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By Tom Sloper
August 12, 2012 Column #532 |
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By Tom Sloper
August 12, 2012 Column #532 |
American (NMJL). A Tale of Three Players. People are all the time asking me how their made-up rules are supposed to work. Like I should know! Take the case of three players. Please! American mah-jongg has this thing called the Charleston, and that's a problem when three people play. People are so accustomed to using the Charleston that they don't think they can do without it. And when there are four players, that's true -- it is necessary, then. But the official rule, that the Charleston be skipped when only three players are present, really does work.
So what does everybody do?
Something different. That's what they do.
One table deals tiles to all four players (one of which is the vacant seat), then the player who's supposed to receive a pass from that seat takes three of that seat's dealt tiles at random, including any jokers that might be there.
Another table deals tiles to only the three filled seats, and when the vacant seat is supposed to pass, the recipient takes three tiles from the wall on that side of the table. If she gets a joker, she's supposed to put it back. The table uses an honor system (she is supposed to honestly return the joker, even though nobody could possibly know, unless she has no poker face whatsoever, that she got one).
A third table does what the first table does as regards to the deal, but does what the second table does as regards to jokers. A fourth table does what the second table does as regards to the deal, but does what the first table does as regards to jokers.
There are surely many other three-player Charleston schemes out there. Some tables might deal to all four seats yet still exchange from the wall. And tables that deal to the vacant seat have to decide whether to leave that player's tiles out of play, or put them in the wall.
Since there are no mah-jongg police, players can set whatever table rules they want. But they can't expect me, or the League, to help them solve problems that arise out of their made-up rules. When you make up your rules, you have to figure out all the details. The official rule (no Charleston with three players) actually works just fine.
Click the entries in the header frame, above, to read other columns.
Question or comment about this column? I often, um... intentionally... "miss" something; maybe you'll be the first one to spot it! Email 
and the discussion will be posted on the Mah-Jongg Q&A Bulletin Board. Like this, for instance...
Our 3P Charleston
>From: Cindi G
>Sent: Thursday, May 18, 2017 5:10 AM
>Subject: Three player
>
>Tom, in Florida I play a variation when there are three players. We build a 3x7 tier so that we can use that as another hand when we do the charleston. Our argument came up in Illinois when I suggested this. We allow person to keep the joker in the charleston. It just makes it a little more fun. Otherwise ,to me, playing with three and no charleston is no fun! What's wrong with this version? Popular in Florida ! Thank you for input . Cindi gober
Hi, Cindi! You asked:
What's wrong with this version?
It took me a while to figure out what you mean by "what's wrong with it?" Rereading your email, I surmise that you're having an argument about 3P Charleston methods, and you're looking to me to take sides in your argument. LOL!
I wrote about 3P Charleston methods in column 532, and I include several folks' 3P Charleston methods in
FAQ 13A. The only unique feature of your method is the 21-tile short tall wall. Although the few times I've played 3P without a Charleston have been perfectly fine, the vast majority of times I've played 3P, the other players have adamantly insisted that we have a Charleston of some kind. In most kinds, jokers are a possibility.
Let's talk game design for a moment (that's my profession, after all). When 3 players decide that they want to make up a rule for having a 3P Charleston, they have to make decisions.
If the goal is "to increase the fun," then do whatever you think adds to the fun (like the bonus surprise of picking an extra joker).
If the goal is "to enhance a player's chance of building a hand in the Charleston," then do whatever you think accomplishes that goal.
If the goal is "to keep the playing field level, to increase fairness to all," then figure out what might accomplish that goal.
If the goal is "to right a wrong in the League's rules," then you'd probably have to come up with a rule requiring players to put jokers back.
Read FAQ 14; there's nothing "wrong" with table rules - table rules are normal. But you can't expect anybody to tell you how to do them "the right way," since they're your made-up rules. I don't take sides in arguments about table rules.
May the tiles be with you.
The 3-person Charleston
It's actually fine to play without a Charleston with 3 players, but if the other 2 players want to do it their way, you don't have much choice. You're outnumbered; better go with the flow.
