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Transcript

The wall has been read. · The Order of the Tile: Secrets from the American Mahjong Table

0:26
My dearest table guests, welcome back.
0:30
This is the order of the tile and I am Prim.
0:35
You are invited to enjoy issue #8 and this week the holiday is
0:40
behind us, the community has settled and another Sunday is on
0:44
the calendar that Prim cannot let pass.
0:46
Without a word, the wall has been red.
0:52
Prim is writing this on the Thursday after National Mahjong
0:55
Day, which is a peculiar and lovely week to be a mahjong
0:59
writer. The holiday came and went, the
1:02
posts rolled in and tapered off, and the community has settled
1:06
into a quieter, steadier kind of energy.
1:10
The tournament circuit has gone home.
1:12
The newer players who tiptoed in during the holiday have stayed.
1:17
The Facebook groups are back to arguing, as promised, and Prim
1:21
is grateful for every one of them.
1:24
But there is another Sunday on the calendar this week, and Prim
1:28
will not pretend she is not thinking about it.
1:32
Mother's Day is 3 days from now. The time has come, and a game
1:36
that is played almost entirely by women cannot let that Sunday
1:40
pass without a word. So before Prim goes any further,
1:44
she would like to speak to the mothers at these tables, to the
1:47
daughters who taught them, to the daughters who were taught by
1:51
them, and to every woman who carries the name of a woman who
1:54
handed her something worth handing down.
1:59
Prim has said in these pages before that she is the
2:02
originator of the game in her family, which is true.
2:05
She learned as an adult. She taught her mother Nan, and
2:10
Nan is now a shark. But Prim was handed plenty of
2:14
other things by other women long before the tiles arrived.
2:18
How to keep a kitchen. How to keep a table?
2:22
How to keep a friendship. For 40 years, Gee, who never
2:27
touched a tile, taught Prim how to be present in a room, which
2:32
is the foundation of every skill that eventually matters at a
2:35
mahjong table. Everyone of you reading this has
2:39
a version of that story. Someone taught you how to be at
2:43
a table. This Sunday is for her.
2:48
Which brings us to the issue in front of you, and to the tagline
2:51
Prim has been carrying all week. The wall has been read.
2:55
After six weeks of tournament season, after a holiday that
2:59
invited the whole country to look up from its own rack, after
3:03
100,000 women posting what they picked and what they passed, The
3:07
wall has been read in a way it rarely is in a normal spring.
3:11
The card has been studied, the season has been scouted, the
3:16
community has taken a collective inventory and now we are in the
3:21
stretch of the season where strategy deepens because
3:24
everyone has a little more information than they had a
3:27
month ago. This issue is about what to do
3:30
with that information. We will look at the 2468
3:34
section, which is where a surprising number of games are
3:37
quietly won and lost. We will talk about Mother's Day
3:41
gifts that are not performatively expensive, but
3:44
that a player will actually use. We will meet one of the most
3:48
important teaching figures this community has ever produced.
3:51
We will look at the birth of the Mashong World Championship,
3:55
which is newer than you think. And we will spend a moment with
3:58
the Playmat, which Prim would argue is the single most
4:02
underrated object on the table. Pull up your chair.
4:06
The wall is built. Let us begin.
4:11
Let us begin with what everyone is talking about.
4:13
This is the draw. 2 quick notes before we begin.
4:19
The Miss Mahjong and Miss Heirloom Collaboration bundle
4:22
sold out this week and Prim watch the groups light up about
4:26
it in real time. The community is hungry for the
4:29
kind of gift that says I see you without saying now perform.
4:34
Prim has something of her own arriving to meet that moment,
4:38
and she will tell you about it further down.
4:40
The week after a national holiday is always a strange one
4:44
in any community, and the mahshong world is no exception.
4:49
The photos have slowed, the hashtag has cooled, the
4:53
tournament season travellers are home unpacking.
4:57
And yet something about the community's pulse feels
5:00
different than it did two weeks ago.
5:04
The best way Prim can describe it is that the community has
5:08
exhaled. The run from the 2026 card drop
5:12
through Greenbrier, through Vegas, through National Mahshong
5:16
Day was a long one, and the whole ecosystem has earned this
5:20
week what it is using the week for.
