Name the joker before you reach
American mahjong is a 152-tile set, with eight jokers in it. The tile marked Joker on the corner or the back is the joker. A flower is not a joker. The white dragon, which some tables call soap, is not a joker either.
Before the Charleston starts, lift every joker out of the tiles you mean to pass. It stays with you tonight until you use it to finish identical tiles, or someone redeems it with the natural tile. The naming order is in the tile lesson.
Craks, bams, dots, winds, dragons, and flowers may all go into a pass. A joker may not. If one is already in your hand, slide it to the side of the rack closest to you. Do not set it with the three tiles you are about to pass.
The first round has to finish
Before East draws the fourteenth tile, the table walks the first Charleston. Each player passes three tiles to the right, then three across, then three to the left. Nobody may stop this round. If someone has not put three tiles out, the hand has not started.
Direction follows the seats, not your own idea of left. The player on your right is next. Across sits opposite. The player on your left is previous. All four pass at the same time, then turn the new tiles over together.
No joker in the Charleston, a blind pass, or the courtesy.
The three tiles leave together. Do not hand them over one by one. Do not wait to see what came from the other side and then change your three. Once a tile leaves the rack, that pass is fixed.
The lock is on every pass
The three going right cannot include a joker. The three going across cannot. The three going left cannot. It is not enough to pass one fewer joker this round. Every tile that leaves your rack has to be something other than a joker.
The three you receive should not contain a joker either. All four players keep the same rule. If a tile looks like a joker, check whether it is a flower or the white dragon. Both of those may be passed.
If someone puts a joker out, stop, hand that tile back, and let them replace it with an ordinary tile. Do not take it onto your rack just to keep moving. The full walk is in the Charleston lesson.
The second round is the same lock
The second Charleston is optional. The direction flips: three to the left, three across, three to the right. Any player may stop it before the tiles move. After the stop, the rest of that round is not played.
A stop ends the second round. It does not relax the joker rule. If the second round actually runs, left, across, and right still cannot carry a joker. If someone stops it before the first pass, your jokers still do not leave.
Stopping the second round does not mean the passing is over. On most tables the courtesy pass still comes next. The courtesy cannot carry a joker either.
A blind pass cannot hide one
A blind pass happens only on the last pass of a Charleston round. If you do not have enough tiles you are willing to give, you may add tiles you just received and have not looked at. Blind means you do not know what you are passing.
Not knowing does not make a joker legal. The tiles you just received should not have included one. If the previous player passed a joker by mistake, a blind pass does not send it onward. Take it out, send it back, and replace it with an ordinary tile you have seen.
The last pass of the first round goes left. If the second round is not stopped, its last pass goes right. Only those two passes may be blind. Earlier passes are three tiles you have looked at, and none of them is a joker.
The courtesy is the same rule
After the Charleston, you and the player across each offer 0 to 3 tiles. You compare the counts and exchange the smaller number. If you offer three and across offers one, one tile moves, and your extra two come back.
Those 0 to 3 tiles still cannot include a joker. The tiles from across should not include one either. Offering zero is allowed. It means you sit this step out. Zero is not a way to hide a joker. A joker was never supposed to be in that stack.
The courtesy is an agreement, not another Charleston. Do not put a joker on the bottom and hope across takes only the top tile. Once the counts match, every tile that moves should be free to turn face up.
What a kept joker is for
A joker that stays with you is not a wild card for anything. It finishes identical tiles only: a pung, a kong, or a quint on the card. It cannot finish a pair, it cannot stand as a single, and it cannot glue different tiles into one group.
Passing it during the Charleston is both illegal and useless. Across would use it on their pung, and you would lose the most flexible tile of the night. Keep it until your own line needs identical tiles. How it works is in the joker lesson.
A joker finishes identical tiles only, and it never leaves you in a pass.
- First round: right, across, left. Required. No jokers.
- Second round: left, across, right. Anyone may stop it. Still no jokers.
- Blind pass: only the last pass of a round. A joker still cannot go blind.
- Courtesy: 0 to 3 tiles, smaller offer moves. No jokers.
Which table were you invited to
If tonight is American, say this before you sit: jokers never pass in the Charleston. Then use the tiles to see what the eight jokers look like, and practice one round of right, across, left. This site is not the National Mah Jongg League. Practice lines are not any year's official card.
If this table has no Charleston, you are probably not at an American game. The pass itself is the opening mark of American mahjong. Other traditions start from the top of the page: Japanese riichi, Hong Kong, Sichuan, Taiwanese, and MCR. The words are in the glossary.