The hardest moment for a new player comes right after the deal. Thirteen tiles, a card full of hands, and a table waiting for your Charleston pass. Experienced players glance at their rack and see a theme: lots of one suit, a handful of even numbers, a pair of Winds. This tool trains that habit with our own practice hands, so you learn to spot the pattern yourself.
How the hand finder works
For every practice hand, the finder tries every legal way to build it: each choice of suits, every run of numbers where the hand says "any consecutive", every number where it says "any like numbers", and the matching dragon where one is needed. It counts how many of your tiles fit, places your Jokers where the rules allow, and reports how many tiles you still need.
- Outlined tiles fit the hand you selected. Keep them.
- Faded tiles don't fit that hand.
- Pass marks the three tiles that help the fewest practice hands. They are your best Charleston passes or discards.
Jokers are counted the right way
A Joker can stand in for any tile in a group of three or more, never in a single or a pair. So a Joker counts toward a pung of 7 Craks, but it can't finish the pair of Flowers in a hand like this one:
Even numbers
Even Steven
X25¢
FF224446668888
Two suits: the 2s and 4s share one suit, the 6s and 8s share a different suit.
One way to complete it:
That's also why hands made only of singles and pairs, like Pairs Party, are hard: every tile has to be real. Read more in our guide to how Jokers work.
Using it to get better at the Charleston
- Press Deal again and, before looking at the results, pick the hand you would go for.
- Choose the three tiles you'd pass right.
- Compare with the finder. Did you spot the same theme? Did you pass a tile it wanted to keep?
Five minutes of this before your game night makes a real difference. When it feels easy, practice the passes in the Charleston simulator or play a full practice game against three computer players.
Two or three hands at once
Early on, don't commit to a single hand. Keep the two or three closest options in mind, the way the list above shows them, and let the Charleston and the first few draws decide. Tiles that fit more than one of your options are the most valuable ones on your rack.
About the practice card. The finder only knows firstmahj's original practice hands, labeled "practice card — not the official card." At a real game night you'll play from the current card published by the National Mah Jongg League; the same way of thinking applies.