5:24
Interestingly, is absorbing. The Facebook groups this week
5:30
have been full of post mortem posts.
5:33
Players reviewing which hands they have actually closed on the
5:36
new card and which ones keep eluding them.
5:39
Teachers posting video breakdowns of the trickier 2026
5:43
combinations. Newer players finally asking the
5:46
questions they were too shy to ask 3 weeks ago when everyone
5:49
was still showing off. Prim has seen half a dozen.
5:54
Can someone explain the consecutive runs section like I
5:57
am? 5 posts in the last 48 hours and
6:01
the responses have been thoughtful, patient and
6:04
generous. Something about the air has
6:07
softened. Tournament season ends, teaching
6:11
season begins. The community is also quietly
6:16
turning towards Sunday. Prim has seen a flurry of gift
6:20
ideas for my mum who just started playing posts in the
6:23
groups, and a matching flurry of my daughter is making me play
6:27
this weekend posts from the other direction.
6:30
Every generation in this community is reaching for the
6:33
other one this week. The mothers who played for
6:37
decades are being asked, sometimes awkwardly, sometimes
6:41
gracefully, to let their grown daughters into the game.
6:45
The daughters who learnt first are extending a hand back and
6:51
somewhere in the middle is the woman who is the only player in
6:54
her family who is wondering if she could be the one who finally
6:58
starts the tradition. Prim sees you start it.
7:04
Sunday is a fine day to set out a set and a plate of something
7:08
sweet and wait to see who sits down.
7:12
One last note on the week. Registration for the summer
7:17
cruise and retreat season has opened in earnest and the
7:20
community is doing that thing it does every May, which is
7:24
pretending to be indifferent while secretly filling out the
7:27
forms. Prim will cover the open events
7:30
in Set your rack below. For now.
7:34
Suffice it to say that the Mediterranean cruise is getting
7:37
close to full and the San Diego weekend has a wait list.
7:41
Rumour Prim cannot confirm but would not discourage you from
7:45
acting on. If you have been thinking about
7:47
a summer event, this is the week to stop thinking and start
7:51
clicking. One more current running through
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the groups this week. The Hallmark Mahjong movie has
7:57
the community in a flutter and Prim has watched the
8:00
screenshots. The speculation and the watch
8:03
party posts pile up by the hour. She has thoughts.
8:07
She also has a small bundle for the occasion which she will tell
8:11
you about further down. Which brings us to crack the
8:17
card, the 2468 section. On the 2026 card, Prim has a
8:25
confession and she is going to make it in print because the
8:29
longer she plays, the more she believes this and the more
8:32
surprised she is that it is not said out loud more often.
8:37
If you want to understand the 2026 card, start with the 2468
8:41
section. Not consecutive runs, not
8:45
singles and pairs, not the flashy winds and Dragons hands
8:48
that everyone wants to chase. Start with the quiet,
8:53
methodical, often overlooked 2468 section, because this is
8:58
where a shocking number of games are actually decided, and it is
9:02
where Prim believes the 2026 card is most honest about what
9:06
it wants from you. Here is the case.
9:10
The 2468 section on this year's card rewards one kind of player
9:16
and punishes every other kind. It rewards the player who
9:19
commits before the table forces her hand.
9:23
The hands in this section cluster around clean groupings
9:26
of even numbers, often in single suit or two suit configurations,
9:31
and the tile distribution in any given wall is perfectly
9:34
predictable. 246 and eight of each suit each appear four times
9:42
in the tile set. There are no surprises in the
9:45
supply. What makes this section
9:48
difficult is not scarcity, it is commitment.
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The 2468 hands require you to decide early and hold your
9:58
nerve, because the tiles you need are also the tiles everyone
10:02
else is throwing freely in the first half of the game.
10:06
And if you are still shopping around when the board tightens,
10:09
you have missed the window. Not by a little, by the whole
10:12
game. Here are three things Prim wants
10:16
you to understand immediately #1 the early game is for
10:23
collection, not exploration. The most common mistake Prim
10:28
sees in the 2468 section is the mistake of optionality.
