Latest / Little House of Mahj / Little House of Mahj - Episode 4 - Talking during play and Joker Rules Roundup
Transcript
- 0:00Welcome everyone, to today's podcast.
- 0:02On today's episode, you're going to hear about Teresa's very
- 0:05first time playing in the wild, and we're going to discuss
- 0:07talking during games. Are you team talk or team
- 0:10silent? Also, Tina's going to take us on
- 0:12a rules roundup about jokers. And also I want to mention at
- 0:15the end of this podcast, we've mentioned that we had yet to
- 0:19receive an e-mail from our fans. And I just want to report that
- 0:22after we recorded the episode, we got one Mr. Mahjong from San
- 0:26Francisco. You were the very first e-mail
- 0:29to the House of Maj. and we cannot thank you enough.
- 0:32Enjoy the episode. We're four sisters who earned a
- 0:39new game. We all love it and we hope you
- 0:42feel the same. So come on in and listen to our
- 0:46podcast because everyone is welcome in the little House of
- 0:49Maj. Hello everybody.
- 0:51Welcome to the Little House of Maj.
- 0:53I'm Lisa. I'm Tina.
- 0:54I'm Amy. I'm Teresa.
- 0:56And we are so glad you are back. We are.
- 0:58We made it to Episode 4. We did it, everybody.
- 1:02We're published. I just want to say the stats are
- 1:05in and we're doing great. Everybody, people are listening
- 1:09to us. Guys rocketing.
- 1:12Almost. Viral.
- 1:13Almost viral. Viral in our minds.
- 1:15We thought no one was going to listen to this.
- 1:17Yes, we're very excited. It's not.
- 1:19True. Well, I don't.
- 1:21Know well it extended beyond family and that's really our.
- 1:24Family that's. Everybody right, right, right.
- 1:26So we're thankful for all of you out there.
- 1:29Yes, we're listening. We're listening.
- 1:31It's it's very exciting. So thank you, everybody.
- 1:34So Tina, you kind of had a big week this week in a special
- 1:37moment day. My birthdays aren't nearly as
- 1:39fun as they used to be. Well, rather than throwing a
- 1:42rager, what was your her one desire she had one desire.
- 1:46Tell everybody I. Just wanted to play mahjong.
- 1:49We went to dinner and then Amy wasn't there, which was very
- 1:54sad. We missed you.
- 1:55But my daughter filled in and we played mahjong and it was great.
- 1:59Although I did not get a mahjong on my birthday, which I'm a
- 2:02little salty about, but you know what, it's okay.
- 2:05Did you did you get a new set of tiles?
- 2:08Well, not specifically for my birthday.
- 2:11Let's talk about that for a second, everybody.
- 2:13Tina, how many sets do you have? Let's think about this.
- 2:17For a while. Okay, probably.
- 2:19Right now I have six sets of tiles.
- 2:21Does that include your floating set?
- 2:23I don't have a floating, you have a.
- 2:24Pool set I you. Didn't did you ever.
- 2:27No, it was your travel set. I have a.
- 2:29Travel. Does the six include the travel
- 2:32set? No, OK. 7.
- 2:34Well, lucky 7. I love, I love, love, love.
- 2:38They're just so pretty and they all.
- 2:40And I love Matt. She does have beautiful.
- 2:42She has beautiful and I say one thing about the whole floating
- 2:45thing. You may.
- 2:46I am really struggling because I'm really tempted to buy a
- 2:49floating. She has a pool.
- 2:51I do, that's why. But I don't know if like
- 2:54floating and playing mahjong would be that.
- 2:57Great. I don't know.
- 2:58I feel. Like it's something we have to
- 3:00try. Well, maybe.
- 3:01We should for research. Purposes only.
- 3:03Alright, well who's buying the floating set 'cause if I buy
- 3:05another set, my husband's gonna. Controversy have a problem.
- 3:09Some of the sets, the tiles don't float well, some people
- 3:12are. I say about that you have.
- 3:14To read the reviews. Yes, well, I know there's Sam's.
- 3:17There's a big thing. Everyone was buying the Sam's,
- 3:19but the Sam's tiles don't float well.
