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What happens if someone has the wrong number of tiles in the Charleston?

The hands are thrown in and the deal is played again. Nobody is penalized and nobody is dead, because the game has not started yet. The one exception belongs to the player on East's left: if that player alone is a tile short, she may take the next tile from the wall, and only before East's first discard.

Answered by Prim. Last reviewed 2026-09-21.

Nothing has begun yet, and that is the whole reason

The game officially begins when East makes the first discard. Everything before that moment, the deal and the entire Charleston, is setup. That single fact governs this question and several others like it.

Because the game has not begun, a hand cannot go dead during the Charleston. There is no penalty available, because there is nothing yet to penalize. A player who discovers she is holding twelve tiles or fourteen has not committed an offense. She has revealed that the deal did not come out right, which is a different kind of problem and gets a different kind of answer.

The remedy is a redeal, not a punishment

When a wrong count comes to light during the Charleston, the tiles go back to the middle, they are washed, and the hand is dealt again from the beginning. Everyone starts over, including the three players who did nothing wrong and the one who was quietly delighted with what she had.

That last part is what makes tables reluctant to speak up, and it is exactly why you should. A hand built on a broken deal is not a hand, and whatever happens at the end of it is going to be argued about. A redeal costs the table two minutes.

The one player who can be fixed instead

There is a single exception, and it is narrow enough to memorize. If the player to East's left is one tile short after the deal or after the Charleston, that player, and only that player, may simply take the next tile from the wall. No redeal is needed.

The reason is that the tile was going to be hers anyway in the ordinary run of play, so handing it over changes nothing about the game. The limits are strict: only that seat, only a hand that is short rather than long, and only before East's first discard. Once East throws, the window is closed and an incorrect count is an entirely different matter.

Three tiles on every required pass, however much it hurts

Most wrong counts are born in the passing itself, when a player who cannot bear to break up what she is holding sends two instead of three. Every required pass takes three tiles. There is no version of the Charleston where a reluctant player may send fewer.

The blind pass exists precisely for that jam. On the last pass of either Charleston you may take one, two or three of the tiles arriving and send them straight on without ever looking at them. That is the sanctioned way to protect a hand you cannot afford to open. Shorting a pass is not.

How to keep it from happening at all

Count thirteen before you pass and count thirteen after you receive. It takes a second, it does not slow the table, and it catches the error while a redeal is still cheap rather than after somebody has three exposures down.

If you find the count wrong, say so at once and say it plainly. The table will reset, nobody will think worse of you, and the hand you play instead will be a real one.

New to the words? Charleston · Blind pass · East · Dead hand