Snap your tiles
Still learning to read a rack? Take a picture of your tiles and see which hands on your card you're closest to.
The American Mahjong training app
It's mahjong
night.
A training table for the days between. A guiding hand while you learn the game. And a community of players to grow with, one hand at a time.
Beta opens late July. App Store launch September 1. How the beta works
Mahjong night
Tuesday at 8.
The one on the calendar in pen.
(or the recurring slot on the Skylight.)
The training table
Get good between games.
Deal yourself a hand. Walk a full Charleston. Get tips and tricks. Play it out to the end. Practice the cards until they read fast at the real table.
- Deal Me In. Solo hands with feedback on what to keep.
- Charleston tour. Walk pass-and-keep, round by round, with the why.
- Tips and tricks. Small reads at the moments you'd otherwise miss them.
- Play it out. Take the hand to the end against simulated opponents.
The mechanics that the training table teaches transfer. Once you've put time in here, learning a new card, any card, is faster every time after.
At the Table
For the friend who wants to play but isn't sure they're ready.
Most groups have one: the friend who almost said no because she didn't think she knew enough. At the Table is for her first game or two. It walks her through what to expect in a live game, then holds her hand through one: what to keep, what to pass, what just happened. Once she's found her feet, the phone goes back in the bag and the tiles take over.
Charleston advice
Pass-and-keep for each round, with one sentence on why. For your first Charlestons, while the rhythm is still new.
Hand match
Your top hands ranked by how close you are, with the tiles you'd still need. Honest about the long shots.
Crak the Hand
A puzzle a day.
Crack the hidden hand.
Each day, a new puzzle. The tiles the winning player threw away on the journey to mahjong show up one batch at a time. You pick the tiles you think made it to the final hand. Reveal one match per guess. No peeking at the card. That's the game.
- Learn the card without studying. Every puzzle pulls from the year's real hands. Crack a month of them and the patterns start to feel familiar.
- Tile memory and pattern recognition, both. You bring what you remember; the puzzle tells you what you missed. Day after day, your card eye sharpens.
- Five minutes, then it's done. Solve it with your coffee, save it for the bus, build the streak.
Crak Dragon
A fast-paced mahj sprint.
Build two hands.
A 5-minute double mahj sprint. The timer counts down, the tiles come and go, you race to build up to two mahjong hands. Harder hands and earlier calls score more. The leader holds The Crak Dragon title, until a new champion arrives.
- Press play, five minutes. One match, start to finish. A fresh tile appears and an old one disappears from the six-tile wall every second. You have six seconds to grab one before it falls off the edge.
- Two racks. Fourteen slots each. Test your mahjong training against the clock: pattern recognition, hand-shaping, tile memory.
- Friends, teams, seasons. Climb your friend leaderboard or take on the global field. Quarterly seasons with weekly featured challenges. Teams of two to four for the people who always have your back.
- Tournaments Beta. Bracket play where every team gets the same tiles, so it comes down to skill. Win, and your team holds the title of The Crak Dragon.
The beta
First hands start
in late July.
Before the App Store launch on September 1, we're opening the app to a first round of players. It's free while the beta runs, and what you tell us shapes what ships.
- 1. Ask for a seat. Leave your email and we'll send invites in waves, starting the week of July 20.
- 2. Install TestFlight. Before launch day, apps live in TestFlight, Apple's free app for trying new apps early. Your invite walks you through it: install TestFlight, tap the invite, and Crak Dot Bam is on your phone.
- 3. Play, and tell us everything. New versions arrive through TestFlight on their own while the beta runs. On launch day you switch to the App Store version and keep right on playing.
Friends. Laughs. Mahjongs called.
Your propagation bench
A bench full of plants.
Each one grows as you play.
The app keeps quiet track of how you play. A plant grows on your bench for each thing you do: your daily streak, your accuracy, the hours you've put in, the hands you've finished, the friends you've brought along.
✿
Succulent · daily streak
✿
Orchid · accuracy
✿
Bonsai · hours played
✿
Zinnia · hands finished
✿
Hydrangea · friends shared with
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Dandelion · shares sent
Meet the friendship hydrangea.
The hydrangea is the social one. It grows whenever you share: a link tapped from inside the app, a friend you invited to play a hand, an invite you texted to your group. When the friend signs up, you get a fresh bud. When she stays around, the bud opens into a full bloom.
✿
Share a link or invite a friend.
✿
She signs up. A bud appears.
✿
She stays. The bud blooms.
Your tablescape
Make it your own.
