Hong Kong Mahjong

1 rating: 5.0

Chinese strategic game

Chinese Strategic tile game involving 4 players, skills and calculations. Popularly played by Chinese all over the world and money is usually involved (aka a form of gambling). Each player is dealt 13 tiles and a winning hand involves a total of 14 tiles. … see full wiki

Tags: Entertainment, Strategy, Board Game, Game, Chinese Game

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Pong! Pong! Pong!

Aug 10, 2009

by Sharrie
posted in City Lifestyle

Exclusive to the Lunch Network

Rating:

Mahjong as commonly known in the Chinese community is a tile game played by four players sitting in north, east, south, west position. It is a strategic game and quite complicated for the uninitiated. To play Mahjong (be it Hongkong style, Taiwanese style or other styles), one needs to at least know how to read Chinese characaters (or if not, memorize the characters and know what they are).

Mahjong is a noisy game. Not only do you have to shout (that's the fun part of it, I think) but you also have to be real quick in thinking and have good memory and eyesight to play it. It is a game played across all ages though, from the teens to those in the 80s even! It is a game best played with friends and during festive seasons like Chinese New Year.

First, the rules of the game. To simplify matter, the basic rules is you try to get tiles of the same suit. Oh no, forget it, the rules are too complicated to be explained here. Try to understand what wikipedia has put up if you are really interested in the game (I've provided a link at the beginning of this paragraph). If not, at least get to visit a friend who's hosting a game in his/her house and watch it in action and try to understand it. The quickest way to learn it (which i did from my 11 year old cousin!) was to play it yourself with another friend guiding you in the process.

I love Mahjong for its complexity, not its simplicity. There is nothing simple about this game. It is dynamic and it challenges your intelligence, your opponents' memories and your social skill. It also has some aspect of poker in it. Playing mahjong is exceptionally entertaining for the Chinese. And for most part, people play with chips but real monies are usually involved. That's the exciting part of the game!

Over the years, I've only found one good game offered online and one that's played on the PC. It's from Nine Dragons Software. If you know of any other, kindly let me know. Thanks!

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Bethany_K August 10, 2009

This sounds fascinating! I love complex and interactive games. I have a feeling you might enjoy @ultraj1004's reviews. You both have a love for games of all types! Just FYI, you can also cut and past factual information on games into the wiki section located in the right bar. Just click the wiki edit icon. Let me know if you have questions! Love your reviews:)

Sharrie August 10, 2009

Yep, it was his reviews of games which inspired me to put reviews of Tetris and Mahjong. I know about wiki but Lunch is too time consuming if I were to do them all. So, depending on what I'm inspired to do on that day, I'll try to do them. JR will have to pay me if he wants me to do them all, haha......, not just lunch!

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