A Different Game

There is a moment two weeks before Thanksgiving when a house changes its mind about what it is for, and the kitchen quietly becomes the warmest room in it. Prim has come to believe the kitchen and the card table are the same piece of furniture wearing two outfits, and this week she brings the two rooms together. Crak the Card shows a host who also plays how to choose a forgiving, joker friendly hand she can hold with one eye on the oven. The Table Is Asking settles who brings what, and the one rule Prim will go to the wall for about fingers and tiles. Who's Talking raises a glass to Megan Sinclair Osmundsen, who wrote the book on pouring a drink for a foursome. And Tile Envy is a real guide to the sweetest tiles you will ever serve, with the door to buy every piece.The Order of the Tile is independent. We are not paid to cover any company, product or event mentioned here, so please do your own research and make your own decisions. If a company ever sends us samples, we will always say so, and that will be a first hand review. We are always happy to review products.Subscribe at https://www.orderofthetile.com00:00 Intro00:26 Opening02:41 The Draw04:51 Crak the Card07:51 The Table Is Asking10:59 Who's Talking13:58 Tile Envy17:05 Set Your Rack19:07 Crak Intelligence#AmericanMahjong#NMJL#Prim#OrderOfTheTile#Mahjong#Thanksgiving#Friendsgiving#MahjongAndFood#MahjMix#MeganSinclairOsmundsen#TileEnvy#MahjongCookies

The best gift Prim gave anyone last year cost her nothing, and the woman who received it still has not stopped talking about it. The giving season has opened, so Prim settles in to talk you gently out of the shops and back toward the table. Crak the Card shows you how to teach a beginner to let her own tiles choose the hand. The Table Is Asking answers the question every new teacher dreads: how to teach the family you love over the holidays without losing your patience. Who's Talking raises a cup to Lacy Price of Mahjaholic in Houston, who sells an hour at the table as a present. And Tile Envy is a real gift guide, with the door to buy every single thing on it.New from Prim: real letters in your mailbox. Prim's Pen Pals is a monthly mail club for American Mahjong players, with the first letters going out in January. Join the waitlist to hear the moment it opens: orderofthetile.com/mail-club/

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.

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

Four women sit down at one table with identical tiles, an identical card and identical seats, and not one of them is playing the same game. This week Prim spends every section on that one assumption. The Draw looks at tables re-forming in the fall and remembering themselves differently. The Table Is Asking takes a question from a fast player who has started to feel like a villain. Who's Talking visits the Old Town Mahjong Club in Alexandria, Virginia, built by two neighbors who noticed their town was missing a fourth chair. Set Your Rack points at the MAHJ-A-THON for St. Jude on Saturday, September 26. Say what you came for, and ask what they came for.Subscribe at https://www.orderofthetile.com#AmericanMahjong#NMJL#Prim#OrderOfTheTile#MahjongEtiquette#OldTownMahjongClub#BlackDragon#StJude#MahjongStrategy

Prim learned about the turn of the season from her uncle's bees. A hive that divides in the middle of summer rebuilds. One that divides at the end of it can come into the cold too thin to make up the difference. Same event, two months apart, completely different consequences. That is the whole of this issue. The Draw counts what you are rejoining,better than a thousand active clubs and a fall circuit already underway. Crak the Card walks the three things that change the moment you sit down in a tournament room. The Table Is Asking settles whether your own table's habits have ruined you for the real thing. And Crak Intelligence explains why the ladder you are climbing is only about ten years old. Read the letter free at https://www.orderofthetile.com#AmericanMahjong#NMJL#Prim#OrderOfTheTile#MahjongTournament#MahjongStrategy#TournamentPlay#HouseRules#MahjLife#GoldenTicket#MahjongSeason#MahjongCommunity