Live in it.
Backgrounds, themes, tile backs, rack designs. Set the table the way you'd set it for guests. The tiles you'll see every day become yours.
The app you open every day deserves to feel like a place. Pick the background that fits your room, the tile back you want to see a hundred times a week, the rack design that feels like yours. Then live in it.
The charity vote
Five percent of proceeds donated, voted by the players.
Every quarter, the players decide where the donation goes. The causes come from the community; the check comes from us.
Pricing
One plan. The whole app.
One small subscription, the whole app. Pricing starts at launch on September 1; every plan begins with a 7-day free trial. Cancel anytime.
Yearly
$42 /year
Save 30% vs monthly
The full app, all year.
- Crak Dragon: 5-minute mahjong matches, anytime
- Crak the Hand: a daily puzzle that teaches the card
- The training table: every hand on every card
- At the Table: first-game help and hand match
- Friends, teams, leaderboards, and seasons
- Unlimited custom backgrounds and themes
- The propagation bench, growing as you play
- 7-day free trial
Monthly
$5 /month
Cancel anytime
Pay as you go.
- Everything in Yearly
- Charged monthly
- Pause or cancel any month
- Switch to yearly anytime
- 7-day free trial
Discounts available via offer codes. Watch for one from us or your group's host.
Cards
Built for the card you play.
Tell us which card you're playing, the National Mah Jongg League card or the American Mahjong Society card, and every hand match, Charleston tip, and practice game lines up with it. You play with your own official card; the app doesn't include it.
Need a card? Buy an NMJL card Buy an AMS card
The cards belong to their publishers, the National Mah Jongg League and the American Mahjong Society. They publish and sell their cards each year, so the cards aren't part of the app and you'll need your own to play. We're an independent training companion, not affiliated with or endorsed by either.
A history of the game
Mahjong began in 19th-century China, traced most often to the Qing Dynasty. Played with carved tiles in three suits (cracks, dots, and bams), it spread through trading ports and arrived in American homes by the 1920s. American players adapted the rules, added the joker and the Charleston, and made the game something of its own.
Jewish-American women were central to what came next. They formed clubs, standardized the play, and in 1937 founded the National Mah Jongg League, which has published the annual card every year since. That tradition has survived wars, depressions, and a long quiet stretch before the game's current revival, and we honor it every time the game gets played.
We built Crak Dot Bam to bring more friends to the table, and give confidence to every player who takes a seat.
FAQ
A few honest answers.
I've never played American Mahjong. Will this actually teach me?
Yes. That's the whole point. Learn-to-play lessons cover the rules, the training table gives you reps without an audience, and At the Table walks you through your first real game. You don't need to know a single rule to start.
Will it help me read this year's NMJL card faster?
That's most of what the training table is for. Drill against the current card, get faster at recognizing patterns, miss fewer hands at the real table. It's the same loop teachers use, just on your own time.
I already know NMJL well. What's in this for me?
Reps and games, mostly. The training table for the year's card, Crak the Hand to keep your card eye sharp, Crak Dragon when you want to race, and At the Table for the friend you're bringing in. Use what helps. Skip the rest.
What's the beta, and how do I get in?
Until launch on September 1, the app lives in TestFlight, Apple's free app for trying new apps before they hit the store. Leave your email and we'll send invites in waves starting the week of July 20. The beta is free, and new versions arrive on their own while it runs.
Can I try it before paying?
Yes, two ways. Join the beta and play free before launch. After September 1, every subscription starts with a 7-day free trial: the whole app, no card up front. After that it's $5/month or $42/year. Cancel anytime.
Do you offer discounts?
Sometimes. We hand out offer codes now and then, and a group's host may have one to share. Redeem it at checkout for a discount on your subscription.
What's the propagation bench?
A small collection of plants in the app, each tracking a different part of how you play: your streak, your accuracy, your hours, your wins, your shares. They grow quietly while you use the app. The hydrangea is the friendship one. It grows when you share, and blooms when a friend you brought in stays.
What's the boutique?
A small curated shop tucked into the app. We pick a handful of things (pretty tile bags, soft-touch linens for the table, snack boards, the occasional book) that fit the kind of game night you're already having. Sometimes it's a cute sweater we couldn't stop thinking about, or a discount code from a partner we love. Picks rotate. It's tucked in the menu, there when you feel like browsing, gone when you don't.
Can I cancel?
Yes, anytime. Your stats, your bench, your saved backgrounds, and your badges are all kept safe and waiting if you ever come back.
Are there ads?
No.