10:33
A player picks up a lovely run of even tiles in her deal.
10:36
She stares at the card and she tells herself this could go
10:41
several directions. Let me see what the Charleston
10:44
brings. The Charleston brings her two
10:47
more even tiles. She tells herself this is
10:50
getting interesting. Let me keep my options open.
10:54
By round four she has 10 tiles that would make a beautiful 2468
10:58
hand and three or four stragglers.
11:01
She has not decided whether to keep by round 7, three of her
11:05
needed tiles have already been thrown by other players who were
11:08
shedding them early, and she is holding a rack that cannot
11:11
close. This is the 2468 Trap, and Prim
11:16
is going to name it. Plainly, it is the single most
11:20
expensive habit a capable player can have on this card.
11:24
The antidote is a deadline. By the time the courtesy is
11:28
over, you know whether you are in the 2468 section or out of
11:32
it. If you are in, you are
11:35
collecting every even tile you see.
11:38
If you are out, you are letting them go without a sigh.
11:42
The players who win the 2468 hands are not the ones with the
11:46
best luck, they are the ones who committed 3 rounds earlier than
11:50
everyone else. Hesitation after the second pass
11:54
is not thoughtfulness, it is loss #2 the middle game is for
12:00
reading the other racks. Once you are committed, the 2468
12:05
section becomes a game of careful observation.
12:08
Here is the thing about even number hands that no one tells
12:12
you plainly. Every player at the table is
12:15
watching the discards, but most of them are watching for what
12:19
they need. In the middle game of A2468
12:22
hand, you need to be watching for what other players are
12:25
shedding. If a player on your right is
12:28
throwing 246 8 tiles freely in rounds 4 and five, she is almost
12:35
certainly not in your section and her discards are gifts.
12:40
If a player across the table has stopped throwing even tiles in
12:43
round 5 after having thrown them generously in rounds 2 and
12:47
three, pay attention. She may have just committed to
12:50
an even number hand herself, and from this point forward she is a
12:54
competitor you did not know you had.
12:58
The 2026 cards 2468 section has a particular wrinkle Prim wants
13:04
named out loud. Several of the hands in this
13:08
section require 2 specific pairs in addition to the even number
13:12
runs, and the pairs are often in DOTS or BAMS. If you are
13:16
building A2468 hand, your DOTS or BAMS pairs are your pressure
13:21
point. The second tile of each pair is
13:24
often the last tile you need, and the one the table is least
13:28
likely to discard late in the game.
13:32
The defensive move against a suspected 2468 player is not to
13:36
hold all your evens, it is to hold one tile of any matching
13:40
pair she might need long enough to see if she exposes.
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That is the kind of thinking this card rewards I do not need.
13:49
This tile is not a good enough reason to throw it.
13:52
Your opponent might need it very much #3 the late game is for
13:58
knowing when to fold. Here is the hardest lesson, and
14:03
Prim will keep it short. Sometimes in A2468 hand, it
14:08
becomes clear by round eight or nine that the tiles are simply
14:12
not coming. The pair you needed has been
14:15
thrown and called and gone. The single you are holding for
14:19
has not surfaced. The wall is getting thin.
14:23
A good 2468 player knows when to stop building and start
14:27
defending. Switch your attention from
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closing your own hand to preventing the player who is
14:32
actually going to close. Throw your less useful tiles.
14:37
Hold the tiles that might feed your opponents.
14:40
Finish the game as a wall, not as a disappointed builder.
14:46
The 2468 section teaches you discipline in both directions.
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Patience to commit, courage to let go.
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On this card, both skills matter and most players only learn one
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of them. Two.
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This section is where Prim believes the difference between
15:04
competent and excellent Mashong players lives on any card in any
15:10
year, but especially on this one.
15:13
The even numbers are unglamorous.
15:15
They do not get featured on the quote cards.
15:18
They do not show up in the Instagram Reels, but a player
15:22
who has mastered the 2468 section wins quietly,
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consistently, week after week, with a rack that never looks
15:30
dramatic and a closing move that always looks inevitable.
