Dead Hands

A hand is "dead" when it can no longer become a valid winner — usually because of an exposure that fits no line on the card, or because it has ended up with the wrong number of tiles. In Siamese, each of your two hands can go dead on its own.

One hand dead

If a single hand dies, you keep playing with the other one. You cannot win the game anymore — winning needs both hands — but your live hand plays on normally, drawing and discarding. You stay in the game hoping your opponent stumbles into trouble of their own before you are fully out.

Both hands dead

If both of your hands die, you are out and your opponent takes the game. The important part: there is no penalty for it. Nobody pays when a player's two hands both go dead. Your opponent simply wins that hand and you start fresh on the next one.

That "no penalty" rule shapes how boldly you can play. Reaching for two ambitious hands is not as risky as it sounds, because the worst case — both hands dying — costs you nothing but the hand itself.