- 3:22It's all very expensive, but here's what I'm thinking I'm
- 3:24going to do now if you, Lisa, want to buy me a pool set that.
- 3:28'D be fantastic. How did?
- 3:31This maybe next year birthday. Your birthday is your.
- 3:34Birthday, but now. The test.
- 3:35No, but you know what I'm going to do and I've seen this people
- 3:39do this I'm going to take a mat because I have a few mats.
- 3:42Maybe I'll take my OG mat that I bought from Amazon that I don't
- 3:45love and I'm going to like cut a slit in it and put it on my
- 3:49umbrella table and like cut a hole in it so that so we to play
- 3:53by the pool. Pool adjacent pool.
- 3:55Adjacent but not in the pool. OK.
- 3:58I think the baby. Steps.
- 3:59We'll try that. Yeah, baby steps.
- 4:00Love it. Teresa, you had a big week.
- 4:02Big for Teresa. A huge week.
- 4:04Tell us. So let me set the scene for you
- 4:06guys. So most of the time, and I'm
- 4:09talking 99.99999% of the time, I am playing with my sisters in
- 4:15the little House of Maj. And then I had an opportunity to
- 4:19play out in the wild. In the wild.
- 4:23Out in the wild we mean like out in a public place, not a
- 4:27tournament, God forbid, but with.
- 4:28People you don't know. With with people I don't know.
- 4:31You knew them well. So here's what happened.
- 4:33So I had a friend that I knew from a different scene.
- 4:37And then we found out, Oh, we both play Maj. and she invited
- 4:40me. She's like, I bought a table at
- 4:42this open play at a near in a local boutique.
- 4:46And she's like, why don't you join us?
- 4:48And I was a little bit freaking out.
- 4:50Because all of us have done it, yes.
- 4:52They have and I'm like, oh, I'm never going to play out.
- 4:55I just like playing with you guys.
- 4:57I'm not that good, you know like I'm slow.
- 4:59I like to talk too much. I didn't think it would go well,
- 5:02but so let me tell you. So we went open this open play.
- 5:07I was there too. I was.
- 5:08Dina was in a different. She.
- 5:10Was in a different. Table but the ladies I was with
- 5:12I'm like how good are they going to I like I didn't know these
- 5:16ladies have. Confidence, Teresa, you didn't
- 5:18have it. Did you get a Maja?
- 5:20No, I did not. So I didn't know.
- 5:22I only knew one of the four, one of the other 3 ladies and not
- 5:26that well. And then the other two ladies I
- 5:29didn't know at all. I'm like how good are they are
- 5:31getting? They're going to get frustrated
- 5:32with me because I'm a slow Sally.
- 5:34Like how is this going to go? So with excitement and a bit of
- 5:38trepidation. They were lovely.
- 5:40These ladies were very gracious, very wonderful.
- 5:43I was happy though to find out that they were pretty much kind
- 5:48of just starting out on their Maj. journey.
- 5:50Was it fun? It was fun.
- 5:52I was the fastest player that I. Can't get over.
- 5:57I know I can't get. Past that I know.
- 5:59So that was interesting. And then I built my confidence.
- 6:03I'm like giddy up, I can do this.
- 6:04So I never heard. I heard you from across the
- 6:07room. Yeah, saying giddy up.
- 6:09No, she didn't say giddy up. I was kind of hoping that she
- 6:12would. She was.
- 6:13She was a little squeaky. To be honest, we were all a
- 6:16little bit worried of Teresa. We was ready.
- 6:18We were. Worried about we?
- 6:19Didn't want to tell. I I still can't get over you
- 6:21that you were the fastest 1. Well, but they, they were solid
- 6:24on the rules. You could tell they, they knew
- 6:27what they were doing. They just needed a little time.
- 6:29And you know what was really sweet?
- 6:31One of the ladies got their very first mahjong ever that day.
- 6:34And so. We could celebrate, I could
- 6:37celebrate with her. So did they have any house rules
- 6:39any anything that? No, it was different very much.
- 6:41But you. Played with blanks though 'cause
- 6:43when I came by. Well, we, I was the one who told
- 6:46them about blanks. They had never played with
- 6:48blanks. So I sort of so you were.
