Mahjong (Teach Yourself Sports & Games) Book

	Introduction	ix
01	The mahjong set	1
	The basic set	2
	Supplementary tiles	7
	Accessories	8
02	Preliminaries	12
	Seating	13
	Building the walls	15
	Breaking the wall	16
	The deal	18
03	Playing the game	21
	Know your tiles	22
	Object of the game	22
	Sets	23
	Procedure	25
	Drawn game	29
	The goulash	32
	Etiquette	36
04	Scoring and settlement	38
	The basic score	39
	Scoring a hand	45
	Settlement	49
	Scoring variations	51
05	Special hands	53
	Merits of special hands	55
06	Infringements and penalties	66
	Inaccuracies	67
	Letting off a cannon	67
	Infringements	68
07	Elementary strategy	71
	Luck or skill?	72
	Sample hands	74
	Discards	77
	General hints	78
08	Advanced strategy	80
	Opening phase	81
	Middle phase	85
	End phase	88
	Calling	93
	Improving your hand	95
09	Mahjong for two, three, five or six players	98
	Mahjong for two players	99
	Mahjong for three players	100
	Mahjong for five players	101
	Mahjong for six players	102
10	American mahjong	103
	Cleared-hand game	104
	One-double game	105
	The National Mah Jongg League	105
	The Charleston	106
	The American Mah-Jongg Association	108
	The Wright-Patterson Group	109
11	Japanese mahjong	112
12	Other variant forms	116
	The modern Chinese game	118
	Taiwanese mahjong	120
	Mahjong in South-East Asia	120
	Oddities	121
13	Mahjong cards	122
14	History	126
	Origins	127
	The great mahjong boom	132
	Superstitions	134
	Taking it further	135
	Further reading	135
	Websites	138
	Glossary	139
	Index	146