The Charleston, explained

The Charleston is the passing ritual before play begins. It is the part of the game that scares every new player, and the part that practice fixes fastest.

The order of passes

After the deal and before the first discard, every player passes three tiles at once, three times:

1. First Right. Pass three tiles to the player on your right.
2. First Across. Pass three to the player opposite.
3. First Left. Pass three to the player on your left.

That is the first Charleston, and it is required. A second Charleston happens only if all four players agree. It runs the other way: Left, Across, Right. Then comes the courtesy pass: an optional exchange across the table of anywhere from zero to three tiles, and both players must pass the same number, so ask first.

Blind passes and stealing

Every pass except the last one of each Charleston must come from tiles you have looked at. On the last pass (First Left, and Second Right), you may pass blind: take some or all of the three tiles you were just handed and send them straight on without looking. That is what you do when you genuinely have nothing to spare. You may also "steal" on those passes: keep one or two of the incoming tiles and substitute your own.

The one hard rule

How to choose three tiles

New players freeze because they try to decide on a hand before the first pass. Do not. The first pass is for clearing junk, and the hand reveals itself over the next two.

First Right: dump the isolated tiles

Look for tiles that fit no family at all. A lone wind when everything else is numbers. A single 9 when the rack is low. A third suit when two are already crowded. The first pass is almost never a hard decision; if it is, you are overthinking it.

First Across: pick a direction

By now you have seen a few incoming tiles. Ask the three questions from the card sections page: odd, even or mixed? One number repeating? Honors piling up? Pass against whatever you are leaning toward. Leaning evens? Odds go.

First Left: commit or pass blind

If your rack now reads as one section, pass the last three tiles that do not belong to it. If you are still torn between two sections, keep the tiles both sections share and pass the rest. If nothing can go, pass blind.

Things to hold even when they look like junk

• Flowers. Many hands want two, three or four. A flower is rarely dead weight early.
• Pairs. A pair is the hardest group to build later, because you cannot call for one. Break a pair last.
• Soaps. They do double duty as the zero in year hands and as the dot suit's dragon, so they are contested.

What you give away

Every pass tells your neighbor something. Three winds in a row says you are not building Winds and Dragons. Three craks says the crak family is open. Good players read incoming passes the way they read exposures. Do not let that paralyze you; just know it is information.