Made For Mahjongg (Part One)

Over the summer, a few of my friends from my baseball team got me into Mahjongg. Yes, that's right: I play Mahjongg o_O

I purchased my first set not too long ago, and it's on the desk beside me as I write this out. The red, felt box holding the 144 tile set is in bad shape: The felt is coming off in places, in particular at the corners, and the two small buttons meant to keep a lid on things look as strong as the old buttons on the winter coat I wore in high school, when I was HUGE. I'm afraid the box will burst at any moment o_O

Upon opening the box for the first time, you see four sets of 36 tiles tightly wrapped in clear plastic. Each of the tiles are made of ivory with a hard, pine green coloured backing. According to our baseball team captain Tony, the trick to being an expert Mahjongg player is learning how to pick up the tiles when you start playing. I asked "What do you mean?"
Upon setup, you shuffle the tiles on the table, pick out 36 of the shuffled tiles, and stack them while they are still face down. Once you arrange them in two rows of 18, you take one row with both hands, and stack it on top of the other row. It took me awhile to get it, during which I heard words like "n00b" and "rookie", but I didn't keep my pinky fingers on both ends of the row: That's the secret! ^_^

Mahjongg looks intimidating to outsiders like me o_O The number of tiles, the different Chinese characters, the rules and procedures, and the scoring! I don't want to say Mahjongg is like Gin Rummy, because I will probably get tackled, but to compare the two is like racing a Bugatti Veyron against a Hyundai Accent. Nevertheless, both are automobiles, and in the case of games the object of Mahjongg is to complete four sets or sequences of three, and a pair to win.

Playing out of turn, and grabbing tiles from different ends of the "Wall" are allowed; these are also sources of much confusion when I played for the first time o_O Eventually, I got the hang of it, and even won a game (One game, Phil; let's not go crazy and play in tournaments or anything o_O LOL). Practice helps, but playing the game and getting familiar with the different rules are essential as well; there is a link here on how to play Mahjongg, but the best way is to get right into the fire, and try it out. As long as your confidence is still up, and you're willing to try new things, then your experience with Mahjongg will be A+. If you are a n00b like I am, feel free to detail your experience in the comments. I don't mind sharing that I grabbed the tile from the wrong end a few times o_O LOL