Mahjong Expert Aims To Popularize Tile Game In Severna Park

By “Got mahj?” might not be a ubiquitous phrase now as opposed to those ‘90s milk ads, but Danielle Dupcak aspires through her work teaching the game Mahjong locally to make it a catchphrase in Severna Park.

Dupcak is an avid board game player and Mahjong enthusiast, who learned the game playing with friends in Charleston, South Carolina. She decided to bring the pastime to Severna Park by starting first with a class in Chartwell, then branching out to classes at Park Books and the Severna Park Community Center. Since her first Mahjong clinic, she’s expanded into providing private lessons as well as leading gaming sessions at community staples, like Sweet Bamboo Boba and Severna Park Taphouse.

When asked why she picked up Mahjong, Dupcak said that she’d gotten to a point in her life where her kids were older, and she was looking to socialize in a different way.

“I was over the typical scene of hanging out in kitchens with my friends,” she said, adding, “I was looking for more to do … and I’d always been a board game girl growing up.”

For the uninitiated, Mahjong is a tile-based game that became popular in China in the 1800s and was brought over to the U.S. by Joseph Babcock in the 1920s. By the 1930s, Jewish women in New York had formed a competitive league for it.

Unlike other board games, Mahjong can be complex. There are 14 tiles that create the correct combination for the winning hand as dictated each year by the competitive league’s updated handbook. Between all the permutations and updates to winning combinations across 73 printed hands among the 14 tiles, that adds up to over 1,600 possible winning hands during a match. As a result, it takes multiple lessons to understand the nuances of Mahjong and become comfortable playing it without an instructor present.

To show an example, Dupcak pulled out one of the yearly winning hand combination cards, folding it out longways to demonstrate all the intricacies of a victorious hand.

“Usually, the hardest part for people is just translating the tiles to the card and realizing that the card has a lot of flexibility,” she said.

 “It really does take you probably three, I would say, three lessons to really feel comfortable doing it by yourself,” Dupcak explained of how long it takes for students to grasp the tile system.

The repetition of game play in teaching sessions helps new players learn the rules. Dupcak said that it was rewarding as a teacher to see her students connecting with the strategy and becoming more confident with the tiles and their hands.

Dupcak’s passion for the game as a player is evident too. She shared about feeling productive while involved in a game, echoing her earlier sentiments that she started teaching Mahjong classes as an alternative social activity for those who wanted more than dinners or going out to bars.

For her, it’s the strategy forming in her mind when she’s playing a hand that can be the most addictive. “My favorite part is once I know what I'm going for, because then you can kind of settle in a little bit,” she said.

This spring, Dupcak is expanding her Mahjong coaching to include more private sessions and group lessons at Cottonwood, the new quilting store in Severna Park.

Advising players who are considering getting started, , Dupcak recommended finding a coach at first, like herself via her website or Instagram (@gotmahj), or other teachers in the area.

She also urged that even if newbies feel overwhelmed at first, to still come to sessions prepared to focus because “it really is a fun game … once you learn it. I think it's a little, it's hard at first, but once you learn it, it's really fun.”

So, pick up those tiles, and “got mahj” anyone?