learn what the numbers, colors, D, F, 0, X and C mean and you can read the whole card.
On this page
One line, one hand
Each line on the card is one hand of exactly 14 tiles. Each chunk separated by a space is one group:
Read this line as: a pung of 2s (3 tiles), a kong of 4s (4 tiles), a pung of 6s and a kong of 8s, all four groups in the same color → all in one suit. The X · 25 on the right means you may expose groups and the hand is worth 25 points.
This site’s card, “House Card 2026”, has 50 hands in 10 categories. In the game, press “Show the full card” in the card panel to see them all.
Colors mean “same suit or different suits”
The colors on the card do not stand for bams, craks or dots. They tell you which groups must share a suit:
- Same color = same suit (you choose which one)
- Different colors = must be different suits
In this hand (ignore the opening pair of flowers for now), 4444 and 8888 share a color and 6666 has a different one. You can make “4444 and 8888 in craks with 6666 in dots”, or “4444 and 8888 in bams with 6666 in craks” — but the 6666 can never be in the same suit as the other two groups.
Letters and symbols
| On the card | Meaning |
|---|---|
1–9 | The number on a suit tile |
F | Flower |
N E W S | North, East, West, South |
D | Dragon, which must match the group’s suit (Green with bams, Red with craks, Soap with dots) |
0 | Soap used as a zero, belonging to no suit |
X | Exposed: you may call other players’ discards to complete groups |
C | Concealed: no exposures; you may only call the tile that wins |
The number on the right is the hand’s value. The harder a hand is to build, the more it’s worth.
“Any like numbers” and “any consecutive numbers”
Some hands don’t fix the numbers. The card prints them using 1 as an example and notes “any like numbers” or “any consecutive numbers” next to them:
The first hand is “4 flowers plus one group of the same number in each of the three suits”: you could use all 5s, or all 8s. The second is three consecutive numbers: 1-2-3, 4-5-6 and 7-8-9 all work.
Year hands
Every card has a category of hands built from the current year. 2026 is four single tiles: 2, Soap (as 0), 2, 6.
2026 is made of singles, so jokers can’t be used — only real tiles. The second hand is concealed (C), and its NEWS means one each of North, East, West and South.
Singles and pairs
This category is made up entirely of pairs and singles, so not a single joker can be used. That means these hands are always concealed, and they score the highest:
The ten categories at a glance
| Category | What it uses |
|---|---|
| 2026 | The digits of the year, with Soap as 0 |
| 2468 | Even numbers only |
| 13579 | Odd numbers only |
| Like Numbers | The same number in every group |
| Addition | Two numbers that add up to a third, such as 2 + 7 = 9 |
| Quints | At least one group of five, so jokers are a must |
| Consecutive Run | Numbers in a row |
| 369 | Only 3s, 6s and 9s |
| Winds & Dragons | Mostly winds and dragons |
| Singles & Pairs | All pairs and singles, no jokers allowed |
This site’s card is an original design, not the official card the National Mah Jongg League (NMJL) publishes every year. It reads the same way, though: learn this one and you’ll be able to read the official card too.
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