How to Start a Mahjong League: Format, Scoring and Subs

To start a mahjong league, choose a format and set a season (six weeks is a good start). Before anyone signs up, write down three rules: how a game is scored, what happens when someone misses a night, and what the season costs. Then collect dues before the first night and post the standings after every one.

Want to join a league rather than run one? Our league directory lists American Mahjong leagues by state and shows when each season starts. More on that just below.

This guide is for the organizer whose regulars want their games to count for something. Still gathering players? Start with how to start a mahjong club.

The Short Version

1. Pick a format: everyone plays the same night, or players set their own games.
2. Set the season: weeks, games per night, dates.
3. Write the scoring rules: card values, bonuses, wall games.
4. Decide on absences: best nights counted, a sub list, credit for a sub's night.
5. Collect dues before night one.
6. Post standings every week, then end the season with a little ceremony.

Looking for a League Near You?

To play in a league, start with our league directory. It lists American Mahjong leagues by state, shows when each season starts, and lets you join online. Many clubs run leagues just for their own members, so also browse the club directory and ask the clubs near you. Just want a game this week? Try find tables.

Choose a League Format

There are three common shapes. Pick the one that fits how your players already meet.

Weekly Night League

Everyone plays on the same night at the same place. Players sign up once for the season, and the tables change each round so everyone meets new opponents. Some groups call this "rotating partners." In American Mahjong everyone plays her own hand, so the partners are really tablemates. This is the format most clubs want.

In Bam Good Time this is an In-Person league. Each player gets a number for the season, and the tables follow a fixed rotation pattern. The league moves to the next pattern each time you mark a night finished. It takes 12 to 60 players in steps of four (12, 16, 20 and so on), so every table is full.

Own-Time League

Players are matched into tables but pick their own day and place to play. This suits members whose schedules never line up. In Bam Good Time this is a Mobile league. Players prove they played together by scanning a code at the table.

Challenge League (the Scramble)

There are no fixed nights. A member posts a table at a time and place, other members join it, and they play. Bam Good Time calls this the Scramble. It is city based. Each week, only a player's best few scores count (you choose how many with Best Scores Per Week), so one busy week can't decide the season. You can also set Challenge Bonus Points for the player who organizes a table.

The Scramble has a few switches of its own, on the web, the iPhone app and the Mac app:

• Keep scores or No scores. With No scores, members propose and join games and tap "We played" after each one. No standings, so it suits a social league.
• Allow tables of three. Three players can play a match when the fourth seat is empty.
• No-show penalty. With tables of three on, a table can mark a player who never showed as a no-show and play on. You can take 1 to 500 points off her season total, or leave it blank.
• Weekly recap email. Every Monday morning, your Scramble players get last week's top game and top weekly total, with a button to the leaderboard.

All three league types, the Scramble included, are on the Pro plan at $49 a month.

How Long Should a Season Run?

Six weeks is a good length to start with. A league signup in Michigan that we read in October 2026 runs six weekly sessions with four games a night. That gives luck time to even out, and it is short enough to commit to.

Settle these when you pick the dates:

• Games per night. Four is common. Three makes for a shorter night. In Bam Good Time you set Rounds per Night from one to four.
• A signup cutoff. On a Mobile league or a Scramble you can set a Signup Deadline. On a weekly night league you control the roster yourself.
• Commitment. The Michigan league asks players to sign up only if they can come every week. Say the same thing, then plan for the weeks someone can't.

How League Scoring Works

On Paper

Most leagues start from the card. Each hand on the National Mah Jongg League card has a point value printed beside it, and the winner of a game scores that value. On top of that, a league can add house bonuses, for example:

• extra points for a jokerless mahjong
• extra points for a self-pick (drawing your own winning tile)
• a penalty for discarding the winning tile
• points for every player on a wall game, a game where the tiles run out and nobody wins

None of these is a standard, and the amounts are yours to choose. Pick yours, put them on the signup page and keep them for the whole season.

On paper, each table writes down every player's points after each game, and the organizer adds up the season later. The adding up is where mistakes and arguments live (more in scoring on paper versus software). New to the card? Here is how to read the NMJL card.

In an App

In Bam Good Time a league night is scored on one grid, table by table and round by round. For each player you enter mahjongs, points and wall games. The standings update as soon as you mark the night finished. Finished league nights also count toward each player's Mahjic Rating, the rating that follows her from club to club.

You can hand the scoring to the players, too. On an In-Person league, turn on "Let players enter their own scores" and publish the night's tables. One player starts each table, the others scan its code, and they enter the round while you review it. The switch is on the web, the iPhone app and the Mac app; players score in a browser or the iPhone app.

Bonuses Are Typed In, Not Automatic

Know this before you promise a jokerless bonus: the app does not know whether a hand was jokerless or self-picked. Instead, the league score grid has a Bonus box for each player in each round, and your scorekeeper types the number, for whatever your club rewards.

The box follows a few rules:

• A bonus adds to a player's points only, never to her mahjongs or wall games.
• Leave it blank for the usual case. Blank counts as 0.
• If your league ranks on mahjongs first, a bonus can only change the order between players tied on mahjongs. If you want bonuses to move the standings, rank on points.

The Bonus box is on the admin league score screens on the web, the iPhone app and the Mac app, not on the sheet players use to score their own table. On the web, the admin standings also show a season Bonus column, so you can see how much of each total came from bonuses.

