American Mahjong Practice

I rarely review apps. I know, I know. I’m compelled to review this one because it has been so extremely helpful to me. I am a beginner, just learned a couple months ago, and this app has been invaluable, helping me practice and teaching me when I can and cannot do certain very specific things. It’s also been extremely helpful in recognizing potential Mahjongs and in becoming more adept and faster at the Charleston. Well worth the price for now, but afraid I can’t afford to keep it once I feel really secure in my play. I wish I could. It would be so wonderful if there was an annual subscription that offered a significant price break.

(Updated review) From my original review, "When you declare a Mah Jong, you can't really review the other players' hands, you only see what they racked. Also, the purported hands you can go for are not limited by the tiles already discarded. The latter is a nit, as you can see for yourself which tiles were discarded but it is still misleading. " The developer's response to the former of these last two points were that in real life you wouldn't be able to see the player's tiles and see their strategy. Well, this isn't real life, and the name of this app contains "Practice" which implies to me that you should be able to analyze what real players *might* be thinking, as we do in practice games when players are brand new. If you are truly trying to teach someone you are not worried about "exposing your strategy". If the game didn't want to give this level of help, then it should also not tell players what hands are available to them or give them any help at all. Let them think for themselves! Actually, this would be a great option in any case-- a no-help option that requires them to have their own card and figure things out for themselves as in a real game. In my initial review I was totally wrong about picking up a pair with a joker-- I am a beginner and was thinking of picking up a pair for Mah Jong with the tile in the pair itself. My rating remains the same.