
I know this question comes up frequently and is one of those issues that causes much discussion. Well, leave it to the Grand Master of American-style Mah Jongg, the wonderful Gladys Grad, to provide us with a definitive answer!
Q.
The hand in question is: 22 44 666 888 DDDD.
A player had 4 RED Dragons already exposed on her rack from a previous call for one of the Red Dragons. She declared Mah Jongg and picked up a 6 Bam and added 2 Jokers with it on her rack. Then she proceeded to expose the rest of the Mah Jongg hand. She put three 8 Bams on the rack and then two 2 Craks and two 4 Craks. Of course the hand was dead as she needed two 2 DOTS & two 4 DOTS because the hand calls for 3 suits. Now another player says that since she exposed the 6 Bams first with the 2 jokers, that that part of the hand was still available for exchanging the joker. Was the Joker in the 6 Bam exposure still viable? VS, CA
A. No, that Joker was NOT viable. If it had been a Joker in the previously exposed Red Dragons, then it could be exchanged. But the 6 Bam exposure made with Jokers was still part of the current turn that resulted in it being declared a dead hand.
I hope this will help those of you who are still not sure when a Joker is still viable in a dead hand. Send me some of your situations with dead hands and Jokers and I will post them on a future blog.

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