NEXT PLAYER AFTER PLAYER PICKED OUT OF TURN (ARTICLE 209)

Commentary: If a player picks out of turn, the player is disqualified. What happens next depends on what they do with the tile:

• Tile is racked, it stays in the player’s rack. They no longer play, and the game continues to the right, even if turns are skipped.
• Tile is not racked and another player immediately notices, it is returned to the wall. Play continues to the right of the disqualified player.
• Tile is discarded, it cannot be called for an exposure and is a dead tile.
  • If another player declares Mah Jongg, the game ends and the discarder pays four times the value of the hand.
  • Otherwise, play continues to the right of the disqualified player.
• If the previous player has not yet discarded, they must discard to complete their turn before play continues to the right.

Question from a player: When a player picks from the wall, racks the tile, and discards out of turn: I know the out-of-turn player should be disqualified. From where does play resume? To the right of the disqualified player, or does play revert back to the player(s) who were skipped?

Answer from the NMJL: The player to the right of the last action taken is next.

Source: Mah Jongg Made Easy (2024 page 19 #15 [h]); NMJL responding to a call from a player (01/26/2024)