The most common question I get from new players and longtime players alike is “how can I choose a winning hand in mahjong from the deal through the Charleston?”
An easy way to improve your Charleston technique and get better at choosing your hand in mahjong, is to play solo Mahj:
- Deal yourself 13 tiles from the bag.
- Get organized on your rack by putting your tiles in order of suit and then in number order within the suit and separating out your honor tiles like flowers and winds.
- Choose a section on the National Mah Jongg League Card. This is important. We are choosing a section 1st after the deal and then as the Charleston goes on, we’re looking to find an actual line on the card, our hand.
- Do a mock Charleston passing tiles that don’t work for your section and collecting tiles that do until you have six or more tiles towards a single line within your section. That’s your hand!
In this video, I show you a practice of this solo Mahj. This one ends up in the consecutive run section of the NMJL card. We also practice a blind pass and talk through why many players say “never pass a flower.“
Shop the look from the video: