Want to get better at choosing a mahjong hand and stop second-guessing yourself during the Charleston? The fastest way to improve is solo practice.
In this video from my How to Choose a Mahjong Line playlist, I walk you step-by-step through how to practice American mahjong by yourself using a real hand and the National Mah Jongg League (NMJL) card. We’re not using a made-up example; this is an actual deal, just like you would see at the table.
Here’s the solo mahjong process to practice on your own:
- Step 1: Deal yourself 13 tiles from your tile bag.
- Step 2: Organize your rack in suit and number order, putting like tiles together.
- Step 3: Study your National Mahjong League card and identify patterns that fit your tiles. Choose a section to begin.
- Step 4: Do a mock Charleston using your tile bag — pass three tiles off your rack and draw three new ones from the bag.
- Step 5: As you refine during the Charleston, narrow your focus to 1–3 possible hands that best match the tiles you’ve collected.
We also cover two topics I get asked about constantly:
- Flower Strategy in American Mahjong What does it mean when instructors say, “Never hold past a flower”? Should you pass flowers during the Charleston? Should you hold flowers during gameplay? We talk through flower strategy, how flowers impact hand flexibility, and how they influence what you pass and what you keep during the Charleston.
- Choosing a Primary Hand + Backup Hands One of the biggest mistakes beginners make is locking into one hand too early.
In this video, I show you how to:
- Select a primary hand
- Identify a strong backup hand
- Even keep a third possibility open
- Stay within one section or pivot across sections of the NMJL card Having multiple playable options on your rack gives you flexibility once the game begins and dramatically reduces panic if the tiles don’t come your way.
Practicing with real hands like this builds pattern recognition, decision speed, and strategic confidence. The more you watch the process unfold, the more natural your own hand selection becomes.
This is especially great preparation for the new NMJL card coming in April. The stronger your pattern recognition now, the easier the transition will be.
Keep watching the other practice rounds in this playlist to see this process repeated again and again with different deals, different pivots, different strategy decisions, all made in realtime right alongside me.
And if you’d like to practice along with heirloom-quality tiles, you can shop everything featured in this video below.