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The Charleston, the card, jokers, scoring, a dead hand at the table, type your question and Prim answers from The Order of the Tile^™'s own knowledge bank. For the hands themselves, always check the card your table plays.

The Table Is Asking Monday, September 21

What do the letters on the NMJL card mean?

Rule

The letters stand for the tiles that are not numbers. F is a Flower; N, E, W and S are the four Winds; D is a Dragon. The zero is Soap (White Dragon), serving as a zero. How many times a symbol repeats tells you how many of that tile you need.

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Answered by Prim

Today's questions

Every one of these says up front whether it is a rule, a recommendation, one table's house preference, or plain strategy. Knowing which is which settles most of the arguments before they start.

Strategy Do I need to remember who passed me what in the Charleston? Mostly, no.
Rule What happens if you call Mahjong by mistake? If you catch a mistaken Mahjong call at once, before your hand is shown and before anyone else disturbs theirs, there is no penalty and play goes on.
Rule Can a fifth person play American Mahjong? Four people play the hand, but a fifth can sit in as the Bettor.
Rule Does taking a Joker break my concealed hand? No, and this is one of the most common things players get wrong.
Rule Can I take back a tile I already discarded? No.
Rule What happens if someone has the wrong number of tiles in the Charleston? The hands are thrown in and the deal is played again.

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