Definition
Declaring mahjong is announcing that your fourteen tiles exactly match a line on the current card, which ends the hand immediately.
A mahjong call beats any other call for the same tile. A false call costs nothing on its own, but showing your tiles on one makes your hand dead.
At the table
Say it before you touch anything else, then expose the whole hand and let the table check it against the card. The mistake is calling on a hand that nearly matches. Showing your tiles on a wrong call makes your hand dead on the spot, which is a brutal way to lose a hand you were two tiles from winning honestly.
Read the full guide: American Mahjong Rules: The Complete Plain-English Reference.
See it on real tiles. The AI coach reads a dealt hand, free, and names the direction it goes for, what to keep and what to pass, at the free read.
Want the coach on call? The Club adds the coach for your own tiles and for each morning’s hand, all 10 lessons, and every new NMJL card taught the week it lands, for $14.99 a month, cancel anytime. See what the Club includes.
Related: Self-picked, The card, Direction, Dragons. All 52 terms.