The best way to improve your strategy in mahjong is to get really good at choosing your mahjong hand after the deal. This is the number one way to practice mahjong on your own so that you can get better, faster, and more confident at choosing a hand and choosing what tiles to pass and what to keep during the Charleston.
It’s so easy to practice mahjong solo at home! Here’s how: You will need your NMJL Card and your bag of tiles. Sometimes it’s nice to have a rack, but not required.
- Deal yourself 13 tiles. Draw 13 random tiles out of the bag.
- Get organized. Sort your tiles by suit and then by number order within each suit. Place all of your flowers together and your winds together.
- Look for a section of the National Mah Jongg League card. Don’t try to force fit a hand immediately, look for patterns in what you have been dealt and find a section that matches the pattern of the tiles you have in your hand.
- Do a “mock Charleston” by passing three tiles off your rack and drawing three new tiles. You will do this just as you would a Charleston in a real game where you pass three each time and get three new each time. Just as with a regular game, you’ll do three passes with an option to stop or continue with another three passes.
- As you’re doing your mock Charleston, collect tiles that work for your section and passes tiles that do not fit your section. You’re working to refine into a single hand within your section as the Charleston goes on.
This solo mahjong practice is excellent for beginners wanting to improve their game and is also the perfect way to learn a new card in April!
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