Definition
A wall game is a hand that ends with no winner because the wall ran out, and in which no money changes hands.
Under League rules the deal then passes to the right, as it does after every hand. A group that keeps East in the seat after a wall game is playing a house rule, so agree it before the first hand. In tournament scoring a wall game adds ten points for every live hand and takes ten from a dead one.
At the table
A wall game is not a failure, it is an outcome worth playing for. When your own hand is beyond saving, running the wall down costs everyone nothing, while feeding the player with two exposures costs the whole table. The mistake is chasing a hopeless hand to the last tile and throwing the winning discard on the way.
Read the full guide: Dead Hands and Wrong Mahjong Calls: What Happens Next.
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.
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Related: Dead hand, Misdeal, East, Wall. All 52 terms.