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Be that player. The wall has been red.
15:38
The evens are waiting. Now.
15:43
This publication receives questions, many questions.
15:48
And this week, the question arrived from no fewer than 9
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readers in nine different forms, all pointed at the same Sunday.
15:57
This is the table is asking my mother or daughter or
16:04
mother-in-law or sister wants to learn mahjong.
16:10
Or I want to give her a gift that will bring her to the
16:12
table. And I do not know where to start
16:15
without making it feel like a chore or a lecture.
16:18
What do I actually do? Prim has opinions.
16:23
Because Prim lived this very question in her own family a
16:26
year ago when she sat down to teach Nan.
16:28
And because Prim has watched 100 of you ask it in the groups in
16:32
the last two weeks, let her give you a real answer in three parts
16:37
that will serve you this Sunday and every Sunday after.
16:42
The first part is about the gift itself, because that is where
16:46
most of the anxiety is concentrated.
16:49
Prim will tell you plainly that the most effective Mother's Day
16:52
gift for a new player is not a set.
16:55
A set is a large, expensive commitment that can feel like a
17:00
demand. Oh, you got me this beautiful
17:02
thing. Now I must use it.
17:05
Now I must learn. Now I must perform.
17:09
The gift that actually works is smaller and more specific.
17:13
A card. A beginner's guidebook.
17:16
A play mat that fits at her kitchen table.
17:19
A pair of racks and a pusher. A box of nicely printed tile
17:23
Cheat Sheets. A subscription to your favorite
17:26
online masjong game. If you would like Prim's own
17:29
pick for this Sunday, the Order of the Tile Mother's Day Mahjong
17:33
bundle on Etsy was made for exactly this question card pack
17:37
and coupon book together. Small enough to feel like an
17:40
invitation and not a demand, plus a few bonus gifts to add to
17:45
it. Any single one of these items
17:48
signals interest without obligation.
17:52
Most of them run under $60.00. All of them say I thought of
17:56
you, I noticed you are curious and I would like to make it
18:00
easier for you to say yes. Save the full set for her
18:05
birthday after she has played three games.
18:08
If she never plays three games, you have saved yourself several
18:12
$100 and she has a lovely mat she can use for cards.
18:17
The second part is about the invitation, which is where most
18:21
teaching relationships actually breakdown.
18:25
The mistake Prim sees most often is the daughter or friend who
18:29
has learnt recently and is bursting to teach, and who turns
18:33
the first game into a lecture. Prim has been guilty of this.
18:37
Nan endured it patiently for about 40 minutes before
18:41
informing Prim that she would learn mahjong.
18:44
But she would learn it at her own pace, and Prim could either
18:48
let her learn at her pace joyfully, or Prim could be the
18:52
stick that made her choose a different game to master.
18:55
This was the correct path, and Prim still exists to teach
18:59
another day. The invitation that works is one
19:03
that gives the new player room to fail, to forget to ask the
19:08
same question four times, and to decide in her own time whether
19:12
she wants to keep coming back. Play slowly.
19:15
Expose your own hand. Narrate your own thinking, not
19:20
hers. Let her make the choice about
19:23
which tile to pick up, even when you can see she is about to make
19:27
a wrong one. And for the love of everything,
19:30
do not say I told you when the wrong tile proves to be wrong.
19:35
A new player who is allowed to fail is a new player who will
19:39
sit down again next week. A new player who is corrected at
19:42
every turn is a new player who will quietly decide Mahjong is
19:47
not for her. And you will wonder why.
19:52
The third part is about the long arc.
19:54
Because Mother's Day is on Sunday and a game takes more
19:58
than one Sunday to take hold, The mothers and daughters who
20:02
become real table mates do not get there in a single afternoon.
20:06
They get there across a season. Play once this Sunday.
20:11
If it goes well, schedule the next one before you leave.
20:15
If it does not go well, schedule a simpler version, perhaps a
20:19
single Charleston with no hand completion, just to practice the
20:23
passing. Do not try to teach the whole
20:26
card in one sitting. Do not try to finish a hand.
