Lesson 5 - Playing with Less than 4 Players

Playing with Less than Four Players

There are a lot of options for playing with less than 4 players, including ways to play by yourself!

Playing Solo

• Mix up the tiles face down in the center of the mat
• Draw 13 tiles and arrange them on a rack
• Begin the game by discarding a tile
• Draw a tile and discard
• Repeat until you have Mahjong
• You can track the number of tiles it takes to get to Mahjong and try to keep beating that number. Aim for winning by the 25th draw.

Practicing the Charleston Solo

• Mix up the tiles face down in the center of the mat
• Draw 13 tiles and arrange them on a rack
• Use a tile bag or a designated mat to “pass” 3 tiles and draw 3 new ones, practicing how you refine and narrow down your hand.

Playing with Two Players: Option 1

• Two players sit opposite each other and build their own walls as well as the wall to their right.
• The East position alternates.
• The two players draw tiles from the wall as usual (Dealer gets 14 tiles, other play gets 13).
• No tiles are drawn for the absent players.
• The Charleston is skipped.
• East begins the game by discarding a tile.

Playing with Two Players: Option 2 - Siamese

• Build the walls as usual, but each player has two racks in front of them.
• Player 1 chooses 28 tiles
• Player 2 chooses 27 tiles
• Organize your tiles with two racks in front of you
• The Charleston is skipped.
• Play begins when Player 1 discards a tile
• Tiles can move between your two racks
• You don’t need to wait until you have Mahjong on both racks
• Once you’ve declared Mahjong on a rack, any jokers in the hand are locked and cannot be exchanged.

Playing with Three Players:

• Four walls are built.
• The three players draw tiles, four at a time, until all have 12.
• Each player picks another to have 13 tiles total, and East picks up another tile for 14.
• The Charleston is skipped.
• East begins the game by discarding a tile.

According to the National Mah Jongg League, there is no Charleston when there are less than 4 players, as it creates an unfair advantage for the East position. People have thought up many creative ways to practice the Charleston with less than 4 players, though. They are pretty easy to find online. 

For the next lesson, click here: Lesson 6 - What's Next