To the untrained eye, American mahjong, a tile game adapted from the version invented in China, is hard to follow.
Rather than starting with a familiar deck of cards, the four-player game uses 152 tiles etched with unfamiliar characters. Beautiful, but not intuitive.
To start the game, dealing out tiles is extra complicated in what’s called the “Charleston” phase, a blind exchange of tiles between the players during which they each select their own game strategy based on their collected tiles.
And that’s another thing. Choosing a strategy depends on the National Mahjong League Standard Hands and Rules Card, an annual booklet that changes each year and lists the different types of winning hands. Every player needs a card in order to play.
Try learning while watching? The game is silent, save the clicking of tiles, until a “discard” phase, which sounds like some secret code as players reveal tiles face up: seven bam, one dot, flower, nine crack, three dot, bird bam, green dragon, soap.
Confusing.
But for those who take the time to learn, the game is more than just a mental challenge and a mix of strategy and luck. It’s an opportunity to make friends.
That’s what Après Mahjong cofounders Bethany Jordan and Natalie Stouffer realized when they began playing in Park City four years ago.
“I am from Texas, from Dallas, and I moved here around 2020, and I saw what was happening in Texas,” said Jordan. “When I would go back and visit friends, it was one of those things where it was assumed that we all played mahjong.”
The game has surged in popularity on the East Coast and in the South, especially among middle-aged women, she said. Part of that is due to its history: An American Jewish couple from the Northeast traveled and worked in China in the 1920s, fell in love with the tile game, then brought it back to their community in the United States. By 1932, the National Mahjong League was formed to consolidate the rules and regulations.
Park City and the West have been behind that curve, so Jordan and Stouffer learned from a mix of guide books and tips from a woman they played tennis with.
More and more people saw them playing and wanted to learn, too, so one day Jordan said, “What if we started a business?”
“I wanted to go to the pool or just go to a park or whatever and see people playing and be able to join their game. And so our vision was to bring mahjong to the town and start teaching people, and it caught on like wildfire,” Jordan said.
They did the market research and realized there wasn’t a single mahjong business in the state. Stouffer has a background in education and curriculum development, and she had the time and interest, so the two became partners and built out Après Mahjong. Now they have two or three events a day.
“We have private lessons. We have public lessons. We have open play. We do a weekly league. We do tournaments,” said Jordan.
All of it starts with beginner lessons, Stouffer said, and the most important part about the lessons is consistency across instructors.
“We wanted, if you came to a lesson and it was taught by me or anyone else, you’d have a similar experience,” she said.
First they teach the tiles and tile names, with playful ways of remembering, like with how the soap tile belongs to the dot suit: “Soap makes bubbles. Bubbles are dots.”
Then they build from that knowledge to explain the National Mahjong League card, which lists ways to create winning hands, likening certain aspects to games like Rummikub or cards.
“It’s called scaffolding in education,” said Stouffer. “Your brain tends to hold on to information better if it can connect to prior knowledge that you already know. So we take it step by step.”
Most importantly with the lessons, less is more, Stouffer said. There’s over 1,000 ways to win based on the annual rules card, but it would be overwhelming to teach them all in one lesson.
“People’s brains jump so far ahead, and then they forget where they are. So we try to just really keep them engaged,” she said.
A lot of the lesson involves learning by doing, so the instructor will lead the group of no more than eight students in a few practice games, helping them decide which strategy to take based on the tiles they’re dealt.
Stacy Miller is one of 12 instructors with the group. She first learned mahjong in 2024 but comes from a gaming family and has a “special affinity” for poker: Each year she goes to Las Vegas to compete in the World Series of Poker. But when she learned the tile game, she became obsessed.
“Mahjong has totally changed my life. I love it so much. I mean, it sounds really weird, but for a game player, I feel like it’s such a challenging, fun game with lots of levels,” she said. “And I also love all the ages. I’ve met so many people doing it.”
