There’s a familiarity in the name. You know you’ve heard it somewhere.
Maybe a friend mentioned something about it. Perhaps you saw it depicted in the hit film Crazy Rich Asians and thought, what exactly is happening at that table? Or maybe you've walked past a room buzzing with laughter, heard the satisfying clatter of tiles and wondered if there's a seat for you.
At Bent Pine Golf Club in Vero Beach, there is.
Margie Zunk and Rebecca Bartlett didn't set out to create a Mah Jongg movement — but it has really taken off. The two just enjoyed the game, loved the people, and couldn't stop talking about both. Three years later, what started as a few tables in the living room has grown into Bent Pine Mah Jongg team play and lessons, as well as tournament prep sessions and an annual Bent Pine tournament.
When Margie joined Bent Pine as a social member in 2023, Mah Jongg was already there, but quietly. "They were playing a little bit in the living room," she recalls. "But somehow Becca and I and a few others just got the camaraderie going." Rebecca, a golf member who joined in 2022 felt the same pull. The game clicked. So did the friendship.
They started organizing practice sessions, bringing in outside instructors, and opening the doors to anyone curious enough to show up. Word spread. The wait list for lessons filled quickly. And the energy, as Margie puts it, became contagious. "I think with the renovation and our enthusiasm, it just took off," she says. "If you were here, we'd be making you play right now."
Today, Bent Pine has a dedicated Mah Jongg room. What was once a few tables is now a full house, every Wednesday, with more days being added to the calendar.
The other clubs in the area have noticed. Bent Pine now hosts monthly strategy sessions open to players from across the Vero Beach area, and the invitations keep going out. "The other clubs want to come to play Mah Jongg at our club," Margie says.
If you've never played American Mah Jongg, here's the short version: it's a four-person game played with 152 tiles, governed by the National Mah Jongg League rules, and it rewards strategy, memory, and a decent poker face. Each year, the NMJL releases a new card with fresh combinations, which means even experienced players start from scratch every April. The 2026 card just dropped on April 1st.
"Once you think you've accomplished the game, you're thrown into a whole new set of combinations," Margie says, appreciating the parity that is built into the game every spring.
"It's creating order from chaos," Rebecca says. "when you are first organizing your tiles you may look for pairs, consecutive numbers, even or odd tiles, trying to lock in on a section of the card. During the Charleston you start to see the hand evolve. You need to be patient and flexible.”
Rebecca continues, “Defense is a major part of the game. Once you start to expose the tiles, you're tipping off your opponents on your hand. From that point, everyone at the table is watching, calculating, and trying very hard not to throw you the tile you need for Mah Jongg.”
Margie has no complaints about the pressure. "When it gets down to the very end and people are worried about what tile they're going to throw, that's my favorite part," she says. "I love the intensity."
Bent Pine won the most recent championship, edging out the field by 20 points on the final day of competition at Quail Valley. The victory was especially sweet given that the club was one of the league's newer members. "Everyone was standing around, you could hear a pin drop," Margie says of that final match. "So it's just so fun."
Co-captain’s of the Bent Pine team, Margie Zunk and Lisa Wood, established a name badge program for the team members. It fostered team spirit but didn’t stop there. Everyone who plays Mah Jongg at the club now wears a name badge, making it more welcoming and easier for players to get to know one another.
The Mah Jongg room at Bent Pine gets quiet on game day just before competition. There's a timer. Scorecards are passed across the table after each round and scores are double-checked. Three 55-minute rounds, four games each. Lunch follows the three hours of play. "It's intense," Margie says. "Friendly yet intense."
The 2nd Annual Mah Jongg Tournament will be held at Bent Pine Golf Club on May 4, 2026.
The Mah Jongg community at Bent Pine is about more than tiles and tournament points.
"The tiles bring us to the table," Margie says, "but the Bent Pine members are what make us stay."