Concealed Hands: Not for New Players!

Who tells new players not to play Concealed hands?

Um, er, that would be me.

Sorry, not sorry.

When you’re just learning the game, the last thing you need is a set of rules that ties your hands behind your back. And if you’re not familiar with the difference between Concealed hands and Exposed hands, here are the basics:

Exposed hands: Any hand on the card that has an X before the point/money value. When you play these hands, you can call anybody’s discarded tile at any time. You don’t have to wait for your turn.

The tile you call has to complete a pung, kong, quint, or sextet. In other words, a grouping of three or more identical tiles. And you must expose that grouping on the top of your rack, where it will camp out for the remainder of the game.

Concealed hands: Any hand with a C before the point/money value. When you play these hands, you cannot call any discarded tile. Period. Full stop. No matter how much you want to, or how nicely you ask.

The ONLY exception is if it’s your mahjong tile. 

No exposures. Secret. Concealed.

Like I said… practically tying both hands behind your back. It’s much harder, can be frustrating, and requires a different strategy. Not for new players!

So why in the world do so many new players attempt these hands?!

Crazy reason number 1:

The Concealed hands are usually the last lines of any section of the card, and those lines are easier to track. Tracking a hand on the card is a learned skill that takes time, and most newbies aren’t there... yet.

So lots of inexperienced players play Concealed hands without realizing they’re Concealed until it’s too late. Total bummer.

Crazy reason number 2:

Concealed hands have lots of singles and pairs. New players often see the singles and pairs on their racks and look for hands that will use them as-is.

In reality, they should be thinking of those tiles as the beginnings of pungs, kongs, and quints. Think of those tiles as the scaffolding you’ll be building onto, rather than the finished structure.

There is a hand with a boatload of singles and pairs that seems to be a Siren’s Song to newbies. And it’s not even Concealed.

The fourth hand in 13579. The complicated floating pairs hand. It’s not unusual to finish the Charleston with most of the singles. But then you still have to assemble two kongs of different suits in the same odd number, and it has to match the pair that you may not have. Talk about frustration!

I get it. There is something very alluring about having little bits of a hand “finished.” But if you don’t at least have the beginnings of the rest of the hand, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment.

The same goes for Concealed hands. Once you have a grasp on how much harder these are to play and want to try something more challenging... go for it!

But I let the tiles make that choice. Not me.

In other words, if I don’t have ten or more tiles toward one of those hands at the end of the Charleston, I simply don’t go there.

Oh, and when you do, have a backup plan.

A Plan B. Or C.

Always.

Have Concealed hands ever had you contemplating “accidentally” knocking over the table? Have you had roaring successes with them? Or have you stayed far far far away hoping for the day that they don’t seem so impossible? Share your experiences in the comments below. We’d love to know!