Exposure
An exposure is a group of tiles placed face up on your rack after you call a discard. Everyone can see it, and it stays there for the rest of the hand.
Definition
An exposure is a group of tiles that a player places face up on top of their rack for everyone to see. You make one by calling another player's discard to complete a group of three or more matching tiles: a pung, kong, quint, or sextet. Once your turn is over, those tiles stay exposed for the rest of the hand. The one change allowed after that is a Joker exchange: on their turn, any player holding the matching natural tile may swap it for a Joker in your exposure.
How It Works in Gameplay
When any player discards a tile that completes a group of three or more for you, you may call it. You then place the completed group face up on your rack and discard a tile. You cannot call a discard to make a single or a pair, except when that tile wins you the game. Exposures help your hand along faster, but they also tell the other players what you're collecting, and skilled players read them to guess your hand. On the NMJL card, hands marked C (concealed) allow no exposures, and hands marked X allow them.
Example
You hold two 7 Dots, and the player to your left discards a 7 Dot. You call it, complete a pung of three 7 Dots, and place them face up on your rack. Now everyone at the table can see you're collecting 7 Dots, which may help them guess your hand, and they may stop discarding tiles you need.
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