What to Pass in the Charleston

By the end of this guide you will be able to pick three tiles to pass in about fifteen seconds. It takes about six minutes to read.

The one thing

Pass your loneliest tiles first, and keep anything that already has company.

Why this matters at the table

The Charleston teaches you which way to pass. It does not tell you what to send, and that is where new players lose hands before play even starts. Six or seven tiles leave your rack in the opening minute. Sent well, they turn a scattered hand into a real one. Sent badly, you spend the next twenty turns trying to rebuild something you gave away.

Picture it

A rack, mid-Charleston. Look along it and the shape is obvious once somebody points it out: four dots clustered together, a pair of flowers, and then four tiles standing alone with nothing near them — a wind, a high crack, a low bam, a single dragon. The clusters are the hand. The four singles are the pass, and there are more of them than she needs. Her only real decision is which of the four lonely ones stays.

The company rule

One question does most of the work: does this tile have company?

A tile has company if you hold another one like it, or if it belongs to the group you already own the most of. A tile with no company is a stray.

So the order is:

  1. Pass strays first.
  2. If you have more than three strays, pass the ones furthest from your heaviest suit.
  3. If you have fewer than three strays, you must break something. Break the weakest thing you own, not the strongest.

Think of it as cutting a guest list. You keep the people who already know each other, because they make the party work. The person who knows nobody is the one who goes.

Protect pairs above almost everything

A pair is the smallest useful unit in your hand. Two of the same tile is a real start, and singles are not.

Beginners break pairs constantly, usually to hold onto an interesting-looking single tile. It feels like keeping options open. It is the opposite — you have traded something with value for something without.

If the choice is between passing one of a pair and passing a lone tile, pass the lone tile almost every time.

Never pass a joker

You may not pass a joker at any point in the Charleston. This is a rule, not a judgment call, and it is easy to break by accident while moving quickly. Check your three before you send them.

The first pass and the last pass are different

Early passes are cheap. You know little about your hand, everybody is scattered, and dumping three strays costs you almost nothing. Move fast.

Later passes deserve more care, for two reasons. Your hand has taken shape, so you have more to protect. And what you send now arrives with somebody whose hand has also taken shape, which means it is likelier to help them.

Slow down slightly on the last pass of each Charleston.

Watch one hand of thinking

Here is a real first pass, thought through out loud.

Scan the rack. Heaviest thing I own is four dots. Then a pair of flowers. Everything else is scattered.

Strays: one north wind, one nine crack, one two bam, one green dragon. Four candidates, three slots.

The wind goes — nothing anywhere near it. The nine crack goes — my only crack. Now, the two bam or the green dragon?

I keep the dragon. Not because I have a plan for it, but because dragons pair up across more of the card than a single low bam does, so it is likelier to find company later. The two bam goes.

Fifteen seconds, and notice what I never did: I did not look at the card. This early, the card cannot tell me anything my own tiles have not already said. Pass the lonely ones and read the card once the passing settles.

When it goes sideways

The costly mistake is breaking a pair to protect a single tile that looks promising.

It usually happens like this: you have a pair of something ordinary and one striking tile you can imagine building around. The imagination wins, you split the pair, and two passes later the striking tile is still alone and your pair is gone.

You will not notice it at the time. You notice it ten turns later, wanting the tile you split.

The rule that prevents it is short enough to say at the table: pairs stay. And if you catch yourself mid-decision, ask the person beside you — "pair or the single?" is a question any player can answer in a second, and most enjoy being asked.

Table words

Check yourself

  1. You have a pair of five dots and a lone red dragon. You must pass one. Which goes?
  2. You only have two strays and must pass three tiles. How do you choose the third?
  3. Can you pass a joker if it is your only spare tile?
Answers
  1. The lone dragon. Pairs stay.
  2. Break the weakest thing you hold — the group furthest from your heaviest suit — rather than your strongest.
  3. No. Jokers may never be passed in the Charleston. See The Charleston.

Homework

Five minutes, no tiles. Say the company rule out loud: strays first, then furthest from my heaviest suit, and pairs stay. Done when: you can say all three parts without checking.

At home. Deal thirteen playing cards face up. Sort them into two piles without moving them around: has company, and stray. Then pick three from the stray pile to pass. Time yourself. Done when: you can sort and choose in under twenty seconds, five times running.

At a table. During your next Charleston, tell the player beside you which three you are passing and why, before you pass them. One sentence each. Saying your reason out loud is the fastest way to find out whether you have one. Done when: you have narrated one pass.

Bring back. From How to Choose a First American Mahjong Hand: why do you look at your tiles before you look at the card?

You are ready when

Take it to a table

Next, learn the tile that breaks the company rule in How Jokers Work in American Mahjong. For the mechanics of the passing sequence itself, see The Charleston.

Passing well is a fifteen-second habit built over a few games. Book a lesson or Open Play seat and build it.

Questions people ask

Should I look at the card during the Charleston? Glance, but do not study. Early on, your own tiles tell you more than the card can, because you have too little shape for most lines to mean anything yet.

What if everything in my hand is a stray? Then the first pass is easy — throw the three furthest from whatever you have the most of, even if that is only two of something. A scattered hand is a normal starting point.

Is it rude to pass somebody tiles I know they cannot use? No. You pass what you cannot use, and everybody does the same. There is no obligation to be helpful, and no way to know what somebody needs this early.

Should I keep flowers? Flowers turn up across a lot of the card and are interchangeable with each other, so they usually count as tiles with company. Keep them early unless you have a specific reason not to.