The Mahjong Player’s Companion: The Book
The Book That Quietly Shaped Modern Play
Use the book like salt; enough to enhance the game, never so much that it overwhelms the flavor.
There is a certain kind of magic and buzz when we settle down at a Mahjong table to play. We greet each other with enthusiasm, settle into our seats with THE BOOK in hand, gently release the tiles into the center , turn them face-down and begin the ritualistic washing of the tiles (siu pai). The rhythm and flow begins with a soft storm of clicking and clacking building into a twittering crescendo that announces that the game is about to begin.
Amidst this ritual, you will often see THE BOOK, resting in someone’s lap like a trusted oracle. Pages worn soft at the corners, ready to be consulted at a moment’s doubt. A player pauses, looks at their tiles and hastily begins to flip through the book looking for that rare and perfect special hand that they just know is waiting to be discovered. We have all felt that instinct, that delicious suspicion that our tiles are whispering a secret and so we turn eagerly to Patricia A Thompson and Betty Maloney’s The Mahjong Player’s Companion hoping to just confirm our inkling and help us through.
Why The Mahjong Player’s Companion Still Matters?
For those of us who didn’t grow up watching our elders play Mahjong, didn’t inherit table tradition through osmosis and didn’t have an aunt who taught us strategy between cups of tea, this book was and remains a gift.
Published in 1986, Thompson and Maloney’s have captured a living tradition and offered English-speaking learners a chance to catch up and play classical Chinese Mahjong and not the American version that requires you to be a card every year with a different set of winning special hands.
Rather than inventing a new style, it organized and explained traditional Chinese play, but the way played in Western circles. It provided clear explanations of tiles, basic game play, explained the limit and half=limit scoring system and provided guidance on special / classic hands and how to score them.
The later edition, we all keep besides us, was re-organized and streamlined into a modular reference book. It still honors classical play but focuses on giving examples of special hands that you can actually make.
Expert Insight
💡What Makes This Book Different from Other Mahjong Guides
The Mahjong Player’s Companion opens the world of special hands for beginners without the overwhelm of traditional complex scoring systems. Instead of layers of multipliers and fan counts, it uses clear examples of patterns that new players can actually recognize and built.
-The book focuses on:
– Chinese-style hands
– Fixed scoring
– Named special hands
= Practical, achievable patterns
– Real-table, social learning
It bridges tradition and accessibility, perfect for learners who want to explore special hands without math anxiety.
What is Limit Scoring?
One of the quiet strengths of the Thompson-Maloney method is its scoring. Instead of overwhelming new players in layers of doubles, fan counts, multipliers and arithmetic gymnastics, this book introduces limit scoring by assigning fixed points for certain combinations. A hand can be worth a standard win, ie a limit of 1000 points, a half-limit of 500 points or a mid-limit of 1500 points. There is no endless mental math, no hunting for obscure bonuses. You just learn what a limit hand looks like, and you play. And if you were one away from winning, then that score is also mentioned as “Fishing”, ie you are fishing for that last tile.
If you can’t find the hand in the Book, you can then resort to scoring manually. This scoring style just makes the scoring easy
How to Use the Thompson–Maloney Book Gracefully
A Gentle Mahjong Etiquette for Using “The Book” at the Table
One of my regular playmates, Fiza, recently attended a Mahjong fundraiser in Karachi. She played with people she had never played with before and came back amused and slightly bored. “They were glued to the book” she said. “Every other move someone was flipping pages and it took away from the sociability of the table“.
And she’s right! The Book is a wonderful companion, but only when treated as just that: a companion, not a lifeline.
You don’t need to memorize it. In fact, you aren’t supposed to. Mahjong, at its heart, is a social game, meant to be lived as much as learned. The book is simply there to support the process, not to interrupt it. The traditional way to learn, and the most gracious way to use it, is simple:
Used this way, The Book becomes what it is meant to be, a quiet helper in the background, not the main character at the table.
Over time, your hands, eyes and gut will begin to recognize patterns on their own. You’ll open the book less each week, not because the game will become simple but because you will become fluent.
Final Thought
Whether you are learning Chinese style, Hong Kong style, or your local table’s version, think of this book as a companion, not a manual. It isn’t only about the rules, but it’s about respecting your individual journey of learning.
You don’t need to master Mahjong quickly. You get to enjoy mastering it slowly, tile by tile, hand by hand.
- Use it lightly
- Refer when curious
- Learn at the table
- Enjoy the pace
You don’t need to master Mahjong quickly, you get to master it slowly.