Mahjong School American · NMJL Standard
Training & Practice

Family Spotter

Read a 13-tile hand and name its widest path. A hand usually has one direction it can actually finish — the faster you see it, the less you waste tiles chasing a dead end.

Trainers · Family Spotter

Which family is this hand's widest path?

Patterns only. This drill teaches hand shape, not the official card's exact combinations or point values — the current NMJL card is always the final authority.

Four things strong players see at a glance

  1. One hand, one road. A 13-tile hand almost always has a single direction it can finish. Trying to chase two families at once is how good tiles get stranded.
  2. Repeat vs. run vs. color. The same number across suits is Like Numbers. The same suit in a row is a Consecutive Run. Four or five of one tile is a Quint / Sextet — joker country.
  3. Count the colors. One suit piled up means Single Suit. Two suits split evenly means Half & Half. A fistful of winds and dragons means Winds & Dragons.
  4. Wrong direction is worse than slow. Building toward a family your tiles can't support kills the hand for free. Read the shape first, then commit.
Read the Hand Families guide →

About Family Spotter

Family Spotter drills the core skill of naming a 13-tile hand's widest path: Quint, Like Numbers, Consecutive Run, Half & Half, Single Suit, or Winds & Dragons.

It works on shapes only, with no card hand lists or points, so you learn to recognize structure before any scoring. Spotting the family fast is the first step to planning a hand.