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The Charleston, explained (with the rules people get wrong).

The Charleston is American Mah Jongg’s tile-passing phase, played after the deal and before the first discard: three compulsory passes right, across, and left, then an optional second Charleston in reverse, and an optional final courtesy pass. Any single player can stop the second Charleston. Jokers may never be passed.

Written by Michael DoddLast verified July 11, 2026How we label rules

The full sequence

01

First Charleston

Pass 3 tiles right → across → left. Compulsory for all four players. The last pass may be blind.

Required

02

Second Charleston

Reverse order: left → across → right. Optional — one objector is enough to skip it entirely.

Optional

03

Courtesy pass

0–3 tiles exchanged across. Both players must agree on the lesser number offered.

Optional

The rules, one claim at a time

Each rule is labeled with its actual source. If your group plays differently, that’s allowed — it’s just a house rule, and now you’ll know.

NMJL rule

One player can stop the second Charleston. Alone.

The second Charleston happens only if everyone is willing — a single objector halts it. It is not a vote, and it does not need to be unanimous to stop; it needs to be unanimous to continue.

Sources: Mah Jongg Made Easy (official rulebook) — National Mah Jongg League · FAQ 28: Stopping the Charleston — Sloperama (Tom Sloper)

NMJL rule

Jokers never pass. Ever.

A joker may not be passed in any Charleston pass or in the courtesy pass. Pass one accidentally and you have broken the rules — most tables make you take it back, and tournaments may penalize it.

Sources: Mah Jongg Made Easy (official rulebook) — National Mah Jongg League · FAQ 19: American mah-jongg rules questions — Sloperama (Tom Sloper)

NMJL rule

The blind pass: last pass of each Charleston only.

On the final pass of each Charleston — the first Charleston’s left pass and the second Charleston’s right pass — you may pass on 1–3 tiles from the pass coming to you without looking at them, making up the rest of your three from your own rack. Everywhere else, you look at what you pass.

Sources: Mah Jongg Made Easy (official rulebook) — National Mah Jongg League · FAQ 19: American mah-jongg rules questions — Sloperama (Tom Sloper)

Tournament rule — Grad

Peeking at a blind pass costs 10 points.

Under the Standardized National Mah Jongg Tournament Rules, looking at tiles during a blind pass is a −10 penalty. That is a tournament rule, not an NMJL rule — at a social table it is just bad manners.

Source: Standardized National Mah Jongg Tournament Rules — Gladys Grad / Mah Jongg Master Points

NMJL ruleHouse rule — Ghost Player

Three players? No Charleston — unless you invite the Ghost.

Under NMJL rules, a three-player table deals tiles as usual, skips the Charleston entirely, and goes straight to East’s first discard. The popular Ghost Player workaround — dealing a phantom fourth hand to pass through — is a well-documented house rule: fun, common, and not official.

Sources: FAQ 13a: American mah-jongg with three players — Sloperama (Tom Sloper) · The Charleston with Three Players (Article 188) — Mahj Life · Standardized National Mah Jongg Tournament Rules — Gladys Grad / Mah Jongg Master Points

NMJL ruleTournament rule — Grad

Dealt a winning hand? East can stop everything.

If East is dealt a complete Mah Jongg — the Heavenly Hand — East may declare it and skip the Charleston. In tournaments under the Grad standardized rules, East earns no self-pick bonus for it.

Sources: Mah Jongg Made Easy (official rulebook) — National Mah Jongg League · Standardized National Mah Jongg Tournament Rules — Gladys Grad / Mah Jongg Master Points

Where beginners go wrong

  • Passing tiles you need for the card’s easiest hands. Decide a rough direction before the first pass: suits you’re rich in, or a category you’re close to.

  • Treating the stop rule as a vote. One player says stop, it stops. Arguing about it is the most common Charleston dispute, and the answer is settled.

  • Blind-passing at the wrong moment. Only the last pass of each Charleston may be blind. A blind first-right pass isn’t clever — it’s illegal.

  • Forgetting the courtesy pass needs agreement. You offer up to three; your opposite offers up to three; you exchange the lesser number. Zero is a legal answer.

Keep going

Track every hand on the current NMJL card →

The mahj.events hand tracker

Running a tournament? →

Rotations, scoring, and check-in for directors

Practice the Charleston at a real table.

Beginner-friendly games near you, or host your own and let mahj.events run the logistics.

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How we label rules

American Mah Jongg has more than one legitimate rulebook. Every claim on this page carries a badge naming whose rule it actually is:

NMJL rule
Published by the National Mah Jongg League, which writes the official American Mah Jongg rules, issues the annual card, and arbitrates rule disputes.
Tournament rule
A named tournament ruleset layered on top of NMJL play — on this page, Gladys Grad’s Standardized National Mah Jongg Tournament Rules. Tournament rules are not NMJL rules, and individual directors vary them.
House rule
A table-level convention. House rules are legitimate — your table can play how it likes — but they are not official, and they don’t travel with you to other tables or tournaments.

mahj.events is an independent platform. We are not affiliated with or endorsed by the National Mah Jongg League, and nothing here reproduces the NMJL card or its official rulebook — we cite them and explain the rules in our own words.

Sources

Last verified July 11, 2026.