- 6:50Leading them down the path of the.
- 6:52Wonderment of wonderment. So we played like 4 games and
- 6:58the last game they're like hey, why don't we try the blanks?
- 7:01Some of them liked it, some of them didn't.
- 7:03One was a little like you Tina who she's like I like to go buy
- 7:07the book. And then another one was like oh
- 7:09this is great. So everyone's got their own
- 7:11vibe, you know? Oh, wait a minute, can I just
- 7:13jump in for a second? Going back to the birthday
- 7:16celebration, I, this was at my house and I actually said we're
- 7:21going to play messy mahjong. We played messy mahjong at my
- 7:24house. I just want to for the.
- 7:25Hell frozen. For the proud of you, Tina, that
- 7:29you were just kind of going with the flow, doing.
- 7:31The mess. I didn't love it, but I thought
- 7:33I would anyway. Back to your, back to your
- 7:35thing. So I the ladies were, they were
- 7:38wonderful. They were, like I said, they're
- 7:40very serious. They were very quiet.
- 7:42Well, yeah, talk to us about the talking.
- 7:45The loudest. And I have to admit I I missed
- 7:48you guys. I missed the witty repartee of
- 7:51my sisters. Did they?
- 7:52Had a lovely time. Was it odd that they weren't
- 7:55talking much? I think it was, to be honest,
- 7:59probably a little bit more normal.
- 8:01Wait a second, this is what is are you saying you?
- 8:04Know what normal Well. I just, again, this is my only
- 8:08experience with other people playing and they were just very
- 8:12focused on the game, whereas again, you know, my point of
- 8:15view, my perspective is to just have fun, so.
- 8:18When you played Amy, were they talking a lot?
- 8:20At the table, well, my ex. My first experience playing out
- 8:25in the wild was way too much talking.
- 8:30So I was playing with these wonderful ladies who I had not
- 8:34met before and the they were talking about like non mahjong
- 8:38things like where do your kids go to school?
- 8:40What are you, you know, like things that actually take like?
- 8:44Concentration. Concentration until it was very
- 8:47overwhelming for me. Well, 'cause I need to stop and
- 8:49think too. I mean, I know I talk too much,
- 8:51but I also need some time to stop this.
- 8:54Is a good topic. This is a good topic to talk
- 8:56about. What is right?
- 8:57What is the right amount of talking during your game?
- 9:00I think. You just have to find your
- 9:02people because when I was there, the same the same day when we
- 9:06were out, I was playing with these three other women that I
- 9:10had never met before and super nice ladies.
- 9:14And actually now we meet every week to play mahjong together.
- 9:16What? Yeah.
- 9:17I knew Mahjong friends shout out to you.
- 9:19You know who you are. I know you're listening.
- 9:22Fantastic. But anyway, to sum up my story,
- 9:25I was very proud of myself because I felt like I had held
- 9:28my own and I thought. It was a six.
- 9:31Snapping. Snapping you.
- 9:32Like the chitter chatter? When I do it again, I don't
- 9:35know. It depends on the people, I
- 9:37guess. I don't know.
- 9:38I was still, I think I'd still be a little nervous going out in
- 9:41the wild if I don't know who I'm playing.
- 9:43With SO Amy, do you prefer a non chatty table?
- 9:46I do. I think when I'm playing
- 9:48mahjong, I think that's the only thing that I'm capable of
- 9:52handling and talking about. So the only time that I'm able
- 9:56to like have some sort of like social conversation is when I
- 10:01know my line, I've picked it, and there's a slow Sally.
- 10:04Otherwise, I mean, I think the idea is that the game is moving
- 10:08so fast there's not much room. But I will tell you this, when
- 10:12my first out in the wild I was shocked how everyone was just
- 10:16talking about social things and just laying down.
- 10:19I don't that. Yes, when I how?
- 10:22Did you do both like that did not make sense to me.
- 10:25They were 100% doing both. So were they.
- 10:27Were they that good or were they just?
- 10:30Winging it. I know, I do not know.
- 10:33So this is a good question for our audience.
- 10:35Do you like talking? Are you team talk?
- 10:37Are you team silent? We want to know, I think.
