Game Hints for Online Mahjong

Tiles

• Mahjong tile sets are the most important part of playing mahjong. Like playing cards, these tiles can have many styles. Styles can range from traditional Chinese characters to American cartoons. Since there are many different forms of Mahjong played online each game has its individual tile sets. A traditional mahjong set contains seven groups of tiles. These groups are: bamboos, circles, characters, dragons, winds, seasons and flowers. All but seasons and flowers have four of each tile to be matched together. Seasons and flower have four individual tiles and can be matched with any of the other four of that group. Bamboos, circles and characters are all numerical tiles and can only be matched to tiles that match the numerical value of that tile set (i.e. a 4 of bamboo is matched to a 4 of bamboo.) Dragons and winds must be matched with identical tiles from their individual suites (i.e. green dragon is matched to a green dragon.)

Hints

• Playing online Mahjong effectively and skillfully is all about using your sight-memory skills. When making tile matches, it is important to make matches that will open up new possible pairings. Many beginners make the mistake of matching tiles that are close to each other on the same level. Making matches like this will give scores at the beginning of the game but will cost at the end as there is a good chance that your remaining pairs will be blocked. When making matches it is important to think several moves ahead. It is important to be able to visualize which tiles will become available by making certain moves. If players can become comfortable with this they will have a much easier time developing their end game. Most online versions of Mahjong offer several different difficulty levels that players can choose from to make their games easier or harder.

Core Skills

• In order to play online Mahjong effectively it is important to have very strong visual memory skills and fast sight identification. In order to find matches, it is necessary to scan a large amount of tiles that look very similar to each other. It also strengthens your spatial recognition and memory skills. Performing exercises that strengthen these skills will help improve your overall ability to play Mahjong effectively. Playing online Mahjong also requires the ability to connect to the Internet and use a mouse.