She started out playing in the league — a timed version that suits her competitive nature — before being asked to come on as an instructor. As a former English and public speaking professor, Miller agreed.
So far, she said she hasn’t met anyone who couldn’t learn the game, though some, like her 84-year-old mother, took a while to pick it up.
“You could sit down as a beginner and play the game with just knowing the basics. But the more you play, the more you realize how strategic it is and how you can use defense,” Miller said. “I haven’t gotten bored with it because the longer I’ve played, the deeper I’ve kind of dove into it.”
It doesn’t necessarily translate from poker, she said, which is more of a mix of skill and luck. Mahjong has more luck involved, but Miller said she loves that it’s more involved.
“For me, there’s a lot of downtime in poker. You’re sitting there, maybe you’re not involved in a hand, so you’re sitting there waiting for the other people to get finished with the hand,” she said. “With mahjong, I feel like my brain is constantly going. You’re constantly thinking, and there’s no downtime.”
Stouffer said part of mahjong’s popularity is that it requires more of an investment from players. Not just from the time and financial side, but from having to be fully present during the game. Hardly anyone pulls out their phones for the two hours of open play, she said.
“This is an age where people are so focused on screens that people are craving that analog, non-digital hobby,” said Jordan. “It also uses their brain. And as we age, we see our parents and even some peers suffering with dementia. … We want to keep our brain strong, and this is a game of strategy and thinking.”
After completing at least one lesson, players are invited to open play sessions a few times a week at their new permanent parlor in Park City.
For at least the first year, Après Mahjong operated as more of a pop-up concept, working with businesses to host events and lessons. But eventually they grew enough to warrant a full-time home.
Stouffer joked that she finally broke after transporting folding tables, chairs, heavy mahjong tile sets and decorations through a snowstorm for an event at Wasatch Wool. That two-hour event turned into more like a four-hour job.
They found the parlor space, the second floor of the Gateway Center off Swede Alley and Heber Avenue, and moved in May.
There, the decorations lean into the ski-town vibe, with plaid tablecloths and vintage ski posters and collage art. But the real decoration is the mahjong tiles.
Après Mahjong supplies tiles through an ambassador program with brand The Mahjong Line, which specializes in art-inspired tiles. Those sets run about $500 and are decorated with various themes like sea life, Western icons or mountain animals. A tile in their mountain line — a big horn sheep wearing ski goggles — inspired the Après Mahjong logo: a moose with ski goggles.
Open play is $20 for the two hours and set up for all levels.
“We’ve leveled it out by tables, and if you’re a beginner, we’re going to have an instructor there to answer questions. And the whole point is for them to become a part of the community, to feel more confident. You don’t get better unless you play,” said Jordan.
The levels from beginner to advanced are modeled after ski runs, magic carpet all the way to black diamond. Those players finish games in around 15 minutes, while beginners can take closer to an hour.
Jordan said since they started, Après Mahjong has taught or interacted with 1,500 people through events and lessons, and has built a large local community. But it’s also become a space for out-of-towners who know how to play, have the official card, but don’t have a group to play with. Being a space for visitors, especially in such a transient town like Park City, stems from Jordan’s own experience.
“I used to summer here, and it was just our family all summer, and you do crave that interaction with people. It’s like you’re a part of the community, but you’re really not because you’re just here for a few months,” she said. “It would have been so nice if I had had a place to drop in and get to know some people and play the game.”
The two said they’ve begun expanding into Heber City with lessons and plan to grow by providing training for people to start their own business in other towns. They’re also planning to purchase an automatic shuffling table, which makes the play even quicker.
Still, the community building is the best part because players from different generations get to know each other over the game, Jordan said. Groups naturally have sprouted out and people organize their own game nights with people they’ve met through Après Mahjong.
“We want you to become friends. Keep coming to us, too, but please, the whole point of this is to build this community of friendship and to grow the game of learning and strategy and understanding,” said Jordan.
To learn more or sign up for a lesson, visit apresmahjong.com.