Pinfu

Conditions

• Your hand must be completely closed (no open calls)
• All four melds must be sequences (chi) — no triplets or quads allowed
• Your pair must be valueless — it cannot be a dragon, the round wind, or your seat wind
• Your winning wait must be a two-sided wait (ryanmen) — waiting on either end of a two-tile sequence (for example, holding 4-5 and waiting on 3 or 6)
• Single-sided waits (penchan), closed waits (kanchan), and pair waits (shanpon/tanki) do not qualify

Strategy Tips

• Pinfu is the quintessential “cheap but fast” yaku. It rewards building a clean, efficient hand of sequences. When your starting tiles lean toward connected middle tiles, pinfu is often your natural path.
• Pay close attention to your pair. If you have a pair of dragons or the relevant wind, your hand cannot be pinfu even if everything else qualifies. Plan early to pair a valueless tile like a simple number tile or an irrelevant wind.
• The two-sided wait requirement means you should aim to finish with a ryanmen shape. If your final wait is a single-sided edge wait (like 1-2 waiting on 3) or a middle wait (like 4-6 waiting on 5), you lose pinfu. Structure your hand so your last incomplete sequence has both sides open.