- 10:40I would be like team halfway because like when it's
- 10:43completely. Silent.
- 10:45Yeah, it's kind of awkward. Well.
- 10:46Because part of the. Game is the social get to know
- 10:48new people. Like you said you found you
- 10:50found new Maj. buddies. You're not going to do that if
- 10:52you're sitting in silence. I don't know.
- 10:53But yeah, it's like you chat, but then you also have to really
- 10:57concentrate. You have to be respectful.
- 11:00Yeah, I kind of only want to talk about the game, so I have
- 11:04like a little chatter about the game itself.
- 11:07And that's you know what other problem I have.
- 11:09First of all, I like talking, but I reveal too much.
- 11:12Oh my gosh. Which drives Tina crazy.
- 11:15She's like, don't tell. Cause like her face is not
- 11:17yours. Strength.
- 11:19It doesn't drive me. It doesn't drive me crazy.
- 11:21I just think it's. Just you're like, don't tell us,
- 11:23'cause like I'll pick up a tile that I've been waiting for and
- 11:26I'm like, give me. Up.
- 11:27That's what just. What I needed and everybody's
- 11:29like, yeah, I I know you know what your big.
- 11:32Your big tell Teresa is when a tile gets discarded that you
- 11:37want, but you can't pick it up for some reason.
- 11:39And everybody knows she needs the fox.
- 11:42Bam. But she can't take it right now.
- 11:44I think that's fun though. I think that's what makes it
- 11:46fun. It's it's makes.
- 11:49It's fearless in the wild. But it makes.
- 11:51It. That's what makes.
- 11:52Me. Nervous.
- 11:52That's what I worry. About Teresa in the wild, she's
- 11:56like this little little bird. I wouldn't.
- 11:59I don't know if I've. Tried again, Teresa.
- 12:00I don't know. I brought myself out.
- 12:03There, Tina, I was happy that you were there to.
- 12:04Supervise. That's true it.
- 12:06Could get out of. Control.
- 12:07You know what I will say about going to these open events?
- 12:11I feel like I'm in middle school on the first day of school.
- 12:14Like if. You don't go.
- 12:15With someone like, where are you going to sit?
- 12:18Like what? Table.
- 12:19Like who are you going to sit with?
- 12:21And like, the lunchroom, like, my goodness is, is anybody
- 12:25sitting here? Yeah.
- 12:26It's this weird feeling, weird vibe.
- 12:29But anyway, we challenged ourselves so.
- 12:30People, it's a good way to meet people.
- 12:32It is a good way to meet people. So we do have.
- 12:34That's your skill. We have a topic we need to talk
- 12:36about today, ladies. Oh my God, that's on the agenda.
- 12:39It's about a rule. It's about a rule.
- 12:41So jokers still going into the rules section of the podcast.
- 12:46Talk to us. Rules round up.
- 12:47We're officially in. Rules round up.
- 12:49Ding, Ding, Ding. OK.
- 12:50So we're going to talk about jokers and.
- 12:53What about them We're. Going to talk about when and you
- 12:54can use a joker and rule surrounding jokers in general.
- 12:59And I see because I'm online a lot and like Facebook and
- 13:02Instagram and there's a lot of wonderful content out there, but
- 13:06there's questions that happen over and over and over and over
- 13:09again about when you can use a joke.
- 13:10So let's just talk. About, well, what I've observed
- 13:13just playing at your house with the other people and just in
- 13:16general, That's where the most confusion is for new players.
- 13:19It's in what you can pick. What you can pick up the pairs.
- 13:22So even though it sounds kind of obvious, it's it, I think it
- 13:26causes some of the most confusion for players so.
- 13:28Here's what I have to say about jokers.
- 13:30There aren't enough of them. That's my comment about jokers.
- 13:34Well, when you play with your blanks, you get 2 extra ones,
- 13:36but OK, so here's the deal. The easiest way to say what the
- 13:40rule is about when you can use a joker is you can only use a
- 13:45joker if you are using it for a three of a kind a. 4.
- 13:50Of a which is a. Pong a pong a four of a kind a
- 13:53Kong. A five of a kind, a quint, and
- 13:56now with the flowers in the 2026 card, there's like a six of a
- 14:00kind. What the flowers?
