What you need to play American mahjong

You have been invited to a game, or you are starting one, and the shopping lists online all read like someone is trying to sell you a whole living room. Here is the short version.

The four things you cannot play without

• A tile set — American sets run 152 to 166 tiles, including jokers and usually a few blanks. If you are joining an existing group, someone already owns one.
• The card — published each spring by the National Mah Jongg League. Every player needs their own. It is not sold here; you buy it from the League directly.
• Racks, one per player. They hold your hand upright and hidden. Sold in sets of four for a reason.
• A table four people can reach across. That is a lower bar than it sounds, and a higher one than a card table sometimes clears.

The two things that change the night

A mat and a set of pushers are not required. They are the difference between a game and a table you want to sit at for three hours.

The mat does two jobs. It muffles the tiles — a bare dining table under 152 tiles is genuinely loud — and it stops them sliding when someone reaches for a discard. Anything under about 3mm of felt does neither well.

Pushers let you move the wall within reach without standing up or leaning across three other people's hands. Rack-pushers combine both into one piece, which is what most American groups end up with.

What can wait

• Coins and betting trays — nice, not necessary. Most groups start with a scrap of paper.
• A card stand — genuinely useful once you are playing weekly, unnecessary on night one.
• A travel case — only if the game moves between houses.

If you buy one thing before your first game, buy a mat. If you buy two, buy racks.