The passing round is over, you hold thirteen tiles, and the table looks like a mess. That is normal. Nobody is close to a hand after the Charleston, and the first few turns are not about getting close. They are about keeping more than one way to win open while you find out what everyone else is doing.

What the opening is actually for

Three things, in this order:

  1. Stay on more than one line. A rack that fits two or three lines on the card can absorb a bad draw. A rack aimed at exactly one line cannot.
  2. Get rid of what no line wants. Every tile in your hand that no line on the card uses is a tile doing nothing.
  3. Watch what leaves other racks. The early throws are the most honest information you will get all hand, because nobody is defending yet.

What to throw first

Throw the tiles that the fewest lines use, and among those, the ones nobody is likely to want. In practice that usually means:

  • Lone winds, unless you are on a winds line. A single wind is one of four tiles in the set, and only some sections use them.
  • Numbers that sit alone, with nothing either side of them and no partner: a single 3 Crak in a rack full of even Bams is doing nothing.
  • Tiles you hold one of in a suit you are not building. One copy is not a group, and a thrown tile cannot be called to make a pair.

Pairs and flowers are worth keeping early: a pair is a group waiting to happen, and no joker can make one.

Keep, for now:

  • Pairs. A pair is a group waiting to happen, and a pair cannot be completed by calling unless you are declaring mahjong, so they are the hardest part of the hand to build later.
  • Flowers, until you know whether your lines want them.
  • Jokers, always. A joker is a group of three or more in waiting. Never pass one; you cannot anyway.

The first tiles to let go: a lone number in a suit you are not building, a single wind, an end tile nothing needs.

The two mistakes that cost the hand

Committing to one line too early. A high-paying line with a pair of singles in it looks wonderful on turn two and is unreachable by turn twelve when two of the tiles it needs are on the table. Until you have a clear run at something, make the throw that keeps two lines alive rather than the throw that helps one line by a little.

Throwing information away. A tile you throw is a fact about your hand that everyone can see, for the rest of the hand. Early on that matters less than later, but a run of throws from one suit tells the table you are not building that suit, and a good player will happily keep feeding you from it.

How to tell it is going well

By the fifth or sixth turn you want to be able to say two things out loud: which line you are nearest, and what it still needs. If you cannot, you are not behind, you are unfocused; look at the card, pick the two lines your rack fits best, and throw the next tile that neither of them uses.

The table can say both of those for you while you are learning. Press The numbers, under your tiles, and it names the line you are closest to, what it still needs, and which tiles in your hand are spare.

Practise this

  • Drill: which tile would you throw? It deals a real rack and scores your throw against the Coach's choice.
  • Watch a table, look through one chair, and turn on the explanations: every throw comes with the reason, and the opening is where the reasons are clearest.