How to Read the NMJL Card (Beginner's Guide to the Annual Hands)
The NMJL card lists every legal winning hand for the year. Here's how to read the hands, symbols, and groupings on the National Mah Jongg League card — step by step.
Quick answer: The NMJL card lists every legal winning hand for the year. Each hand is built from pungs (3 alike), kongs (4 alike), pairs (2), and quints (5 with jokers), grouped by category and shown with color-coded suits and values. You win by matching one of the card’s hands exactly.
Opening a new NMJL card for the first time can feel like reading a stock ticker. Rows of numbers, letters, and colors — and somehow this is supposed to tell you what to collect. Here is the good news: the card follows a consistent structure every year, and once you learn to read one card, you can read them all.
What the card actually is
The National Mah Jongg League publishes a new card every year. It is not a rulebook — it is a list of winning hands. In American mahjong you do not win with any random combination; you win by completing one of the specific hands printed on that year’s card. Everything else on the table — the Charleston, the jokers, the passing — exists to help you get there.
The building blocks of every hand
Every hand on the card is a sequence of small groups:
- Pung — three identical tiles
- Kong — four identical tiles
- Pair — two identical tiles
- Quint — five identical tiles (only possible with jokers)
- Sextet — six identical tiles (jokers required)
A typical card hand might read as: a kong, a pung, and a pair. Your job during play is to collect exactly those groups from the wall, the Charleston passes, and player discards.
Numbers, letters, and colors
Each group on the card tells you which tiles make up the group:
- Numbers (1–9) refer to the suited tiles — dots, bams, or cracks
- Letters refer to honors: winds (N, E, S, W) and dragons
- Colors indicate the suit family a group belongs to; the current card’s legend explains the color key for that year
Some hands spell out a pattern with the tile numbers themselves — a “2026 hand” is built from groups of 2s, 0s (dragons), and 6s, for example. These are the hands everyone looks for first, and the reason the card changes every year keeps the game fresh.
Reading a hand in play
When you pick a hand from the card, scan it left to right and ask three questions:
- How many groups, and of what size? That tells you how many tiles you need of each kind.
- Any pairs? Pairs are the hardest to complete late in a hand — knowing early helps.
- How many jokers can I use? Most hands allow jokers in pungs and kongs (never in pairs), and some hands allow more jokers than others.
Once you can answer those, the card stops being a mystery and becomes a menu.
Where to get the card
Every player needs the current year’s card — it is sold separately from any set, updated annually, and available in standard and large-print versions. See our 2026 NMJL card or our guide to what the NMJL card is.
New to the game entirely? Start with our beginner rules guide, then come back to the card — it will make much more sense after your first Charleston.
Written by Wei Liang
Production Lead at Mahjong Market, a brand of Shenzhen Jigao Electronics Co., Ltd. (深圳市季高电子有限公司). 10+ years in plastics injection molding. Writes from the factory floor about tile manufacturing, NMJL specs, and OEM sourcing.
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