American Mahjong

The Charleston, Step by Step

The passing ritual that opens every American Mahjong game, what the sequence is, which pass is blind, and how to decide what leaves your rack.

Before a single tile is drawn, American Mahjong opens with a passing ritual you will not find in other mahjong variants: the Charleston.

Everyone gives away tiles they cannot use and receives tiles from their neighbors. Nobody speaks. It takes two minutes, and a good share of the game is decided in them.

New players fumble the Charleston for two separate reasons, and it helps to keep them apart. The first is mechanical: they lose track of the sequence and which direction tiles are moving. The second is strategic: they pass without a plan. This guide handles the sequence first, because you cannot think about strategy while counting passes on your fingers.

The sequence

Two Charlestons, then an optional courtesy pass. Every pass moves three tiles, except the courtesy.

The first Charleston, which always happens

1. Pass 3 to your right.
2. Pass 3 across, to the player opposite.
3. Pass 3 to your left.

The blind pass

That third pass, to the left, works differently, and it is the step people miss.

You do not have to pass three of your own tiles. You choose 0 to 3 of your own, and make up the shortfall from the tiles you just received from the player on your right, without looking at them first.

So if you like the tiles you were passed and only want to give away one of your own, you pass one of yours plus two you have not seen. This is called passing blind, and only this pass allows it.

Why the blind pass exists. Late in the Charleston your rack is close to something. Being forced to break it to find three tiles you can spare would be punishing. The blind pass lets you keep your shape and gamble the difference.

The second Charleston, which is optional

If everyone agrees, a second Charleston runs, and it goes the other way:

1. Pass 3 to your left.
2. Pass 3 across.
3. Pass 3 to your right, and this time the rightward pass is the blind one.

Any player can decline. If even one person wants to stop, the table skips straight to the courtesy pass. There is no penalty and no negotiation: someone whose hand is set does not want to keep giving tiles away, and stopping is a normal, informative move.

The courtesy pass

Finally, an optional exchange with the player opposite you.

You each say how many tiles you would like to pass, from 0 to 3. You then exchange the lower of the two numbers. If you want three and they want one, you each pass one.

Then the Charleston is over and play begins.

The rule that catches everyone

You may never pass a joker. Not in any pass, not in the courtesy, not blind.

Jokers stay with whoever was dealt them. Since they are the most useful tiles in the set, learn it before your first game rather than at the table.

How to decide what to pass

Now the part that takes practice.

Pick a direction before the first pass

The single biggest improvement most beginners can make: look at your thirteen tiles and pick a rough target before you pass anything.

You are not committing. You are noticing that you hold mostly even numbers, or three of a kind twice over, or a pile of winds and dragons, and using that to decide what is expendable. Passing before you have looked is how people give away the tile they need on the second pass.

Pass what does not fit any story

Rank your tiles by how many plausible hands they could serve, and give away the bottom.

• A tile that appears once, in a number group you have nothing else in, is cheap to lose.
• A tile that could belong to two or three different card sections is expensive.
• Flowers are useful across many hands. Think hard before passing one.
• Winds and dragons are either central to your plan or dead weight. There is rarely a middle.

Do not feed your neighbors

Everything you pass, someone receives. Passing three tiles of the same number tells the receiver a great deal and may hand them a group outright.

Break up what you give away. Three unrelated tiles are worth less to whoever gets them than three that fit together.

Watch what comes back

The tiles you receive are information. If nobody is passing you dots, dots are probably being collected. If the same tile reaches you twice from different directions, nobody wants it, which usually means nobody’s hand needs it and it is safe for you to keep or throw later.

Changing your mind is allowed and often correct

Your plan is a plan, not a promise. If the second Charleston hands you four cracks in a row, follow them. Players lose more hands to stubbornly chasing a direction the tiles have abandoned than to switching too often.

Where beginners go wrong

• Passing before thinking. The most common and most costly error, and the easiest to fix.
• Forgetting the blind pass is available. Breaking up a good rack to find a third tile when two blind ones would have done.
• Passing three of a kind. It feels tidy. It hands someone a pung.
• Trying to pass a joker. It cannot be done, and reaching for one signals what you are holding.
• Agreeing to a second Charleston out of politeness. If your hand is close, stop. That is what the option is for.
• Ignoring the courtesy pass. Zero is a legitimate answer, and so is three. Say what helps you.

Getting good at it

The Charleston is a decision problem with no feedback: you never find out what the tiles you passed would have done for you. That is exactly the kind of skill that does not improve through play alone, because the game never tells you whether you were right.

It improves through drilling against a known answer. That is what Stoa Games does, put a rack in front of you, ask which three tiles go, then explain what the strong pass gives up and what it protects.

If you are newer than this, start with how to play American Mahjong. If you can play but the card still slows you down, read how to read the NMJL card, since knowing what the card can ask for is what makes a Charleston plan possible.

## Frequently asked questions ### What is the Charleston in mahjong? A passing ritual at the start of every American Mahjong hand. Players pass three tiles at a time, right, across, then left, with an optional second round and a final courtesy pass. ### Which Charleston pass is blind? The third pass of the first Charleston, to your left. You may pass 0 to 3 of your own tiles and make up the rest from the tiles you just received, unseen. In the second Charleston the blind pass is the final one, to your right. ### Can you pass jokers in the Charleston? No. Jokers can never be passed, in any pass. ### Is the second Charleston required? No. It happens only if every player agrees. One person declining sends the table straight to the courtesy pass. ### How many tiles are in the courtesy pass? Between zero and three, and both players get the lower of the two numbers they name. ### Do other kinds of mahjong have a Charleston? No. It is specific to American Mahjong, and it is one of the clearest differences from Chinese or Riichi mahjong.