- 14:01There's the six flowers. So there's a grouping of 6
- 14:04flowers. So you can only use a joker if
- 14:08it's three of a kind, meaning the exact same tile. 5 bam, 5
- 14:12bam, 5 bam flower, flower flower flower.
- 14:15You can never ever use a joker with a pair, and you can never
- 14:20use a joker with just like a run of tiles, can I?
- 14:23Use it for news. You can you good question.
- 14:27Can you use it for news? EWS No.
- 14:30You cannot. I think the consecutive even
- 14:32though, because on the card it looks kind of like a group.
- 14:35I think that's where. If it's not, if it's not exactly
- 14:39the same tile, three or more, you cannot ever.
- 14:43Ever. No exceptions, Never.
- 14:46Also, another rule about jokers that people seem confused about
- 14:50is that you can never ever pick up a discarded joker for any
- 14:55reason. Ever.
- 14:56Even if it's even if it's the last tile you need for a
- 15:00mahjong, you cannot pick it up. Well, question, what if you're
- 15:03playing with blanks? And what about it?
- 15:05And you can never swap. Yeah, can you swap have a blank
- 15:08storage? Because some people at the end
- 15:09you throw away a joker as your power move and then could you
- 15:12pick it up with a blank? Oh, I don't know.
- 15:14See, I don't know because, well, who knows.
- 15:16Because you're making up. Blank Blues anyway, should be
- 15:18able to do that. I mean, that's how scary thing
- 15:20we've not. Heard of it, therefore I think
- 15:22you could do. It it's a rule how?
- 15:23How? Here's the thing, everything
- 15:25surrounding blanks is made-up anyway, so if you want to make
- 15:28up that rule, why the hell not? I agree anyway, so.
- 15:32Here's a question. If you play with blanks regular,
- 15:35can you pick up a joker? But let's not confuse.
- 15:37Let's not confuse. Let's not.
- 15:39Confuse the public. The official.
- 15:41Rule the rule is you can never pick up a joker.
- 15:45A discarded joker is dead always.
- 15:48So here's what I thought would be fun is I've written down some
- 15:51questions that I see over and over and over again, and I'm
- 15:54going to just throw them out there and.
- 15:55You guys are going to game show. Yes, yes, I.
- 15:58Don't have a buzzer though. I want a buzzer.
- 16:00That would be fun. I have an easy button somewhere
- 16:02that could be. OK, can you use a joker for a
- 16:07pair? If it's for the.
- 16:10Last tile you need for a mahjong.
- 16:13I belgged in. No you cannot.
- 16:15Is that right? You can.
- 16:16You cannot. Never for a.
- 16:18Pair never for a pair, even if it's.
- 16:19Me knowing the rules. Well, I've tried it though I've.
- 16:22Tried it, then you've. Tried it, Well, I just I
- 16:25remember, you know the. Mistake.
- 16:26In in the learning experience because there are a lot of if
- 16:31it's your Maj. tile exceptions, Oh well, it's.
- 16:34Picking up for Picking up for. That's true, but you can't for a
- 16:37Joker. No for Joker.
- 16:39That's painful for when you when you make.
- 16:41Your another question, true or false?
- 16:43It is against the rules to use a joker in a concealed hand.
- 16:49I think it's, I don't think it's against the rules.
- 16:50I say it's OK. I think it's OK.
- 16:53You're right. That was a trick.
- 16:55Question. I come with it.
- 16:57Yeah. Well, here's the thing.
- 16:58Lot of concealed hands. There's no place for a joker
- 17:01because it's a lot of pairs and singles.
- 17:03But there are some concealed hands with some pungs.
- 17:06And yes, you can use a joker. You cannot expose, obviously.
- 17:10You can't pick. You have to just.
- 17:11You can't. So if you pick up a joker off
- 17:13the wall in your normal drawing, yeah, you can use it.
- 17:17On a concealed hand, as long as it's for a pong or a Kong.
- 17:21It's good to know. Thank you for bringing you.
- 17:23Are welcome. OK.
- 17:25We've learned. Oh, here's a here's a question.