20:30
Do not try to prove the game is fun.
20:33
Let the game prove itself. It will if you let it.
20:38
Prim and Nan played 10 or 12 halting games before something
20:42
clicked and now Nan is unbeatable and Prim is still
20:46
annoyed about it. That is how the Ark is supposed
20:48
to go. Trust the Ark One last word on
20:54
this question because it comes up in every version of it.
20:59
If your mother or daughter says no, if she tries the game and it
21:03
is not for her, that is a complete answer and Prim would
21:07
ask you to respect it. Not every family member is a
21:11
mashong player and the game is not a measure of your
21:14
relationship. G never played and Prim loved
21:19
her without reservation for every minute of her life.
21:23
The women at your table do not have to be the women at your
21:26
table. Sometimes the women at your
21:28
table are the women you found. Sometimes they are the women you
21:32
raised. Sometimes they are both.
21:36
Sunday will tell you which, and Prim would like you to be open
21:40
to the answer. Whatever it is now, this
21:45
publication makes it a point to recognise those who distinguish
21:48
themselves in the community. Not through volume.
21:52
Heavens, no. Through substance, This is who's
21:56
talking. And this week we are talking
21:58
about the teacher who wrote the book your mother-in-law probably
22:01
owns. Her name was Elaine Sandberg,
22:06
and her book A Beginner's Guide to American Mahsong has been the
22:10
entry point for more new players than anyone can count.
22:14
If you learnt from a book rather than from a teacher, there is a
22:18
good chance this was the book. If you taught someone from a
22:21
book, there is a better chance this was the book.
22:25
Elaine was a teacher 1st and an author 2nd, and the book carries
22:29
the voice of a woman who had sat across the table from thousands
22:32
of beginners and who knew exactly where each of them was
22:36
going to get confused. She wrote the book the way a
22:40
good teacher actually speaks. Prim has gone back to her copy
22:44
this week and she is struck, as she always is, by how calm
22:49
Elaine's voice is on the page. The book does not try to teach
22:54
you the strategy of a 20 year veteran in 150 pages.
22:58
It teaches you the beginning, with patience in the sequence an
23:02
actual player needs to learn it. The Charleston before the card,
23:07
the card before the hand, the hand before the defence.
23:12
Most beginner books try to teach too much at once and produce
23:16
beginners who feel overwhelmed. Elaine's book produces beginners
23:20
who feel oriented. There is a very specific
23:24
writerly generosity to this, and Prim noticed it early and has
23:29
tried to carry some of it into her own pages.
23:33
The teaching she left behind is still teaching.
23:37
Elaine passed several years ago, and the community felt it.
23:42
What Prim thinks about most on Mother's Day week of all weeks,
23:47
is that the teaching she left behind is still at work.
23:50
Her book is still in print. The book has become a small,
23:54
quiet piece of the maternal transmission that keeps this
23:58
game alive. And that is, in the end, what a
24:02
teacher is hoping for. Not to be remembered personally,
24:07
to have left something that the next generation picks up without
24:10
needing to know whose hand it first came from.
24:15
Find the book. Give it to someone if you do not
24:19
have a copy. A Beginner's Guide to American
24:22
Mashong is widely available at any bookseller and is typically
24:26
under $20. If you have a new player in your
24:30
life this Sunday, this is a lovely Mother's Day gift or
24:34
Daughter's Day gift, or just Because gift.
24:37
Slip a card inside. Write a sentence about who first
24:41
taught you the game. Pass the book forward.
24:45
Prim cannot think of a better way to spend 5 minutes and $20
24:49
this weekend. And Prim would like to think
24:52
Elaine would approve. The Wall has been read by a lot
24:55
of women because 1 teacher wrote the guide carefully.
24:59
This Sunday is a good day to remember her and to make sure
25:03
the next one has a copy. And now a brief indulgence,
25:09
because this author believes that one cannot play well if one
25:12
does not play beautifully. This is Tile Envy, where we
25:17
covet openly and without apology.
25:22
Prim has been thinking all week about the play mat, which is the
25:25
most underrated object in American mashong and which Prim
25:29
believes deserves the full issues attention one of these
25:32
days. For now, this section will do.
