Missy Mahjong loves messy mahjong

Anyone who has seen my house knows that my “messy” is almost always perfect. My messy may mean I have a load of unfolded clothes in the dryer or my son’s bed isn’t made. My closet is the worst offender because my messy means I still have “outfit options” on the floor from the night before. But oooh do I just LOVE messy mahjong!

Messy mahjong is a great way to play fast games.

What exactly is messy mahjong?

Girl, let me tell YOU! No walls. No dealing. Just turn those tiles over and let’s play.

When I play Siamese (two player) mahjong with my mahji-bestie, we only play messy. This means that we turn the tiles over. If it’s my set, I start with 28 and she starts with 27. For two players, there is no Charleston. I discard, she picks from any of the face-down tiles, and play continues.

Messy mahjong with four players is similar. No walls, no formalities of dealing. East picks 14 from wherever and the other three players select 13 tiles. Instead of drawing from the walls, we draw from any of the face-down tiles.

Give me a reason to play messy mahjong

I’ll give you TWO good reasons to play messy mahjong. I know, I know… I’m so generous!

The first reason is the obvious reason to play messy mahjong: it is fast. You don’t need to organize the tiles or think about moving out the next wall.

No walls, no formalities of dealing.

The second reason is luck. When I am picking great tiles from the left side, I may continue to keep picking from that section. When my luck is awful and I haven’t seen a joker? New area please. I control my own destiny when I can choose which is my next tiles.

Let's play messy mahjong

Is Messy Mahjong accepted by the NMJL?

The NMJL doesn’t allow table rules. So, let’s just say that messy mahjong is for my inner circle only. When we meet for coffee and we want to chat and play and catch up about all the things… we will probably be playing messy mahjong.