Standings: Who Sees What

First, choose what the standings rank on: Points, Mahjongs, Points then Mahjongs, or Mahjongs then Points. A tie goes to the other figure, then to the player with fewer wall games.

Then choose who sees the board. The "Standings visible to" setting has four choices, on the web, the iPhone app and the Mac app:

• Anyone: the public link works for anyone with the address.
• League members only: players sign in to see it.
• Top players only: the board shows the top few, and you pick how many. Players further down are left off it, but they still see their own scores on their profile.
• Admins only: only your club's admins see the standings. Players see neither the board nor their own place.

Top players only suits a league with beginners who would rather not see their name at the bottom. Admins only suits a club that announces winners at the end.

After each night you mark finished, every player who played gets an email and a push notification with her own results, unless the standings are set to Admins only.

Subs and Missed Nights

Someone will miss a night. Decide now what that costs her, and say it on the signup page. Three tools help, alone or together.

Count Only Each Player's Best Nights

Set Best Nights Counted on an In-Person league, and each player keeps only her best that many nights. Say you set 5 on a seven-night season. A player who came every night keeps her best five, so anyone can miss up to two nights without falling behind. Nobody gets free points for a missed night. Her other nights just are not added. On a Scramble the same idea is Best Weeks Counted. Both settings are on the web, the iPhone app and the Mac app.

Keep a Sub List

A sub list is the people you ask when a seat opens. The Michigan league keeps "a small list of approved substitute players." In Bam Good Time:

• A player who can't come taps Can't Attend on that night. The app tells her, "This only affects this night. You stay signed up for every other night. Your coordinator is told so they can find a sub, and nothing is charged."
• On the event, Request subs emails and pushes everyone on your sub list. You can add people to the list yourself.
• Every member of your club also sees a Subs Needed card on her home screen and can offer with I can sub. Offering puts her on your sub list.
• Offers land in a queue. You pick a sub and the open seat, and the sub takes that seat at the table (once she pays, if you charge a sub fee).
• The Sub Board shows every upcoming night that still needs a sub, all in one place, and Remind the pool asks again anyone who has not answered.

All of this works on the web, the iPhone app and the Mac app.

Let the Sub's Points Count for the Absent Player

Some leagues give the absent player nothing for the night. Others let the sub play for her. The Sub Credit setting covers both:

• None: the member scores nothing for a night she missed.
• A percentage of the sub's points: she is credited a share of what her sub put on the board.
• A flat number of points: she gets the same credit for any covered night, whatever the sub scored.

Credit is points only. Mahjongs and wall games are never credited, and the night still does not count as one she played. You can also set a Sub Fee the sub pays for the seat (blank means no charge), or turn Substitutes off for a league that plays with the roster it has. These settings are on In-Person and Mobile leagues, on the web and in both apps. A Scramble has no scheduled nights to miss, so it skips them.

Dues and How to Collect Them

Fees vary from league to league. The Michigan league charges $50 per player for its six weeks. Whatever you charge, collect it before the first night and say plainly whether it is refundable.

In Bam Good Time:

• Leagues need the Pro plan, $49 a month or $525 a year. Card payments through Stripe start on the Starter plan at $19 a month, and Pro includes them, so a Pro club can take league dues by card. The Free plan has no card payments. It tracks Venmo and cash only.
• A weekly night league is sold as a series of nights. You pick the dates, the series carries the price, and the series page is the link you share. Everyone who buys the season joins the league and gets a player number automatically. Here is how to run a multi-week series.
• A Mobile league or a Scramble has its own Season Price. Players tap Join. A free league adds them right away, and a paid one opens a card checkout.
• Took cash or Venmo? On the web and in both apps, the league roster has a Mark paid control for Cash, Venmo, Paid elsewhere or Comped.
• No markup. Bam Good Time adds nothing to Stripe's processing fee, and the money goes to your club's own Stripe account.

For the bigger picture, see how to collect payments for mahjong events.

Keeping Everyone in the Loop

A league runs on short, regular messages: tonight's tables, who needs a sub, the standings. In Bam Good Time:

• Every league gets its own chat channel, created automatically.
• Email Members on the league's page sends one email to the league, from the web, the iPhone app or the Mac app.
• After each finished night, players get their own results by email and push.
• A Scramble can send the Monday recap.

Our guide to club communication covers the rest.

Ending the Season

Finish with a little ceremony. The Michigan league gives prizes to its top two players overall. You could add most mahjongs or best single night.

• After the last night, press Recalculate Standings on the league's standings page so the final board is fresh.
• On a Scramble, the Scores page on the web has a Season Awards panel. It names the winners of four categories: Most Overall Points, Most Mahjongs, Most Proposed Scrambles and Scramble King/Queen (most rounds played). A Download CSV button sits beside it. These count every round played, so they can differ from the standings, which apply your best-scores rules.

Then open signup for the next season while everyone is still talking about this one.

Ready to Start Your League?

A league is mostly a few clear rules and someone who keeps the standings honest. Write the rules down, collect dues early, and decide on absences before the first missed night.

When you want the standings, seating and subs handled for you, set up your club on Bam Good Time. Leagues and the Scramble are on the Pro plan, which also takes league dues by card.