How to Choose Your Hand in American Mahjong
Every deal fits more than one line on the card, and the skill is choosing. Compare the lines your tiles are nearest to, keep two alive through the Charleston, see what jokers are worth to each, drop a line whose tiles are gone, and keep your discards away from what the other players need.
Step 1 of 6
Two lines from one deal
Fresh from the deal, this hand fits two lines, the top two of the hand card's closest view (on a phone, open it with Hand card under your rack), each at 8 of 14:
- 1-2-3, 4-5-6 and 7-8-9 runs in three different suits, a pung of 5s and a pair, for 40 points;
- 1-2-3 and 7-8-9 runs, each twice, in two suits, and a pair, for 30 points.
Both use your 1-2-3 Dot and your 7-8-9 Bam. Only the first uses the 4 and 5 Crak, and only the second the 7 and 8 Dot. The East Wind, Green Dragon and North Wind help neither. With most of the hand still to come, don't commit yet: keep both lines open until the tiles decide for you.
Keep both alive
The first pass of the Charleston is three tiles to your right. Pass three that neither line uses, and both lines keep every tile they have.
Your move
Pass three tiles that keep both lines at 8 of 14.
The suit rule
Many hands appear on the card more than once, under different suit rules, and the rule changes the points. Four 1-2-3 runs and a pair is printed three ways: Any 1 suit (all four runs in one suit of your choice) for 25 points, Any 2 suits for 30, and All Dots for 30. The suit rule counts the suits of the runs; the pair has no suit rule.
This hand is complete. Which version of the line does it match?
Lines with no jokers
Five pairs put the singles-and-pairs lines at the top of the closest view: 4 singles and 5 pairs, 50 points, 12 of 14. Read its red tags. No jokers: no group on the line takes a joker. Concealed only: you can't call a discard for a pung, kong or quint toward it. Under Singles & pairs in the All patterns tab, every line is tagged No jokers, and each comes in an open version and a dearer concealed one.
How many of the 14 tiles does your joker count for on the top line?
A line that has died
Two lines fit this hand, both at 12 of 14: pungs of East, South, Red Dragons and Green Dragons with a pair, for 35 points, and a pung of each wind with a pair, for 30.
Now look at West: three Green Dragons face up. With yours, that is all four. The first line's Green Dragon pung can now be finished only with two jokers, and you hold none. The card can't tell: it counts the tiles you hold, not the tiles left, so it still lists that line first. Count what's gone yourself, and switch to the line that is still alive.
Your move
Discard a tile the winds line doesn't use.
Don't feed an exposure
Exposed groups tell you what a player is building. West has pungs of East, South and West Winds face up, and only one line on the card has all three: a pung of each wind and a pair. So West needs North Winds.
Your hand of 1-2-3 Dot runs and a Red Dragon pair has no use for your North Wind or your 1 Crak. Throw the one West can't use: here, defence costs you nothing.
Your move
Discard the stray West can't use.
What you learned
- A fresh deal fits more than one line: keep the best two open until your tiles decide.
- Pass and discard the tiles none of your lines use.
- A line's suit rule changes its points: Any 1 suit, Any 2 suits, or a named suit.
- Singles-and-pairs lines take no jokers, so a joker counts for nothing toward them.
- The card counts the tiles you hold, not the tiles left. A line whose tiles are face up elsewhere can be finished only with jokers.
- Exposed groups show what a player needs. Don't throw it to them.
In this course
Unit 1Tiles, card and Charleston
- American Mahjong Tiles and How to Read the Hand Card
- How to Do the Charleston in American Mahjong
- How to Choose Your Hand in American Mahjong
Take it to the table.
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