On Sunday, April 10, 2022, 01:08:54 PM EDT, Erika G wrote:
3 person mahjongg
when i play a 3 person mahjongg with friends, one friend always makes an extra row of 3 tiles for each charleston so that on each charleston a person can pick up unused tiles. I sY THIS IS UNFAIR BC IT GIVES THE "ACROSS" PERSON AND EXTRA 3 UNPASSED TILES, POSSIBLY INCLUDING A JOKER. WHAT SAY YOU?
I say read these:
Tom Sloper
Author of "The Red Dragon & The West Wind," the definitive book on Mah-Jongg East & West.
Author of the
Sloper On Mah-Jongg column and
the Mah-Jongg FAQs
Donations appreciated
Sunday, April 10, 2022, 2:45 pm
Rochester, New York, USA
We have a problem with our three-person Charleston
Mah-Jongg Q+A
On Saturday, May 25, 2024 at 04:22:27 AM EDT, Arlene T wrote:
My mah-jongg question or comment is:
When we play with 3 and still do the Charleston, the player opposite the empty seat gets 3 unseen tiles when she does the option part of the Charleston which is unfair to the other players. How do we solve this.
Thank you
Arlene
Hi, Arlene!
I don't know how your three-person Charleston rules work. I mean, doesn't somebody get tiles from the empty seat on every pass? Why would that happen only on the courtesy pass? I played with a group that insisted on dancing the Charleston when there were only three of us, and the result was that sometimes somebody might get a joker from the empty seat. All kinds of weird things happen when you make up your own table rules.
I couldn't possibly help you with your special 3-person Charleston unless you first tell me in exact detail how it works, step by step, and even then somebody in your group might find something to object to in my solution. Your group has to either live with the unfairness, or find a way to fix it yourselves, or skip the Charleston when there are only 3 players.
Play safe out there. And
may the tiles be with you.
Tom Sloper
Rochester, New York, USA
May 25, 2024
Author of "The Red Dragon & The West Wind"
Donations appreciated
We have a problem with our three-person Charleston, part 2
1. If the 7th stack of 3 tiles is a problem, why not just eliminate it? Just deal 6 stacks to the empty seat, and then skip the courtesy pass entirely? I'm sure you know that the official rule is to skip the Charleston altogether. It shouldn't be as big a deal to just skip the courtesy pass.
When there are only 3 people playing, each player gets more picks from the wall, which is why skipping the Charleston actually works well for 3 players. When the 3-player Charleston has you stepping on each other's feet, you could consider skipping it altogether. Have you tried the other 3P Charleston techniques I mentioned in column 532? I never heard of your seven-stack method before, and the ones I had heard of never seemed to have this unfairness problem your method has.
On Saturday, May 25, 2024 at 10:14:52 AM EDT, Arlene T wrote:
Re: Mah-Jongg Q+A
We stack the empty seat with 7- rows of three. One person will take the first right from the stacked, then over, from person sitting across, and so on with each of us getting 2 - stackes of three each leaving the last 3 tiles for the across person to do her option which most take 3, which she is getting three BRAN NEW tiles, with the possibility of getting a joker. Which isn’t fair to the other two people playing. I hope I explained it correctly.
Thank You Tom
Arlene
On Saturday, May 25, 2024 at 11:34:02 AM EDT, Arlene T wrote:
Mah Jongg
Hi Tom:
Regarding my latest message. Second position has the advantage.
Thank You
Arlene
囧 Aw geez, Arlene, I wasn't seriously offering to help you guys fix your made-up rule! But I suppose it's poor sportsmanship not to play along...
2. If the problem is that the player seated opposite the empty seat gets the advantage every. single. game, then you can shift seats after every hand; like, say, keeping the empty seat always at East's right. Not only the dice move, but the empty seat also moves (in effect). That way the 7th-stack advantage gets passed around the table equally.
Tom Sloper
Rochester, New York, USA
May 25, 2024
Author of "The Red Dragon & The West Wind"
Donations appreciated
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Need rules for American mah-jongg? Tom Sloper's book, The Red Dragon & The West Wind, is the most comprehensive book in existence about the American game. AND see FAQ 19 for fine points of the American rules (and commonly misunderstood rules). AND get the official rulebook from the NMJL (see FAQ 3). Linda Fisher's website is the only website that describes American rules: http://sites.google.com/site/mahjrules/.
© 2012 Tom Sloper. All rights reserved.