JOKERTILE
The Charleston

The Courtesy Pass, and the Rule Tables Get Wrong

Zero to three tiles, across the table only — and the smaller number always wins.

July 31, 20263 MIN READUPDATED Aug 2026
On this page
  1. The rule
  2. The part people get wrong
  3. How the conversation goes
  4. It happens even if you skipped the second Charleston
  5. What to pass, and what to ask for
  6. Why it's called courtesy

The last pass of the Charleston is optional, private to each pair of players, and settled by whoever wants to give away less. Half the tables I've seen get the last part backwards.

The rule

After the Charleston finishes — whether or not you did the second round — you may exchange zero to three tiles with the player sitting directly across from you.

Only across. Never with the players on your left or right. The two pairs at the table negotiate independently and neither pair has any say in what the other does.

ACROSS 3 tiles Across Left Right You
The courtesy pass runs across the table only. You and the player opposite settle it between yourselves; the other two do the same.

The part people get wrong

The lower number wins

If you want to pass three and they want to pass one, you both pass one. The exchange is set by whoever wants to give away fewer tiles — not by agreement, not by splitting the difference, and not by whoever asks first.

And if one of you wants to pass none, then nothing happens between you. That's a complete and legitimate outcome. Nobody is owed an exchange.

How the conversation goes

Someone says "courtesy?" and the two of you name numbers. "Two." "One." You both pass one. Face-down, as always.

That's the whole ritual, and it takes about four seconds once you've done it twice.

It happens even if you skipped the second Charleston

This surprises people. Stopping the Charleston early doesn't cancel the courtesy pass — the courtesy pass is separate and always comes last.

1 First Right required 2 First Across required 3 First Left blind pass OK 4 Second Left only if all agree 5 Second Across only if all agree 6 Second Right blind pass OK 7 Courtesy 0–3, across only THE ORDER, TOP TO BOTTOM
The first three are compulsory. The middle three only happen if nobody objects. The courtesy pass always comes last — even when the second Charleston was skipped.

Row seven. It sits outside the two Charlestons and applies regardless of what happened above it.

There is one rare exception. If the Second Right pass ends with nobody having any tile available to pass, the Charleston stops there and the courtesy pass is skipped entirely. You'll see this perhaps once a year.

What to pass, and what to ask for

By this point your hand should be pointed at one or two lines on the card. The courtesy pass is your last chance to dump the tiles that don't serve either of them.

  • Pass the last stragglers — a lone wind, a dragon you gave up on, an odd number in a suit you've abandoned.
  • Don't pass anything you might still need. Unlike the earlier passes, there's no round coming to fix a mistake.
  • Never pass a joker. Same as every other pass in the Charleston.
A small tactical point

You're passing directly to one specific opponent, and you'll be watching that person for the rest of the hand. Anything you hand over is information — if you pass three bams, they now know you're not building bams.

Why it's called courtesy

Because it's optional and mutual. Nobody can force you into it, nobody can force you to give three, and the person across from you has exactly the same protection. The rule that the lower number wins is what makes that true — without it, the player who wanted to dump three could impose that on somebody who only wanted to move one.

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Where this comes from

The across-only restriction, the zero-to-three range, the lower-number rule and the fact that the courtesy pass survives a skipped second Charleston all follow the American Mah-Jongg Association's published rulebook.