That is great advice. But sometimes the tiles dont point anywhere. Even number of odds and evens, one or two winds, dragons or flowers and numbers that dont repeat or no more than two in sequence. What to do then?
This is the exact spot where most people freeze, so good on you for naming it.
A couple things I'd try before you give up on the hand:
First, stop looking for a full set. With evens (2468) you really do need the whole crew, all your 2s, 4s, 6s, 8s. But with odds you don't need the full suite. You just need to lean one way, low or high. So if your odds are scattered, ask which side you have more of and start drifting there instead of trying to hold all of them.
Second, rearrange by number instead of by suit. Pull your tiles around and look for the same number showing up across all three suits. Three 5s in bam, crak, and dot is the start of something even when nothing looked connected a second ago.
And honestly? Sometimes the tiles genuinely don't point anywhere yet, and that's fine. You don't have to commit on your first look. Pick the loosest direction you've got and let the Charleston feed you. Half the time the hand tells you what it wants by the third pass, you just have to give it the room to.
Matching the cluster to a section and discarding any tiles that don’t fit that section has helped my game immensely. It isn’t until I only have tiles in my chosen section do I start focusing on hands.
That is great advice. But sometimes the tiles dont point anywhere. Even number of odds and evens, one or two winds, dragons or flowers and numbers that dont repeat or no more than two in sequence. What to do then?
This is the exact spot where most people freeze, so good on you for naming it.
A couple things I'd try before you give up on the hand:
First, stop looking for a full set. With evens (2468) you really do need the whole crew, all your 2s, 4s, 6s, 8s. But with odds you don't need the full suite. You just need to lean one way, low or high. So if your odds are scattered, ask which side you have more of and start drifting there instead of trying to hold all of them.
Second, rearrange by number instead of by suit. Pull your tiles around and look for the same number showing up across all three suits. Three 5s in bam, crak, and dot is the start of something even when nothing looked connected a second ago.
And honestly? Sometimes the tiles genuinely don't point anywhere yet, and that's fine. You don't have to commit on your first look. Pick the loosest direction you've got and let the Charleston feed you. Half the time the hand tells you what it wants by the third pass, you just have to give it the room to.
thank you
Matching the cluster to a section and discarding any tiles that don’t fit that section has helped my game immensely. It isn’t until I only have tiles in my chosen section do I start focusing on hands.
Thanks for your terrific tips, Lara!