Furiten: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 14:58, 26 June 2024

Baiman tenpai, in furiten due to 9-sou in discard. Ron cannot be called here.

While a player's hand is in furiten 「振聴」, the player cannot declare a win on another player's discard (i.e., they cannot ron). They are still allowed to win with their own draw (tsumo), assuming the hand is valid.

The most common form of furiten is with discards: if any tile a player's hand could have won off had been discarded before, it is furiten. A hand may also enter furiten when a player skips a win.

This rule is often used for defense purposes to determine safe tiles: any tile a player discards is 100% safe against that player.

Rule overview

A hand in tenpai is in furiten in any of the following scenarios:

Discard furiten: When at least one winning tile had been discarded before, the hand enters furiten. This applies even if the hand couldn't actually win if it got that tile (due to lacking yaku). A does not have to be in your discard pile to invoke furiten; if an opponent called a tile, it will still trigger fuirten.
Permanent furiten: After declaring riichi, if the first winning tile is skipped, the hand permanently enters furiten.
Temporary furiten: When not in riichi, when a winning tile is skipped, the hand enters temporary furiten. This furiten lasts until the player's next draw.

While in furiten, the hand is unable to call ron upon a discard. However, it is still winnable via self-draw, assuming the hand has valid yaku.

Note: If a hand is in furiten, it is unable to win off any player's discard, regardless of which tile caused the furiten. For example, if your hand is waiting to win with 2p and 5p, and you had discarded 2p before, you are unable to win off an opponent's 5p.

Discard furiten

Example discard pile
2-pin in this discard applies furiten to the example hand

The most common case of furiten involves a player's own discard. If a player's own winning tile had been discarded before, then their hand enters furiten.

You can tell what tiles a player discarded by looking at their discard pile, and looking at the rotated tiles in other players' tile calls. This leads to the most basic strategy to avoid dealing into a player's hand: tiles they have already discarded are guaranteed to be safe against a ron call from that player.

It is important to bear furiten in mind when developing a hand. Frequently, if a hand gets to tenpai and is furiten, then the hand was inefficiently developed. This is not always the case, however, as a player can make a correct decision but still be in furiten.

A common reason for furiten is when a player is in tenpai with an open hand, but it has no guaranteed yaku. In these cases, the hand will only gain yaku if it draws a certain winning tile. If a different winning tile is drawn, the hand will have no yaku, and is thus forced to discard its own winning tile - entering furiten. This most commonly occurs with:

A shanpon wait, with one tile completing a yakuhai triplet, and the other having no yaku.
A ryanmen wait on 14 or 69 on a hand that would otherwise complete tanyao.

These type of cases are known as atozuke.

Finally, a player considering a double riichi should carefully inspect their hand before discarding; if they had a complete hand to begin with, then being in furiten will add insult to the injury of having [passed] on a tenhou or chiihou tsumo.

A hand can escape this type of furiten by changing its waits.

Example tenpai hand

Waiting for:

This hand waits on three different tiles. If the player has a 2-pin in their discard pile, then the hand is in furiten and may not win by ron on any tile. Even if a 5-pin or 8-pin gets discarded by an opponent, ron may not be called.

Temporary furiten

Any player in tenpai has the option to ignore a winning tile. By declining a call for ron, the player then becomes temporarily furiten until their next discard. This is called temporary furiten, because it only lasts for 1 turn. This applies to discarded tiles, as well as tiles used to create a shouminkan.

The primary purpose of the rule is to prevent a player from targeting a later player in the turn order. Once a player sees a tile discarded, they know that they can follow with the same tile and it will be safe for that turn.

A player may deliberately skip a win, entering temporary furiten in the process. This is often done after point standing analysis, such as:

When a player is close to bankrupting, a player in 1st may want to target them in order to end the game faster.
When close to all last, a player may need to ron a specific player to rise up in rank.

Temporary furiten can also be entered by a player who does not have a guaranteed yaku, as described above. Otherwise, a player may mistakenly enter furiten if they don't know their waits correctly.

Rarely, some rulesets vary the rules by allowing a tile call made by another player to cancel temporary furiten.

