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AMERICAN MAH JONGG · DAY 4

Practise the full opening

You'll learn
Complete the Charleston and courtesy pass, then begin play.
Time
6 minutes
Builds on
Choosing tiles to pass
Up next
Practise from the deal
Why it helps
Once the opening feels familiar, you can give more attention to your tiles and your tablemates.

Practise this lesson

You've tried the passes separately. Let's put them together so the beginning of a game starts to feel familiar.

Put the opening together

Here's the order to keep nearby while you practise:

  1. Check your tiles. East has 14, everyone else has 13.
  2. Choose a promising section. Keep a few possible rows in mind.
  3. Pass three right, three across, three left. Keep your jokers.
  4. Decide on a second Charleston. If everyone agrees, pass left, across, right. Any player can stop this round confirm.
  5. Make the courtesy pass. Agree on 0 to 3 tiles with the player across. The lower offer sets the count.
  6. East discards without drawing. Then play passes right.
First pass: right9 Crak1 Crak5 Dot
These three tiles do not help your 2468 plan.

Recheck after every pass

Take a look at what arrived before choosing your next pass. Your new tiles may strengthen your plan or suggest another row. In this example, the arriving 6 Dot and 8 Dot help your 2468 hand. Keep them and reconsider which tiles you can spare.

Keep the arriving tiles6 Dot8 Dot
Both new tiles can help the 2468 hand you are considering.

In the courtesy pass, offering 3 against an offer of 2 means you each pass 2. You can offer zero if you want to keep all your tiles.

Both players pass two tiles because two was the lower offer.
Both players pass two tiles because two was the lower offer.

Remember

Recheck your hand after each pass. Finish the Charleston and courtesy pass before East's first discard.

Teaches on the Learner card · reviewed 2026-09-14