How to Read Your Card

The card is your map to winning, so let’s learn to read it. It lists every hand you’re allowed to make, sorted into sections. Each line is a picture of one complete fourteen-tile hand, written in a compact shorthand. Once you learn that shorthand, a single line tells you exactly which tiles to gather.

Groups, colors, and value

Hands are built from groups of matching tiles: a pair is two alike, a pung is three, a kong is four, a quint is five, and a sextet is six. The colors on a line stand for the three suits — but not any particular one. If a hand uses two colors, it simply means “two different suits,” and you choose which. The number beside the hand is how much it’s worth to the winner.

Exposed or concealed

Small letters tell you how a group may be played. An X means that group can be exposed — placed face-up when you claim a discard to complete it. A C means the whole hand is concealed: you build it quietly on your rack and reveal it only when you win. Concealed hands are harder, so they usually pay more.