About
Mah Jongg, through a mathematician’s eyes.
The story behind MahjPhD, and the thinking behind how it teaches.
Meet Dr. D-N
Dr. Christopher Dubbs-Nazario
Mathematician, educator, and founder of MahjPhD.
Ask most people what mathematics is and they’ll say “numbers.” Ask a mathematician and you’ll likely hear something different: mathematics is the study of patterns — noticing them, describing them, and understanding why they hold.
That’s the lens Dr. Christopher Dubbs-Nazario brings to American Mah Jongg. A mathematics professor with a PhD in mathematics education, he has spent his career helping people find the structure hiding inside things that first look complicated.
Through MahjPhD, he teaches American Mah Jongg by National Mah Jongg League (NMJL) rules at the JCC of the Lehigh Valley, from Learn to Play (101) through Tournament Ready (401), plus Siamese Mah Jongg®, and in private lessons for individuals and groups. The goal is players who understand why a decision makes sense, not just which tile to throw.
Why MahjPhD
Mah Jongg is a game of patterns.
Every line on the NMJL card is a pattern. Evens and odds, like numbers, consecutive runs, dragons that match or oppose a suit — the card is a catalog of structures, and it changes every year.
Playing well means seeing those patterns early: which hands your tiles are quietly pointing toward, which hands share the tiles you already hold, and which ones the table is closing off. That’s pattern recognition under pressure — exactly the kind of thinking mathematics trains.
MahjPhD brings that perspective to the table without taking the fun out of the game. The goal isn’t to turn every player into a mathematician. It’s to help you see what’s in front of you more clearly, and understand why a decision makes sense.
“The card is a catalog of patterns. Learning to play is learning to see them.” Dr. D-N
How he teaches
One method, every turn, every level.
Every MahjPhD class is built around the RECoRD Method: a simple, repeatable way to think through each turn so your discard is the result of a decision, not a reflex.
The four steps never change. What changes from 101 to 401 is where you point them: first learning the routine, then building your own hand, then reading the table, and finally making those decisions at tournament speed.
- R
Read your rack and the table.
- E
Evaluate the hands still within reach.
- CoR
Commit or Reassess as the evidence changes.
- D
Discard the tile that helps your plan least.
Patterns in uncertainty
From simulations to the card.
Earlier in his career, Dr. D-N built computer simulations: models that play out thousands of possible futures to see how an uncertain system behaves. MahjPhD CardLab applies the same idea to the NMJL card, playing millions of games to measure every hand.
Come learn at the table.
Join a class, book a private lesson, or follow CardLab.