What is a "dead hand"?

Question

This book states that "If a claimed tile is not taken within the next two opponents’ turns, i.e. before another two discards has been made, the player has a dead hand."

What is a dead hand, and how does it affect the game?

Answer 1

"Dead hand" has a few different meanings. It's hard to tell just from that one sentence, but it sounds like the one you're describing is the case where somebody forgets to take a tile, so their hand ends up short tiles (it's also a dead hand if the player forgets to discard and thus has too many tiles). A dead hand cannot be used to win the round, but the player still takes their turns as normal until the round ends.

"Dead hand" also sometimes refers to a declared mahjong that turns out to be invalid (like above, that player cannot win anymore, and play continues), or a round where all tiles are drawn from the wall and nobody makes mahjong, but neither seems to be what you're referring to in this case

Answer 2

The term "dead hand" is maybe ambiguous. The certainly most common use is for hands that may no further participate in the game due to a critical, usually accidental, mistake. This is related, but not identical to chombo (a usually intentional mistake by a player that ends the round and forces the offender to pay mangan).

The OP was referring to MCR rules. I am not very familiar with MCR, but to gain a basic understanding of the term, let me refer you to these (simplified) rules for dead hands in riichi mahjong:

1. The following actions result in a dead hand:
   • Looking at the tiles in an opponents hand or the dead wall.
   • Drawing a tile before the opponent before you has discarded, or drawing in any inappropriate way.
   • Making an invalid CHI, PON or KAN or declaring one invalidly. This includes KUIGAE.
2. A hand is dead immediately after any of the above conditions are noticed.
3. A player with a dead hand may not declare CHI PON KAN or a win.
4. A player with a dead hand is considered NOTEN, even if his hand is TENPAI.

I have found one other use of the term "dead hand", but I have never seen this elsewhere:

A hand in which no one completes a winning hand before all tiles except the Dead Wall have been drawn. The round ends then with no winner.

Answer 3

What I call a dead hand is one where there is no possibility of winning. The case I’m thinking of is a hand that was complete except it was missing one pair. All four of the needed tiles were out. Because it was for a pair and I didn’t have even one of the two, my hand was “dead”. If I had one, I could claim a discarded one even though it was for a pair because you can call for the second tile in a pair if it’s for mah jong but I didn’t have any and the game was nearly over. I was taught that you can declare a dead hand and let the game continue three handed, without you. Is there a rule about this ?