What changes from a four-player game
| Step | Four players | Three players |
|---|
| Walls | One wall each | All four, as usual |
| Deal | 13 each, 14 for East | Same, skipping the empty seat |
| Charleston | Two rounds, then a courtesy pass | None (the League's way) |
| First discard | East, after the Charleston | East, right after the deal |
| The card, calls, jokers | This year's card | No change |
Why there's no Charleston
The passes are built for four. With three, tiles passed to the empty seat are a free dump, and tiles coming back from it were never chosen. So the League's three-player rule skips the Charleston. The empty seat's tiles stay in the wall, so everyone draws a little more and fewer games end with the wall empty.
The ghost-player rule
Many tables love the Charleston too much to drop it, so they add an imaginary fourth player, often called "Bob." It is a house rule, not the League's, and tables run it differently. A common way:
House rule
Bob's stacks
Deal to the three real players as usual. Before the Charleston, take 21 tiles from the empty seat's wall and set them out face down as seven stacks of three, one for each pass. When you receive from Bob, take his next stack. When you pass to Bob, put your three tiles back on his wall. No one may pass Bob a joker; agree before you start what happens if one comes out of his stack. After the Charleston, Bob sits out.
Whichever way you choose, say it out loud before the deal, so nobody is guessing mid-game.
Where these rules come from
Small Table Mahj is an independent guide written in our own words. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the National Mah Jongg League, and it shows no hands from the League's card.
Only two of you? See the two-player card
The full Charleston · Five players · Cheat sheet
