Diane Brutlag sorts her tray of Mahjong tiles.

NEW ULM – For years if someone in New Ulm wanted to play classic games like cribbage, sheephead, bridge, Scrabble or Bingo, there were plenty of opportunities. All of these games are regularly played at the New Ulm Community Center as part of the Community and Seniors Together (CAST) programming.

However, in the last month another classic game has entered the CAST game scheduled. From 10:30 a.m. every Wednesday, seniors are invited to play Mahjong.

Mahjong is a tile-based game was created in China. A standard game of American Mahjong features 152 tiles, each with different sets of Chinese characters. The goal of the game is to create melds and sets out of the tiles.

“It’s kind of like rummy that way,” Diane Brutlag said. “Though there are a lot more combinations.”

Along with her husband Ron Brutlag, Diane has been playing Mahjong for years. The couple has their own dedicated Mahjong set and they are more than happy to teach new people to play.

Ron Brutlag plays a set of “wind” characters. By chance the sequences spells out “NEWS.” This meld puts him ahead, but it also lets his opponents know which sequence he is going after. Players might be reluctant to discard certain tiles that benefit him.

The Brutlags discovered Mahjong while they were living in Florida. There were a lot of dedicated players in the south.

“In Florida the ladies were playing it,” Diane Brutlag said. “But not the guys, because there were too many rules.

Ron Brutlag admitted at first he found Mahjong frustrating because of all of the different rules.

“I couldn’t take it,” he said.

But after watching the game he and the other guys realized it was a lot of fun.

L to R: Diane Brutlag, Ron Brutlag and Sue Betz start a game of Mahjong. After shuffling the tiles in “the wash,” they each draw tiles to create their walls to be drawn from later.

“It’s great for the mind,” Diane said. “We play just the two of us sometimes and it is very relaxing.”

Since returning to New Ulm the Brutlag wanted to play Mahjong with others but where to go?

They suggested bringing it to CAST. As it turned out, there were other senior citizens who wanted a dedicated time to play the game. Florida was not the only place seniors were playing the game. Some seniors learned Mahjong in Arizona, others learned it in Texas. There are also other variations of Mahjong. At CAST they prefer to play the American version.

Until earlier this month Sue Betz did not know much about Mahjong, but she agreed to start playing at the Community Center on Wednesday. She is learning the game quickly. The first two times she played the game against the Brutlags, she won.

“I am not a master yet,” Betz said. “Trust me.”

Asked what they like best about Mahjong, Ron Brutlag said

Ron said the difficulty of the game makes it fun.

“It is a challenge,” he said. “There is strategy involved.”

Like in Rummy, a player draws a tile in hopes of making the best hand combination. After every draw, they must also discard a tile, but they must be careful not to discard a tile that will help an opponent.

Since it is a matching game, knowing which combination of melds and suits can be played is an advantage, though remembering which suit combinations are legal can be challenging. That is why each player has a reference guide.

Diane Brutlag said likes the game because if forces players to use their memories. Not only does a player need to remember the different tile combinations, they need to remember character names.

Every time a player discards a title, they must say the name of the character on the tile. This forces everyone to remember the different symbols and suits.

Betz said she likes the multiplayer version of Mahjong. She said there are solitary versions of Mahjong that are popular to play online, but she said the multi-player version is much different and encourages others to try it.

“I do think there are a lot of people who do want to learn the game,” Diane said, “and it’s a great way to meet new people.”

Mahjong can be played with two, three or four players. Once they get more than four players, they can add additional tables. CAST has already started running two tables on Wednesday. More could follow.