Editing Mahjong (section)

=== Rules ===
Japanese and Korean mahjong have some special rules. A player cannot win by a discard if that player had already discarded that piece, where players' discards are kept in neat rows in front of them. Players may declare ready, meaning that they need one tile to win, cannot change their hand and win extra points if they win. Some rules may replace some of the number 5 tiles with red tiles, as they can earn more points. Korean mahjong does not allow melded (stolen) chows.
Taiwanese mahjong adds three tiles to a hand requiring a 5th set to be formed, making a clean hand or all-pung hand very difficult to procure.
American mahjong has distinctive game mechanics and the article on [[American mahjong]] details these. Some differences include many special patterns, a different scoring system and the use of jokers and five-of-a-kind.

==== Charleston ====
In the American variations it is required that, before each hand begins, a Charleston be enacted. In the first exchange, three tiles are passed to the player on one's right; in the next exchange, the tiles are passed to the player opposite, followed by three tiles passed to the left. If all players are in agreement, a second Charleston is performed; however, any player may decide to stop passing after the first Charleston is complete. The Charleston is followed by an optional pass to the player across of one, two, or three tiles. The Charleston, a distinctive feature of American mahjong, may have been borrowed from card games such as [[Hearts (card game)|Hearts]].