25:36
If you have played on a bare table and a proper mat in the
25:39
same week, you know what Prim is about to tell you.
25:43
The mat is not decoration. The mat is function dressed as
25:47
beauty, and the functions it is performing are numerous.
25:53
First, a mat protects the table. Your grandmother's dining table
25:58
was not designed to survive 1000 passes of racks and pushes and
26:02
tile covers. A good mat gives you a
26:04
designated surface to play on and protects everything beneath
26:08
it. Second, a mat changes the sound.
26:13
The click of tile on wood is sharp and travelling.
26:17
The click of tile on felt or on a properly padded mat is softer,
26:21
rounder, more companionable. You can play longer without the
26:25
room feeling loud, and you can hear your table mates more
26:28
easily, which matters more than you think.
26:33
Third, a mat defines the space. A round or square mat tells the
26:40
room this is where the game happens.
26:44
It creates a small theatre out of an ordinary table.
26:48
Some of the most beautiful mahjong photos circulating in
26:52
the community right now are photos where the mat is doing as
26:55
much aesthetic work as the tiles, and Prim finds that
26:58
entirely correct. 3 mats that Prim wants you to know about
27:04
this week. Miss Mahjong's Canopy Mat is the
27:08
one Prim has been recommending for two issues running because
27:12
she has finally had a chance to play on one and she can now
27:15
speak to it first hand. It is heavy, cushioned and
27:20
exactly the right size for a four player table.
27:24
The surface is a soft micro suede that holds the tiles in
27:28
place without sliding and the edges are clean enough to read
27:31
as a serious object. Prim would call it the best
27:35
all-purpose competitive mat on the market right now.
27:38
And the price, at around $200, is a fair reflection of the
27:43
craftsmanship. A separate note for those of you
27:47
who chased the Miss Mashong and Miss Heirloom bundle this week
27:50
and missed it. The community moved on that one
27:52
in hours, and Prim is not surprised if you were reaching
27:56
for that bundle because the Hallmark movie has you planning
27:59
a watch night. The Order of the Tiles Mashong
28:02
Movie Game Bundle is built for exactly that evening, and it
28:06
pairs beautifully with any of the mats we are sharing.
28:09
The Mahjong Lines collection of mats is where you go for
28:13
personality. Their ranch, Dusty Rose, has
28:16
been a breakout hit this season, and their Shinwa Zuri adjacent
28:20
patterns in the spring catalog are some of the most distinctive
28:24
surfaces in the community. These mats are less about
28:28
tournament grade cushioning and more about bringing a particular
28:31
aesthetic to your table. A Mahjong line mat is the mat
28:35
you buy when you want your table to look like you, not like a
28:39
tournament. Prices range from about 120 to
28:43
$200 depending on the line. Southern Sparrows mats round out
28:49
the category at a slightly more accessible price point while
28:53
maintaining the brand's signature Shinwaziri influenced
28:56
aesthetic. Jessica Rose eye for colour and
29:00
line translates beautifully to the matte surface and if you are
29:04
building a coordinated table set up that includes tile covers and
29:08
cases from the same brand, the Southern Sparrow mats complete
29:12
the story. Look for the spring colour ways.
29:16
Several of them are already at Lower Stark.
29:22
One quiet suggestion for Mother's Day.
29:25
A mat is an excellent gift for a new player or a returning player
29:30
because it suggests A dedicated game space without demanding
29:33
anything else. It fits at the kitchen table.
29:38
It does not require you to own a set.
29:40
It can double as a protected card playing surface on non
29:44
mahjong nights. And when she does decide to take
29:47
the game more seriously, the mat is already there, waiting,
29:53
having done the quiet work of saying this could be your thing
29:57
if you let it. Prim likes gifts that wait
30:01
patiently. The playmat is one of them.
30:06
Now, to matters of the calendar. Where shall one be seen this
30:09
season? This is set your rack.
30:14
The cruise is nearly sold. Destination Mahjong's
30:19
Mediterranean cruise aboard the Celebrity Ascent.
