Concealed Hand
A concealed hand is built without calling discards for exposures. NMJL card lines marked C must be played this way, but the winning tile may be a discard.
Definition
A concealed hand is a hand you build without making any exposures, which means you never call another player's discard to put a group face up on your rack. On the NMJL card, each hand is marked C (concealed) or X (exposed). A hand marked C must be played concealed. A hand marked X allows exposures, though you may still play it without any.
The one discard a concealed hand can use is the tile that completes it. If another player discards the last tile you need, you may call it for Mah Jongg.
A concealed hand is scored at the value printed beside it on the card, like any other hand. Playing concealed does not double that value. The doubles in American Mahjong come from other things: if you win on a discard, the player who threw it pays double; if you draw your winning tile from the wall yourself, everyone pays double; and a hand with no Jokers is worth double, except Singles and Pairs hands, which never use Jokers, and Quints hands, where the League does not apply the bonus.
How It Works in Gameplay
When you play a concealed hand, you cannot call discards to form groups. Your tiles come from the deal, the Charleston, and your draws from the wall, plus the winning tile, which may be a discard. Because you never expose tiles, the other players learn little about what you're building, which makes concealed hands stealthy but slower to complete. You may still swap a natural tile for a Joker in someone's exposure on your turn, because a Joker exchange is not a call.
Every hand in the Singles and Pairs section of the card is concealed.
Example
You go for a concealed hand from the Singles and Pairs section. Turn after turn, you draw from the wall and quietly discard tiles that don't fit. The other players can't tell what you're building because your rack shows no exposures. Then the player to your right discards the exact tile you need. You call "Mah Jongg" and show your hand. The player who discarded the tile pays double the value printed on the card, and the other two players pay that value.
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