Groups and an Example Hand

Let’s make the shorthand real. Every hand is just a set of groups laid side by side. Here they are in actual tiles, and then a complete made-up hand so you can practice reading one.

The group sizes

A pair is two matching tiles; a pung is three; a kong is four; a quint is five; a sextet is six. A single is one tile on its own. Your card tells you which sizes each hand needs.

Reading a Hand — an Invented Example

Pung (3 alike)

Kong (4 alike)

Pung (3 alike)

Pair (2 alike)

ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLE ONLY — this is a made-up hand to show groups (pung, kong, pair) and how a joker fills a group of 3+. It is NOT taken from any real National Mah Jongg League card. Always read winning hands from your own current card.

Read the example left to right: a pung of one suit, a kong of another (with a joker filling in), a pung of a third suit, and a pair of Red Dragons. Notice the joker sitting inside the kong — that’s allowed because a kong is a group of four. Line up fourteen tiles like this to match a card line, and you have a winning hand.