What is Mahjong?
Mahjong, also more commonly known as 麻將 in chinese, is a popular game among the asians. It first originated from China and is now a very popular game in China, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore today. In fact, the game has spread itself to the western countries recently, hence there has been an outbreak of mahjong game online. There are also many tournaments and competitions being held for mahjong.
The game consists of a mahjong table, mahjong table mat, mahjong tiles, and mahjong game chips. 4 players are needed to play this game, although there are variants of mahjong that can also be played by 3 players. The players are set down to the table, the winning base is defined (table minimum, and game maximum) and the game chips are distributed equally.
Mahjong is commonly played for recreational purposes. Like many games, mahjong is a game that requires skills, strategy, extreme alertness and pushes your limit by forcing you to think of mental calculations and methods to win a game, or to minimize potential losses.
Why discuss about Mahjong Tables
By convention, mahjong tiles are shuffled by players using both hands and moving the pieces around the table, often making loud noises. There are some people who like the sounds of mahjong tiles knocking each other on table, whereas some people prefer to keep a lower noise profile to prevent neighbors from complaining.
Aside from the noise factors, there are also factors pertaining to the speed of the game such as using an automatic mahjong table that shuffles while a game is being played, and when the game ends, the new sets of tiles would have been ready to be redeployed. This saves quite a substantial amount of time and provides a very convenient method of shuffling, re-arrangement and dispensing of the mahjong tiles.
There is also the “feel” factor that is heavily emphasized by many players. As this term conveys a very generalized message, different mahjong table manufacturers have been researching extensively to sieve out the different types of mahjong tables needed for the market.
Thus, from a mahjong player’s point of view, mahjong tables are extremely important. On top of that, we can also come from another angle and see that if the manufacturers are focusing on manufacturing the different types of tables, then surely, there is a need to study the different types of mahjong tables, and how to select the appropriate type mahjong type for your needs.