How to Select Tiles for Passing in the Charleston

The Charleston gives you a chance to exchange tiles before the main game begins. A useful question is: “Which three tiles can I give up while keeping a realistic route to a hand on my card?” You are choosing a direction, then testing it as new tiles arrive.

This guide assumes you recognize the tiles and know how the exchange works. For those foundations, open Understanding Mahjong Tiles: Names, Suits & Symbols or Getting Started with American Mahjong. Here we concentrate on deciding what to keep and pass.

Keep your own NMJL card beside you. The worked targets below use the 2026 card; a different year can change the required groups and suit relationships. These are practice decisions, not promises of a winning hand. The complete racks shown contain thirteen tiles, for a player other than East. East makes the same decisions with fourteen.

The diagrams use the exact Venezia tile designs. Venezia is an imagined collection: the graphic designs exist, but physical tiles are not yet available for retail purchase. Green KEEP panels, rose PASS panels, written tile names, and separate spare-tile panels make the decisions readable without relying on color alone.

For this first walkthrough, Plan A is the one-suit alternative of 2026 2468 line 1: a pung of 2 Dots, a pung of 4 Dots, a kong of 6 Dots, and a kong of 8 Dots. That is 3 + 3 + 4 + 4 = 14 tiles.

Plan B uses 2026 Consecutive Run line 4, with the run starting at three and all groups in Dots: a pung of 3 Dots, a pung of 4 Dots, a kong of 5 Dots, and a kong of 6 Dots. This line permits any four consecutive numbers and a one-suit version. Both targets are X hands, so ordinary exposures are permitted once gameplay begins.

Your thirteen tiles are: one 2 Dot, three 4 Dots, two 6 Dots, one 8 Dot, one Joker, one 1 Bam, one 9 Crak, and East, South, and West. Read them against the two targets before choosing a pass.

Plan A currently uses eight tiles: the seven Dots plus the Joker. Plan B uses six: the three 4 Dots, two 6 Dots, and Joker. Begin with Plan A while keeping the shared 4s and 6s together.

Pass 1 Bam, 9 Crak, and West face down to your right. None fits either target. East and South also fit neither target; they stay only because this pass sends exactly three. They are temporary spares, available to pass later. Another choice among these five off-plan tiles could also be reasonable.

Suppose you receive two 3 Dots and one 5 Dot on that first right. Put them beside the groups they might help. They do not add anything to Plan A, but all three fit Plan B.

For the next pass, choose 2 Dot, 8 Dot, and East. The 2 and 8 belonged only to the old Plan A. Passing them commits this rack more clearly to Plan B, while protecting the nine tiles that support it.

Keep South as the one remaining temporary spare. It has no job in Plan B; keeping it for this exchange does not mean you should build a wind hand. If a later incoming tile helps, South is an obvious candidate for the next pass.

Here is a separate thirteen-tile rack. Its target is 2026 2468 line 2: two Flowers, four 2 Dots, two 4 Bams, two 6 Bams, and four 8 Dots. The 2s and 8s share one suit; the 4s and 6s share the other. This is an X hand.

You hold two Flowers, two 2 Dots, two 4 Bams, two 6 Bams, one 8 Dot, one Joker, two 9 Craks, and West. Pass both 9 Craks and West. Keep the lone 8 Dot: it belongs to the required 8 Dot kong. The pair of 9 Craks has no place in this target.

Suppose the same target needs exactly two 6 Bams and you now hold three. Two fill the pair. The third does not fill a different position merely because it matches them. Check whether another realistic target needs it; otherwise, put that extra copy into your pass pool.

Flowers are useful when your plausible target needs them. If it needs a pair and you have that pair, recognize what you would lose by passing one. If your best options need no Flowers, a Flower can be a reasonable pass. You may pass Flowers; there is no general rule requiring you to keep them.

A wind or dragon is not automatically an unwanted tile. Check whether your actual line needs that wind or dragon, and whether the dragon must match or oppose a numbered suit. Keep a wind because it supports a realistic hand, rather than simply because it matches your seat.

In the first worked rack, passing West made sense because neither selected target used winds. In the practice rack below, passing Red Dragon makes sense for the same reason. Those choices do not mean winds and dragons should always be your first pass.

Once you have identified several equally expendable tiles, look at what the recipient will receive together. A pair gives that player two copies at once. Related numbers or a compatible dragon can also provide a useful start, depending on their hand.

Suppose your pass pool contains two 8 Craks, West, and South, and all four are equally unhelpful to your plans. One reasonable choice is to pass one 8 Crak, West, and South. Keep the other 8 Crak temporarily. You avoid sending the pair together without sacrificing a useful tile.

A blind pass can protect useful tiles when you have fewer than three you want to release. It is allowed on the first left and the final right of the second Charleston. It is not available on the first right, either across pass, the second left, or the courtesy pass.

For example, suppose 9 Crak and West are your only two unwanted tiles on the first left. Select those two from your rack. Take one tile from the incoming three without seeing its face, and send that unseen tile with your two. Keep the other two incoming tiles, then look at them.

After right → across → left, pause. A second Charleston happens only if everyone agrees. Ask whether another left and across exchange will let you improve without giving away tiles you now need. Those first two passes require three tiles from your own rack; the blind option returns only on the final right.

If your rack is focused and you have little you can release, stopping can protect it. If your direction is weak and you have several disposable tiles, continuing may give you useful chances. Neither a fixed number of pairs nor a fixed count of useful tiles decides this for every rack.

Say clearly that you want to stop before anyone views the second-left incoming tiles. Do not begin that exchange and then try to stop because the incoming tiles are disappointing. Once the second Charleston has begun under the rules, complete its left → across → right sequence.

On an ordinary pass that does not allow blind passing, having only one or two unwanted tiles does not reduce the required three. Recheck alternate hands and surplus copies, then choose the additional eligible tile or tiles whose loss does the least damage. You cannot pass a Joker to solve the shortage.

For the optional courtesy exchange, tell the opposite player how many tiles you want to pass: zero, one, two, or three. Use the lower of the two requests. If you want two and the opposite player wants three, each passes two. If either wants zero, your pair does not exchange.

Use the two-suit alternative of 2026 2468 line 1. Choose Dots for the 2 and 4 pungs, and Bams for the 6 and 8 kongs. Your target is three 2 Dots, three 4 Dots, four 6 Bams, and four 8 Bams.

Your thirteen tiles are: two 2 Dots, two 4 Dots, three 6 Bams, two 8 Bams, one Joker, Red Dragon, 9 Crak, and East. Which three would you pass on the first right? Name why each retained group has a job before you look below.

Pass Red Dragon, 9 Crak, and East. Keep the two 2 Dots, two 4 Dots, three 6 Bams, two 8 Bams, and Joker. The target does not use dragons, Craks, or winds. All ten retained tiles can work toward the selected hand.