30:22
Sales May 15th to May 25th and Prim will tell you plainly that
30:28
if you have been circling this one, the decision is now.
30:33
As of this morning, registration is reporting near capacity on
30:37
the Mahjong specific staterooms and the tournament sessions on
30:41
board are confirmed to run daily.
30:44
This is a premium destination event with fares running from
30:47
the mid thousands upward depending on stateroom class,
30:51
and Prim will not pretend it is a bargain.
30:54
What it is, however, is 10 days of structured Mashong play in
30:59
the Mediterranean with a group of players who are all there for
31:02
the same reason. And that kind of concentrated
31:05
community time is rare and worth pricing.
31:08
If you have the means and the calendar move this week, San
31:13
Diego is the next big weekend. Destination Mahjong's San Diego
31:19
Double Tournament runs June 5th through 7th at a coastal resort
31:24
that Prim will not name here, but which is already generating
31:28
strong anticipatory chatter in the destination network.
31:32
Entry for the double tournament format runs in the mid hundreds.
31:36
This is one of the best regarded regional events of the early
31:40
summer and registration is moving fast enough that the wait
31:43
list rumours Prim mentioned in the draw are probably real.
31:48
Check the Destination Mahjong website today if you are
31:51
considering the summer local calendar is filling in.
31:56
Prim wrote last week about the JCC and Community Centre Circuit
32:01
and this week she can report that several of those local
32:04
events have opened their spring and early summer registrations.
32:08
Ma Shong, Texas's Horseshoe Bay Charity tournament in September
32:13
has filled its early registration slots and is now
32:17
taking regular sign ups. Mahjong Fun LA has posted 3
32:22
spring dates in May and June. The Chicago JCC circuit has a
32:27
late June weekend that is currently under subscribed,
32:30
which Prem would call an opportunity for any player in
32:34
the region who has been waiting for an approachable first
32:36
tournament. Call your local JCC ask.
32:41
The answer is more often yes than you think.
32:45
The summer set and accessory drops are starting quietly in
32:52
the background of all this event news.
32:54
The major set makers are beginning their summer drops.
32:57
Oh my Mahjong has a new summer colourway expected in the next
33:01
two weeks. The mahjong line is reportedly
33:04
releasing a limited summer collection before Memorial Day
33:07
weekend. Miss Mahjong is rumoured to be
33:10
expanding the canopy mat line with two additional colour ways.
33:15
Prim will confirm these as the announcements land.
33:18
For now. If you have been hesitating on a
33:21
spring purchase, the calendar is about to turn and the new goods
33:25
are coming this weekend. Mother's Day Sunday, May 10th
33:33
closing destination Mahjong Mediterranean cruise Celebrity
33:40
Ascent May 15th through 25th open destination.
33:46
Mahjong San Diego double tournament June 5th through 7th
33:51
open. Shriners Mahjong tournament.
33:55
Austin, TX June 20th Open destination Mahjong Atlantic
34:03
City August 16th through 18th Open Mahjong World Championship
34:10
Paris Las Vegas October 16th through 18th.
34:14
Check your local JCC spring and summer local tournament circuit,
34:20
Full event calendar at the order of the tile.com/events.
34:26
And finally, because this author believes every player deserves
34:30
at least one piece of knowledge that makes her the most
34:33
interesting person at the table, we close with crack
34:37
intelligence. Here is a fact that surprises
34:41
almost every player who hears it.
34:44
The Mahjong World Championship, which is now the largest
34:48
American mahjong tournament in the world and the marquee event
34:51
of the full calendar, is not an old institution.
34:55
It did not exist in the 1950s. It did not exist in the 1980s.
35:01
It did not exist in anything like it's current form until the
35:05
Mashang boom of the last 15 years made it possible.
35:11
The event that the community now treats as the season ending
35:14
pilgrimage is a relatively young creation and the story of how it
35:19
came to exist is a story about what happens when a community
35:22
reaches a certain size and needs a place to gather at scale.
