Show Notes
Prim has lit the good candles. It is the one week of the year when a little dread is welcome at the table, so she settles in to tell you which of its hauntings are real and which are only a shadow you mistook for a hand. The Draw watches the groups go gloriously gothic. Crak the Card takes the beautiful line you chase every season and never make, and shows you it was only ever a matter of timing and nerve. The Table Is Asking settles an old quarrel once and for all: is it bad luck to touch another player's rack, or simply bad manners. Who's Talking raises a cup to Alyssa Gross of The Mahjong Society in Chicago, and Tile Envy covets a midnight black set by candlelight.
More from The Order of the Tile: Secrets from the American Mahjong Table
The whole weekend folded itself into a single word, said a little too fast by someone whose hands were not quite steady. In The Draw, Prim marks a first: the player lifting the trophy was a man, and the game gave him a new word, a King. Crak the Card is honest about what has not been published and reads a commanding seven hundred points for what it really is, a slow pile of sound decisions. The Table Is Asking settles the oldest tournament grievance, how a player who won more hands still lost, and Tile Envy covets a Day of the Dead set dressed like an ofrenda. Plus a new puzzle book, The Morning Mahj, with one puzzle free this week.
The night before is when nothing has gone wrong yet. Every rack is still perfect. The Draw celebrates everyone cheering from home. The Table Is Asking settles what to wear to your first tournament (glamour above the table, comfort beneath it). Who's Talking raises a cup to Fern Oliphant and Sheryl Perry of Destination Mah Jongg, who asked a decade ago why this game should not have a ballroom of its own. Tile Envy admires the sets people carry to be seen, and Crak Intelligence counts the tiles in Ralph Lauren's designer set and finds our number.Subscribe at https://www.orderofthetile.com#AmericanMahjong #NMJL #Prim #OrderOfTheTile #MahjongWorldChampionship #DestinationMahJongg #ParisLasVegas #MahjongTournament #TournamentStyle #MyFairMahjong #RalphLauren #CarryOnMahjong
The dead hand is not a hand with nothing left to do. It is a hand with a different job. Crak the Card explains why you may not fold or call your own hand dead, which tiles to hold and which to feed the table, the one throw you never make into a third exposure, and Tom Sloper's eight word test for when the endgame has begun. Then Prim sends beginners to a lakeside weekend where everyone loses cheerfully, and tells the story of how defense became the thing serious players mastered.Subscribe at https://www.orderofthetile.com #AmericanMahjong #NMJL#Prim #OrderOfTheTile #MahjongStrategy #MahjongDefense #DeadHand #MahjongEtiquette #TileTalk #MahjongLoft #BeginnersMahjong
The woman who always seems to know is not reading minds. She is reading the middle, and Prim would like to retire the legend gently, because it keeps good players from becoming better ones. The Draw takes on the "how did she know" thread. The Table Is Asking settles whether you may look back through the pile, and how much of what you see you may say out loud. Who's Talking thanks John Burton, who took the card away entirely and found the defense still standing. Tile Envy makes the case for a calm middle, and Crak Intelligence goes looking for the first person who ever said "reading the wall" and finds three ancestors instead.Subscribe at https://www.orderofthetile.com#AmericanMahjong #NMJL#Prim #OrderOfTheTile #MahjongStrategy #MahjongDefense #DiscardPile #ReadingTheWall #CardFreeMahjong #MahjongEtiquette #MahJonggMania
The coin in a particular pocket, the tile turned just so before the Charleston, the friend who will never sit north to start. Prim is fond of every charm at the table, and this week she says the quiet thing out loud: superstition is a system with the serial numbers filed off. The Draw looks at the cold streak threads that bloom every September. The Table Is Asking answers what really happens when you call Mahjong and you are wrong, and who decides. Who's Talking thanks Tom Sloper, who answered the luck question honestly and kept answering. Tile Envy covets the Bespoke Mahjong Lucky Charms jokers, and Crak Intelligence explains why a flower on your rack feels like good news.Subscribe at https://www.orderofthetile.com#AmericanMahjong #NMJL #Prim #OrderOfTheTile #MahjongSuperstition #MahjongStrategy #TomSloper #BespokeMahjong #FrenchLick #MahjongFlowers