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.

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
• 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 – Mahjong for Makindu