A player holds thirteen tiles after the deal, including any melded chows, pungs and kongs (3.4.10); Those thirteen do not include kong replacement tiles or flowers (3.4.10); Tiles not yet melded when mahjong is declared are concealed; standing tiles are the concealed tiles a player has not discar...
Why people argue about this
People often assume that all concealed tiles are those left in a player's hand after declaring mahjong, forgetting about kong replacement tiles and flowers which should be considered as part of the thirteen melded tiles, leading to misunderstandings about what exactly constitutes the "hand" in this context.