35:28
American Mahshong had organised tournaments long before the
35:32
World Championship. Gladys Grad, whom Prim covered
35:35
in Letter 5, was running Mahshong Madness as a circuit by
35:40
the mid 1980s and regional tournaments had been happening
35:43
at hotels and resorts across the country since the National
35:47
Mahshong League was founded. What the community did not have
35:52
until recently was a single national event that could be
35:56
recognised as the championship. The tournament circuit was
35:59
distributed. Every region had its own anchor
36:02
event. There was no one weekend of the
36:05
year that the whole national community pointed at and said
36:09
this is where the best players meet.
36:12
That changed in the 20 tens as the Maha Shong revival moved
36:17
from a regional phenomenon into a national one.
36:21
Social media connected players across state lines who had
36:25
previously only known their local tables.
36:27
The card circulation numbers climbed.
36:31
The generation that had learned as children in the 1950s and 60s
36:35
was reaching retirement and finding that they had time,
36:40
money and appetite for destination events.
36:44
The demand was there. The supply caught up.
36:48
Several tournament organizers began to experiment with larger,
36:52
more ambitious formats, and the world championship concept
36:56
emerged from that competitive churn.
36:59
The first editions of what is now recognized as the Mahjong
37:03
World Championship were significantly smaller than the
37:07
event that now fills Las Vegas every October.
37:11
Early fields ran in the hundreds rather than the thousands.
37:15
The prize pools were modest. The infrastructure was
37:18
improvised. What the early championship had,
37:22
which every successful institution needs, was the right
37:26
mix of ambition and community consent.
37:29
Players showed up. They told other players to show
37:32
up. The field grew each year.
37:36
The format stabilised. The sponsors came in.
37:40
Within a handful of years, the event was what it is today,
37:44
which is the closest thing American mahsong has to a
37:47
national stage. The thing Prim finds most
37:51
interesting about this history, and the thing she would like you
37:55
to carry away from this section, is how recently it all
37:58
coalesced. The World Championship is
38:01
younger than most of the tables in your friends houses.
38:04
The scale of the modern mahsong calendar is a product of the
38:07
last 10 years, not the last 50. What this means practically is
38:14
that you are living in a period of unusual institutional
38:17
formation, and your participation is part of the
38:20
story of how these events become permanent.
38:23
Every tournament you register for, every weekend you travel,
38:27
for every photo you post with A tag that says you were, there is
38:32
a small piece of the infrastructure that makes the
38:35
next championship possible. The community is still building
38:39
the buildings. The wall is being read in real
38:42
time. Prim finds that thrilling, and
38:46
she wanted you to know it. You're welcome.
38:51
A small Sunday note for the mothers and the daughters and
38:56
the women in between. If you are giving a gift this
39:00
weekend, make it small and specific.
39:04
If you are teaching a new player, make it slow and
39:07
generous. If you are being taught, make it
39:09
patient and curious. If you are alone this Sunday,
39:13
sit down at your own table and play a hand because the women
39:17
before you are with you, whether you can see them or not.
39:22
The wall has been red, the table is open.
39:26
Prim would like you to be gentle with everyone, including
39:29
yourself, for one Sunday. The rest of the season can wait.
39:35
If you are new to these pages or you know a new player who would
39:39
like to be, sign up at the order of the tile.com.
39:44
Every new subscriber this month still receives Prims National
39:48
Mahjong Day gifts, a readable scoring rundown and a reusable
39:53
printable scorecard. Drop in your e-mail.
39:56
The gifts will land in your inbox along with next Thursday's
40:00
issue. Forward this one to the mother,
40:03
daughter, sister or friend who belongs at this table with you.
40:09
Prim's favorite chant for a bit of mash on fun.
40:12
Say it with me now. Don't tap it, racket.
40:16
Double stack it. Do it to it.
40:18
Don't construe it. We all know that Prim won't skew
40:21
it. The order of the tile.
40:24
Pursue it until next week. May your rack be blessed and
40:30
your Charleston ruthless. This has been the order of the
40:35
tile issue #8 the wall has been red.
40:39
Do forward this to your favorite 4th.
40:42
Everyone deserves a seat at this table, and everyone deserves to
40:46
be properly informed before they take it.
40:49
Until next Thursday, dear listener.
40:52
Prim as always.