I was only recently introduced to Mah Jongg by Jo Smith (curse you Jo, curse you), but found myself hooked on this bizarre game. Mah Jongg means “Sparrow”, and it’s also known as ‘The Game Of Four Winds’. It has its origins in Chinese card games and shares many similarities with Ma Tiao and K’an Hu - gambling games popular in the 19th Century. Basically (and I mean very basically) it’s the same as rummy, but you play with 144 tiles rather than cards, each player trying to make three tile sets of runs or suits. (Note that it’s nothing like the description Chris Bell gives in Issue 171 of FHM). I’m not going to try and explain all the complexities and traditions of this game, so I recommend anybody who wants to know more to click here (www.mahjongg.com) for a good introduction to the basics, as well as a more in depth discussion of its origins and symbolism. Or click here (www.cs.utk.edu/~clay/mahjongg/) for further links to Mah Jongg software and books. This site also has a listing of films TV programmes in which the game has been featured.