TEXARKANA MAGAZINE
MAHJONG & GAMING Helen Mobley, Owner Birds of a Tile
W alk into Birds of a Tile, and you’ll hear it before you see it: tiles clicking, laughter spilling across the room, and the unmistakable call of “Mahjong!” For Helen Mobley, that sound represents something much bigger than a game. It is the sound of people connecting and a community forming.
Helen has been playing Mahjong for more than a decade and teaching it for the past five years, introducing hundreds of people in the Texarkana area to the game. Along the way, she noticed something remarkable happening around the table. Strangers became friends. Old friendships grew stronger. People who might never have crossed paths otherwise suddenly had a reason to gather. That realization became Birds of a Tile, affectionately known as the BOAT, which Helen opened in April as a welcoming social space built around Mahjong, friendship, and community. Today, the BOAT offers lessons for beginners, open play, leagues, tournaments, private gatherings, and special events. But Helen’s vision reaches beyond simply providing a place to play. She is continually creating new ways to make Mahjong social, memorable, and experiential, including the addition of Texarkana’s first fully automatic Mahjong table, which shuffles the tiles and builds the walls in seconds.
For Helen, innovation is part of the fun, but connection remains at the heart of everything she creates.
“Mahjong may be what brings people through the door, but the relationships formed around the table are what matter most,” Helen
says. “That is what I wanted the BOAT to be: a place where people come to play, gather and connect.”
BIRDS OF A TILE 1718 NEW BOSTON ROAD TEXARKANA, TEXAS HELEN@BIRDSOFATILE.COM BIRDSOFATILE.MAHJPASS.COM
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INDUSTRY INFLUENCERS 2026
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