Mah jongg players brush up for tournament with cyber action

Friday, Aug. 23, 2002 | 1:48 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION: August 24, 2002

Las Vegan Valerie Weinberg is one of a growing number of mah jongg devotees who is enjoying a modern technological spin to the ancient Chinese game.

Weinberg says that while the electronic version will never replace the live action game, playing mah jongg on the Internet is a great way to pass the time and meet interesting people.

"I met Berta from Portland, Ore., while playing on the Internet, and she and her husband came to Las Vegas earlier this year, and my husband and I visited them last month in Portland," said Weinberg, 55, a local resident of six years, who plays about an hour a day on the Internet and up to five live games a week.

"As a retired schoolteacher, I have always felt the Internet was a very useful tool no matter what age you are. For older players, Internet mah jongg is an excellent means of keeping in touch and make new friends."

Weinberg also uses Internet mah jongg to hone her skills for tournaments like the Marjorie Troum Mah Jongg West Tournament that runs Wednesday through Friday at the Golden Nugget.

Troum, daughter of the late Dorothy Meyerson, who wrote the first standardized rules for mah jongg in the United States in the 1940s, says she is amazed at the growing number of her regular players who are playing on the Internet.

"The numbers of older people using the computer and the Internet are increasing significantly if Internet mah jongg is any indication," said Troum, who owns a mah jongg supply company in Coronado, Calif., and hosts tournaments throughout the West.

The National Mah Jongg League website (www.nationalmahjonggleague.org) has boomed in recent years. Weinberg said when she signed up just four years ago, there were fewer than 300 registered players. Today, the site has 4,500 registered mah jongg players.

Weinberg played an Internet game during the interview with a Sun reporter, discarding tile after tile as she had her hand made, except for a 2-dot. The computerized game board resembles a mah jongg board, but instead of unused tiles in the middle, there's a chat board.

"Some players like to chat while they play, but others are very serious and don't like it if the chatting slows down the game," Weinberg said as a 2-dot popped up and she pushed the "mahj" victory button and set her hand.

"Figures you won," Berta wrote on the chat board, aware that Weiberg was being interviewed at the time.

Weinberg will join a field of about 100 players for the upcoming Troum tourney, which has been coming to Las Vegas each year since 1990.

Since the inaugural Las Vegas event at the old Dunes hotel, locals have been allowed to sign up until five minutes before the first round at 9:30 a.m. The entry fee is $89. Troum's co-promoters are Roberta and Steve Last of La Mesa, Calif.

Mah jongg, a tile game developed by the ancient Mandarin Chinese, features four players at each table. Each contestant uses 14 of the 152 Chinese-symboled tiles to achieve a winning hand. Unused tiles are discarded to opponents.