Welcome to Mahjongero, a blog dedicated to Filipino mahjong and related topics. Mahjong is a perennial fixture at gatherings in the Philippines and across the Filipino diaspora. Even as a kid, I was fascinated by the tiles. My dad kept his mahjong set hidden, so my brother and I stole our baby sister’s toy blocks with little pictures of animals, arranged them in our best approximation of the mahjong walls, and pretended to play. It was like a mahjongero version of teatime. I can still hear my dad’s laughter when he discovered our illicit game. My mom thought it was funny too, although she attempted to mask her amusement with obligatory murmurs of disapproval about gambling. The chubby toddler informant reclaimed her blocks in victory.
Our fascination with the game held on until years later when our dad finally taught us how to play for real. We started with the basic Filipino mahjong, i.e., the Thirteen Flowers, or so-called “Manila-rules” variety, and eventually moved on to Visayan-style mahjong.
Both styles of play are described in this blog. We hope this will be a resource for you, whether you just need a refresher or are learning to play for the very first time. More than that, we hope that this blog will be a forum for mahjongeros at all levels. Our knowledge of mahjong comes from a combination of oral tradition passed on from our elders and family members, online research, and conversations with fellow mahjongeros. We invite you to participate, share your own table rules, and help us keep this tradition alive and well for future generations. Thanks for joining us and we hope to see you in the comments.
mahjongero 