Jokers in Siamese

Jokers in Siamese

Jokers behave much as they do in the standard game, with a couple of Siamese-specific wrinkles. A joker is a wildcard inside any group of three or more — pungs, kongs, and quints. You may not use one in a pair, and you may not use one as a single tile where the card calls for singles.

Redeeming a joker

On your turn you can redeem a joker sitting in an exposure by handing over the real tile it is standing in for. In Siamese you may redeem from either player's exposures — your own or your opponent's — which gives you more places to put a joker to work.

Two limits

• A declared hand is frozen. Once one of your hands has been declared a completed mah jongg and locked, no one can pull a joker out of it.
• Dead-hand jokers are conditional. A joker in a dead hand's exposure can only be redeemed if that exposure was not the one that caused the hand to die.

Because you are building two hands, jokers are precious — they can rescue whichever hand is falling behind. Hold them until you know which rack needs the help most.