- 17:27True or false? You can only use one joker in
- 17:31each grouping. Oh, false, false, false.
- 17:34OK, how many jokers can you use? As many as you.
- 17:36Want do you need? To have an original tile, do you
- 17:40need to have at least one tile of the thing you're going for?
- 17:44You don't. And I honestly think that's kind
- 17:46of crazy. I think it's.
- 17:47Crazy too. Makes sense to me because this I
- 17:48actually just recently. Yeah.
- 17:50So just to clarify, if you need a pung, which is a three of a
- 17:55kind, let's say you need a pung of flowers, you can just use
- 17:58three jokers. You don't even need to have a
- 18:00flower. So what about that group of 6
- 18:04flowers hours? If you had six jokers, could you
- 18:07do that? Of course I mean.
- 18:09Yeah, I mean, it sounds good. Unlikely, right?
- 18:11That would be kind of a waste. Of jokers.
- 18:13What do you mean you just found this out like you just tried to?
- 18:15So I was playing and it happened and I was like, I don't think
- 18:20that's possible. I mean, it is confused.
- 18:22It is. This is why we This is why we're
- 18:24here, people. Oh question?
- 18:26True or false? You cannot use jokers with wins.
- 18:30Well, if they're all the same, right?
- 18:32Right. Like.
- 18:33It doesn't matter. Ask that question.
- 18:35Can I use a joker with wins? Yeah, you can't use it.
- 18:38You can't use it for news. But if it's WW West or South s
- 18:41s, yes you can. I'm.
- 18:44Learning so much. Let me see if I have.
- 18:47Building your confidence Confidence.
- 18:49Is zooming. It's.
- 18:50Off the charts. Now I have a question.
- 18:52Actually, when you are passing tiles in the Charleston
- 18:57question, can you pass a joke? You cannot.
- 19:01Thank you for saying that. Why would you first?
- 19:04Of all yeah. Why?
- 19:05Would you? Well, you, I don't know why you
- 19:06would, but. But why not?
- 19:09It's in the rules that you can't.
- 19:10I can't. It's a weird rule.
- 19:13I mean, it's, it's so counterintuitive that anybody
- 19:15would even do that, first of all, but.
- 19:16Maybe, maybe the mahjong ladies were saving us from ourselves,
- 19:21from making a really dumb. Yeah.
- 19:22Maybe so. Which is why when you do any
- 19:26sort of thing in the Charleston where you could get a joker like
- 19:30Bob or whatever, like if you're playing with three people.
- 19:33Does everyone call it Bob? By the way, I.
- 19:35Think a lot of people call it we're.
- 19:36Talking about if you play with three and you have an invisible.
- 19:39Fourth player and you like use piles and you can get jokers.
- 19:41We call it Bob. I think we should come up with
- 19:43our own name customized. Anyway, that's those are the
- 19:45Joker rules and. Well, that was fantastic, Tuna.
- 19:49I think we just had a great conversation, everybody.
- 19:51Fantastic. So again, we want to know what
- 19:54you do. We want to know what you think
- 19:55about talking during the game. We want to know if you have any
- 19:58other Joker questions. Amy, how can people ask us this
- 20:01question? How can people give us their
- 20:03input? Through the socials.
- 20:05Of course the socials Instagram and Facebook.
- 20:08As well as e-mail. Yes.
- 20:11Littlehouseofmaj@gmail.com We want to hear from you and I'm
- 20:16going to be OK. Here's a challenge, everybody.
- 20:18We have yet to receive an e-mail from that address.
- 20:22Who's going to be the first one? Could be you.
- 20:24You get a shout. Out you will get shout out we
- 20:26will post. It we will, well, depending on
- 20:29what it is, we could post on the socials.
- 20:30This is going to be huge, everybody.
- 20:32Well, we won't post your actual e-mail.
- 20:34We'll no, we'll be, we'll say somebody did it.
- 20:37I don't know. We want we.
- 20:38Wouldn't e-mail and we want to know what you call your third
- 20:40player, Your ghost player, yes. Your 4th ghost.
- 20:43OK. Well, thank you everybody for
- 20:45joining us on that. Little House of March Everyone
- 20:50is welcome in that little House of March.