Exponology.

Exponology Apps · 2026 Card

Find the hand that fits your tiles.

The Mah Jongg Hand Finder turns the 2026 card into a search. Instead of scanning all nine sections line by line, you say what a hand must contain — the numbers, the points, the flowers, dragons, winds and groups you’re holding — and it shows you only the hands that fit.

Planned home on the web: exponology.com/apps/mah-jongg-hand-finder
79hands on the 2026 card
9card sections covered
5ways to narrow a search
0sign-ups or downloads
Photograph of rectangular Mah Jongg tiles with standard faces — Craks, Bams, Dots, Winds lettered N, E, S and W, a Flower, Red and Green Dragons and a Joker — being sorted into groups on a deep green table
Rectangular tiles with the standard faces — Craks, Bams, Dots, Winds, Flowers, Dragons and Jokers. Every hand on the card is a pattern of tiles like these. The Finder searches the patterns, so you don’t have to.

A taste of the Finder

Four searches, four short lists

These are real searches against the 2026 hands, with the real counts. Tap one to see what comes back — the full Finder does the same thing for any combination you pick.

Example searches

Reading the letters in these samples? See the Key to the notation — it explains aaaa, a b c sequences, the suit brackets, and split hands like A2.1 and A2.2.

Why it helps

Built for the middle of a game

  • Start from the tiles you actually have

    Got flowers and a run of even numbers building? Search for exactly that, instead of reading the whole card hoping a hand jumps out.

  • Change direction in seconds

    When the Charleston or a few draws kill your first plan, turn on different numbers or groups and see what’s still open — before your next pick, not after the game.

  • Everything about a hand, at a glance

    Each result shows the hand number, its full section name, whether it’s exposed or concealed, its points, its suits, and the notation — no flipping back and forth on the card.

  • It teaches the card as you use it

    Hands are shown in the Finder’s own notation — the card itself has no letter designations — with a key and a plain note on what the letters can be, so the patterns start to stick.

  • Free, on any phone or computer

    It’s a web page, not an app to install. Open the link, tap your picks, and play. Nothing to sign up for.

How it works

Three taps between you and a short list

1

Say what you know

Pick a section or number of suits if you have them in mind — or skip both and start from your tiles.

2

Tap what a hand must have

Turn on numbers 1–9, point values, and the tiles and groups a hand must include. Everything you turn on counts; everything off is ignored.

3

Compare what’s left

Tap Apply and compare the matching hands side by side — notation, points, exposed or concealed — then pick your target and play.

The filters

Five ways to narrow 79 hands down to a few

Use one filter or stack them all. The stricter the stack, the shorter the list — loosen any one of them and the list grows again.

Section

Any section, or one of the nine on the card.

Already leaning toward, say, Consecutive Run? Limit the search to that section alone.

Number of suits

Any, 0, 1, 2 or 3 suits.

Hands built only from winds and dragons use 0 suits; hands spread across the card can use up to 3.

Numbers in hand

Tap any of 1–9 on or off. A hand must contain every number you turn on — including numbers its letters can stand for.

Numbers 2 and 6 together, for example, narrow the card to 22 hands.

Points

Tap any of the card’s point values. A hand matches if it’s worth any one of the values you turn on.

Hunting a big hand? The five 50-point hands and the single 75-point hand are one tap away.

Must have — tiles & groups

Two rows: Flowers, Dragons, Winds and Pairs, Pongs, Kongs, Quints. A hand must have every one you turn on.

Flowers plus Dragons together leave just 13 hands. Dragons include 0 — the soap.

Reading the results

Key to the notation

A2.1
SectionA — 2026
X · Exposed25 pts
(2) 0 (26 DDD) [2222 DDD]

Any 2 suits with matching dragons. This is the 2222 version; its twin A2.2 is the same hand with [6666 DDD]. The kong here can only be 2s or 6s — specific numbers — so the Finder splits it into A2.1 and A2.2 instead of writing aaaa.

C2
SectionC — Any Like Numbers
X · Exposed25 pts
(aaaa D) [aaa D] {aaaa D}

Any 3 suits with matching dragon. Only the letter a is used, so a is any number you choose — 1 through 9, the same number throughout the hand.

E2.1
SectionE — Consecutive Run
X · Exposed25 pts
FFF (aaaa bcd eeee)

Any 1 suit, any 5 consecutive numbers: a, b, c, d and e run in sequence, like 1 through 5 or 5 through 9 — so the kongs are the two ends of the run.

I6
SectionI — Singles and Pairs
75 pts
FF (2026) [2026] {2026}

Any 3 suits. No letters at all — the 2026 hands are written in fixed digits, and this one is the card’s only 75-point hand.

What each symbol means

Everything in a result card is explained here — nothing in this shorthand appears on the card itself.

A–I
Our letters for the nine sections, in the order the card lists them: A 2026, B 2468, C Any Like Numbers, D Quints, E Consecutive Run, F 13579, G Winds–Dragons, H 369, I Singles and Pairs.
A2.1, E1…
A hand’s number: its section letter plus its place in that section, in card order. A .1 / .2 ending means one pattern is listed as separate hands: A2.1 plays it with 2222 and A2.2 with 6666, and G7.1 and G7.2 differ in which winds they use.
a b c…
Placeholder numbers. Different letters are consecutive numbers — a b c could be 1 2 3, 4 5 6, or any other run of that length.
aa aaa aaaa
The same letter repeated is one chosen number, and the repeats give the group size: aa a pair, aaa a pong, aaaa a kong, aaaaa a quint. When a hand uses only this one letter — only a’s, no b, c or other letters — a means any number: any one number you choose, 1 through 9. So aaaa on its own is four of any one number — 2222, 5555, 9999, or any other four of a kind. If the card limits that number to specific choices, the hand is not written with letters: each choice is listed separately with digits, like A2.1 (2222) and A2.2 (6666).
1–9
Numbers written as digits are fixed by the hand, not chosen — the 2026, 2468, 13579 and 369 hands are written this way.
0
The soap. It stands in for the 0 in 2026, and counts as a dragon.
F
A flower. FF is a pair of flowers, FFF a pong of flowers, and so on.
D
Any dragon. DD is a pair of dragons, DDD a pong, DDDD a kong. Where a dragon must match the suit next to it, the note on the hand says so.
N E W S
The four winds: N North, E East, W West, S South. N always means North — NNNN is a kong of North winds, not any wind.
( ) [ ] { }
Brackets group tiles by suit: everything in ( ) is the first suit, everything in [ ] the second, everything in { } the third. A suit can appear in more than one group. Tiles outside any brackets — flowers, winds, loose dragons and soaps — belong to no suit.
X / C
Shown on every hand: X means the hand can be played exposed, C means it must be played concealed.
pts
The hand’s point value on the card — 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50 or 75.

Remember the one rule that does most of the work: same letter, same chosen number — and a hand that uses only that one letter means any number you choose; different letters, a sequence. And 0 counts as a dragon (the soap).

Keep it open next to your rack

The Hand Finder is the first app at Exponology, and the address below will be its home. Open it on your phone before the Charleston, and let the card come to you.

See it work
exponology.com/apps/mah-jongg-hand-finder