Quick answer
Sort by suit first, with craks, bams and dots each in their own group and the numbers in order inside each suit. Put winds and dragons at one end with flowers beside them. Keep jokers apart at the far end, where none can slip into a Charleston pass and you can count how many you have for groups of three or more, the only place a joker can go. Then count which number you hold most of and in which suits, because that tells you which sections of the card to read first. Sort again and count again between the Charleston passes, since tiles move through your rack on every one.
Thirteen tiles land in front of you, fourteen if you are East, and the temptation is to start hunting the card immediately. Sort first. A sorted rack tells you what you have before you ask the card what you need.
The sort itself
Group by suit first, with craks together, bams together and dots together. Inside each suit, put the numbers in order. Winds and dragons go to one end, flowers next to them, and jokers at the far end on their own.
Suit first and number second is what makes runs visible, while sorting by number across suits hides them. Keeping jokers apart matters because of two rules. A joker can never be passed in the Charleston, and it can fill a pung, kong or larger group but never a single or a pair.
Why sorting is a decision, not housekeeping
A sorted rack shows you its own shape. You can see neighbouring numbers in one suit, the same number repeating across suits, pairs sitting together and a cluster of honours. Those shapes map onto the card's sections, which is why counting toward categories is easier once the tiles are in order.
Unsorted, you will read the card looking for something that matches, and you will find whatever you looked at first. Sorted, the rack proposes two or three directions and the card confirms which exist this year.
Count your most repeated number
Once sorted, ask one question before anything else. Which number do I hold most of, and in which suits? Three or four copies of a single number across suits points at Like Numbers. A run of neighbours in one suit points at Consecutive Run. A rack heavy in even numbers points at 2468, one heavy in odd numbers at 13579, and one built on 3s, 6s and 9s at 369.
This count takes a few seconds and tells you which sections of the card to read first, so you are not scanning it line by line.
Re-sort after the Charleston, every time
Nine tiles move through your rack during the first Charleston. The rack you carefully sorted at the deal is not the rack you are holding by the third pass, and players who pass on autopilot are reading a stale picture.
Re-sort after every pass and re-count, so you notice when your second direction has quietly become your first.
Rack habits worth having
Keep your tiles standing and angled toward you. Do not shuffle your rack constantly while thinking, because the fidgeting itself is information. A player who reorganises three times after a draw has just told the table that the draw mattered.
Some groups teach beginners with open racks, tiles face out, so a teacher can talk through decisions. That is a teaching convention rather than a rule of play, and it is worth agreeing before you start rather than assuming either way.
Three sorting mistakes
The first is sorting into a specific card line before the Charleston, which locks you into one direction while nine tiles are still moving. The second is leaving a joker in among the suits, where it can slip into a pass, though a joker may never be passed in the Charleston. The third is dropping a tile you receive at the end of the rack instead of beside its match, which leaves a natural pair split where you stop seeing it, even though no joker can ever fill a pair.
The third is worth a habit. Put each tile you receive beside its match as it arrives, and keep a natural pair together once you have it, because a joker can never fill a pair later.
Put it into practice
New to the game? Start the course at Lesson 1, Meet the Tiles. The first three lessons are free and need no account.
Already play? Have the coach read a real dealt hand for you, free. It names the direction the hand goes for, what to keep, what to pass, and the reasoning behind each call.
Sorting shows you the shape. Naming the direction is the next step. Mei, our AI coach, takes a dealt hand and says which category it leads toward, what the backup is, and what to pass.