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Tenpai and shanten

Step 1 of 4

One tile from winning

When a single tile would complete your hand, you are in . The tiles that complete it are your .

In tenpai: waiting on 1 or 4 of bamboo

You drew . Discard one tile to reach tenpai.

The useful tile is often already in your hand

Each turn, ask: which discard keeps me closest to winning? Sometimes the new tile is the one that helps.

You drew . Which discard leaves you in tenpai?

Shanten: how far away you are

1-shanten

counts the distance: one useful tile from tenpai is 1-shanten, two is 2-shanten. Here and each need one tile, and the does nothing.

How far is this hand from tenpai?

Don't go backwards

Throw away tiles that belong to no set, pair or partial set: losing them costs little. Riichi Arena's hints can show how many tiles away you are while you learn.

You drew . Discard without moving away from tenpai.

Put it into practice. Free account, rated games, no downloads.

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Related

  • Wait shapes Ryanmen, kanchan, penchan, shanpon, tanki and multi-sided waits.
  • Tile efficiency Discard so the most tiles help you.
  • Riichi Declaring ready: conditions, the deposit, ippatsu, ura dora.