Question: What are the reasons a player’s hand could be declared dead?

Answer:  Following are reasons a player’s hand can be declared dead:

1. A player has too few tiles (example discarding before picking a wall tile) or too many tiles in or on their rack. pg. 19, 15 (a)
2. A player does a Joker exchange before picking their tile from the wall or completing a call and expose. pg. 19, 15 (b)
3. A player makes an incorrect exposure:
   • With a grouping not shown on the current card. pg. 19, 15 (c)
   • With a misnamed discard. pg. 16, #3
   • By picking up the wrong discard.
4. A player exposes tiles and it is obvious that based on the exposures there is no viable hand on the card. pg. 19, 15 (d)
5. A player exposes tiles and it is obvious that a single tile or pair is needed and based on what has been discarded or has been exposed, the hand cannot be completed. pg. 19, 15 (e)
6. A player exposes tiles for a concealed hand. pg 19, 15 (f)
7. A player discards before picking a tile from the wall. pg. 19, 15 (g)
8. A player picks out of turn. pg. 19, 15 (h)
9. A player pushes out wall too soon before previous wall is exhausted causing another player to pick and rack a tile from the wrong wall. pg. 19, 15 (i)
10. A player picks from the wrong end. pg. 20 (j) & pg. 20, 17 (a)
11. A player pushes out the wrong wall and a tile is picked from that wall. (The picked tile remains with the dead hand). pg. 20, 16 (a)
12. A player pushes out their wall and the tile(s) from the previous wall are behind or hidden from view making the player pick from the wrong tile. Both the player who picked the wrong tile, and the player who pushed out the wall causing the tiles to be hidden have dead hands. pg. 20, 16 (c)
13. A player declares Mah Jongg in error and puts up two or more exposures. pg. 21

Source:  Mah Jongg Made Easy 2024 Edition, pages 19, 20 & 21.