Four Winds Rule Collection – American Modern

4. Miscellaneous rules

The following rules can be considered optional.

4.1 Charleston

Charleston is often used in modern American Mah Jong. At the start of each deal, players exchange tiles with each other. First the player who is East (dealer) exchanges three tiles with West, then South exchanges three tiles with North, after which East exchanges with South, and West with North. Finally East exchanges with North, and West with Sound. Each player passes the total of nine tiles. Jokers, if they are used cannot be passed.

Normally Charleston is played at the start of every deal of the game, but some players prefer to use Charleston only in the last (North) round of the game.

Note: Some rules allow blind passes, where a player is allowed to pass back one or more of the tiles that were initially handed by another player (and appear face down on the board until the exchange is complete).

4.2 Ding Dong

Sometimes the rule of Charleston is accompanied by the rule of Ding Dong. According to this rule, a further exchange of tiles can be done at East's request. This time each player passes only one tile to each of the other players. Ding Dong can be repeated up to three times during the deal.

4.3 Kitty

Some players use an additional rule according to which each player places at the start of each deal a predetermined sum (usually 100 points) in a pool ("kitty"). The pool is collected by the player who succeeds to win the deal with a Pung hand (a hand that does not contain Chows).

If the winning hand is not a Pung hand, or if the deal ends in a draw, each player adds another 100 points in the pool as the next deal starts.

The kitty points, like penalties and bonus for winning the Goulash deal, are paid to the winner after all other point calculations and possible payment doubles (i.e., they are not doubled nor cut off to the limit).

4.4 Goulash

Sometimes a special deal called "Goulash" is played if the deal ends in a draw. (Note that the Goulash deal is played only if the deal ends in a draw because of exhaustion of tiles, it is not played after an abortive draw (caused e.g. by faulty declaration of out; on the other hand, if a Goulash deal ends in an abortive draw, another Goulash deal is started without increasing the counter for successive Goulash deals.)

The Goulash deal is normally played by establishing a pool of extra points that are to be paid to the winner of the deal, and applying some special rules (e.g., it is common that no Chows are allowed in the winning hand). 

After a Goulash deal is played, the deal normally passes and a regular deal is played, disregarding whether there is a winner or not and even if East wins the deal, but other options are also common (e.g., the rules might specify that a new Goulash deal is played until there is a winner, each successive Goulash deal increasing the bonus for winning the Goulash deal).

4.5 Penalties

The etiquette for correct drawing and claiming of tiles may vary, as may the consequences for violating the etiquette. Basically the irregularities which have no effect on other players should have no consequences in friendly games. To avoid confusion, the players should agree on the etiquette and penalties before beginning the game.

In the following some common practices are listed:

• If a player notices that he has too many tiles in hand, and has already seen the face of the superfluous tile, he must continue playing with a long hand to the end of the deal (thus being deprived of the chance to go out). Also, his hand is considered scoreless. On the other hand, if he has not seen the face of the tile, he can put the tile back in the Wall.
• If a player notices that he has too few tiles in hand, he must continue playing with a short hand to the end of the deal (thus being deprived of the chance to go out). Also, he is not entitled to doubles for Concealed hand, All Terminals and Honors, One suit and Honors and One suit only. 
• If a player mistakenly draws an incorrect tile, he can replace it and draw the correct tile, provided that he has not yet discarded. If he has already discarded, he may not replace the tile, but can continue without penalties.
• A player is allowed to change his discard as long as another player has not claimed the tile, and as long as the next player in turn has not drawn from the Wall.
• If a player claims a tile, but cancels his claim before his next discard is claimed (or another player has drawn from the Wall), there is no need to penalize him for his mistake. 
• Also, if a player claims a tile for Chow, Pung or Kong, but notices that he does not have right tiles in hand, he is allowed to cancel his claim without consequences, provided that he does that before his next discard is claimed (or another player has drawn from the Wall).
• If a player makes a faulty declaration of out, but notices his error before the other players expose their hands, there is no need to penalize him for his error. On the other hand, if one or more players have already exposed their hands, the deal is abandoned and the offender shall pay each of the other players 100% of the Limit (East does not pay/receive double). If the offender was East the deal passes, otherwise it normally stays.

Related topics:
Introduction
Tiles
Preliminaries
Playing
Scoring
Payments