The NMJL card is the official National Mah Jongg League (NMJL) list of every winning hand allowed for the current year. It looks like code at first — colored numbers, letters, and X/C marks — but it's a compact menu: each row describes one legal hand, and you can only win by matching one exactly. This guide explains the symbols, colors, categories, and exposed/concealed marks on the card.
Each hand on the card is written as a row of symbols. Numbers and letters refer to tiles; colors tell you which suits to use. The card itself is published each year by the National Mah Jongg League.
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 1 – 9 | The numbered tile in that position (Dots, Bams, or Craks — the color tells you which suit) |
| E / S / W / N | East / South / West / North wind tiles |
| D | Any dragon (red, green, or white) |
| R | Red dragon |
| G | Green dragon |
| 0 | White dragon — the "Soap," used as zero in YEAR hands |
| F | Flower (flowers/seasons are used only in specific hands) |
Red, blue, and green numbers on the card are not decoration — each color stands for a different suit. A hand printed in red might be built from Craks, green from Bams, blue from Dots. Flowers and zeros are always blue because they belong to no suit.
Which color maps to which suit is consistent within a card but worth confirming at the table — the important rule is that same color = same suit.
Every NMJL card organizes hands into the same set of categories. Learn these and you can find any hand in seconds:
| Category | What the hands look like |
|---|---|
| YEAR | Hands built from the digits of the year (e.g., 2027 → 2s, 0s/Soaps, 7s) |
| 2468 | Hands made of even-numbered tiles |
| 13579 | Hands made of odd-numbered tiles |
| 369 | Hands using 3s, 6s, and 9s |
| Consecutive Runs | Patterns of consecutive numbers (note: these are patterns on the card, not chows — American Mah Jongg has no runs in play) |
| Quints | Hands containing at least one Quint (5 identical tiles), which requires at least one joker |
| Winds-Dragons | Hands built from wind and dragon tiles |
| Singles and Pairs | Hands of single and paired tiles (no jokers allowed in these hands) |
| Change-up | A mixed section that varies from year to year |
Next to every hand's value you'll see an X or a C. This changes how you're allowed to build the hand:
Exposing a tile in a concealed hand makes the hand dead. If you're new, start with X hands — they're more forgiving.
Each hand carries a point value (commonly 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, or 50+). Higher values reward harder or rarer hands. The value is multiplied by the payout table when someone declares Mahjong — see the scoring section in the rules guide.
Say a line reads "2027" in red and blue. You read it as: build the hand from 2-tiles, 0s (White Dragons/Soaps), and 7-tiles — red means one suit, blue means another. You'd need a specific pattern of 2s, Soaps, and 7s as shown on the card, using only tiles of the indicated suits.
When the 2027 card drops, year-themed hands shift to the new digits. That's exactly why staying current on the annual card matters.
Card-reading facts summarized here are confirmed against these primary sources.