Permanent furiten during riichi

Main article: Riichi

When a player has declared riichi, the state of temporary furiten does not expire. Therefore, if a riichi hand skips a win, it is no longer able to call ron.

The purpose of this rule is to make it easier to defend against riichi. Any tiles discarded since the declaration is safe against that riichi player.

A player in riichi never has to worry about having no yaku unless they are playing with ryanhan shibari. When ryanhan shibari, a riichi without a guaranteed second yaku may be quite dangerous due to furiten.

Strategy

Defense

Main article: Defense

The furiten rule is essential for defensive play. Any tile that would invoke furiten to a player is 100% safe against that player:

Discard furiten: Any tile that an opponent discarded is 100% against them.
Permanent furiten: After an opponent declares riichi, any tile anyone discards is 100% safe against that riichi player.
Temporary furiten: Any tile that the player to your left has discarded this turn is 100% safe against every player for this turn only.

Suji is a technique that is related to furiten. When a tile is suji, a hand cannot have a ryanmen wait (2-sided wait; the most common type of wait) for that tile without being in furiten.

Working with furiten

Sometimes, it may be necessary to enter tenpai when it would be furiten. Often, this is the result of developing the hand and defending simultaneously.

An important thing to realize is that you only enter furiten when in tenpai. Therefore, it is not the worst thing to keep a wait that could cause furiten later. So long as you complete the wait before tenpai, there is no punishment.

Even if you do enter furiten, a 3-sided wait in furiten is still strong, and a 2-sided wait in furiten remains reasonable (around the level of a 1-sided wait).

Rarely, a hand in damaten can intentionally enter furiten. In this case, the hand is in tenpai, but after a winning tile is drawn, the player does not declare a win but declares riichi - immediately entering furiten. This may be done to score a yaku like pinfu.

Exiting furiten

To exit discard furiten, you can change the hand's wait so that it can no longer win off any of the discarded tiles. For example:

Draw:

Waiting for:

(furiten)

If the hand had discarded previously, it would be in furiten. By drawing and discarding , it now waits on and . Thus, the hand is no longer waiting on , and is no longer in furiten.

External links

振聴

Furiten in Japanese Wikipedia

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 [[Image:Furiten.png|right|thumb|250px|[http://tenhou.net/0/?log=2012110112gm-0009-7447-14ec5c8d&tw=0&ts=4 Baiman tenpai], in furiten due to 9-sou in discard.  Ron cannot be called here.]]
-'''Furiten''' {{kana|振聴}} is a game status where a player cannot declare [[ron]] because of a decision not to use a winning tile. A player in [[Tenpai|tenpai]] is furiten if any of that player's winning tiles are present in one's own discard pile or, in certain conditions, another player's discard pile or [[shouminkan]].  Players in furiten may still win by [[tsumo]], but not by ron.  A call of ron while furiten is penalized by [[chombo]], although computer games will generally forbid the player from declaring a furiten ron.
+While a player's hand is in '''furiten''' {{kana|振聴}}, the player cannot declare a win on another player's [[ron|discard]] (i.e., they cannot [[ron]]). They are still allowed to win with their own draw ([[tsumo]]), assuming the hand is valid.
-In all cases, the furiten rule requires a player to be aware of all of their [[machi|tile waits]]. If a player is [[tenpai]] but does not realize all of their possible waits, they may not be aware that they are furiten and, as a result, call an illegal win. This is especially true of a player who has called [[riichi]], because they can be furiten off of anyone's discard for a long period of time.
+The most common form of furiten is with discards: if any tile a player's hand could have won off had been discarded before, it is furiten. A hand may also enter furiten when a player skips a win.
-To enforce furiten, the [[discard pile]] is specifically arranged in front of players and [[Naki|tile calls]] have one tile turned to indicate who discarded the tile. The discard arrangements allow players to keep track of who discarded which tiles.  During a hand, players should take note of their status in relation to furiten and avoid calling winning hands while in furiten.  Likewise, any calls for winning hands should have the discards checked for furiten.  Any game involving software already checks for furiten, alerts players, and denies winning calls.
+This rule is often used for [[defense]] purposes to determine [[genbutsu|safe tiles]]: any tile a player discards is 100% safe against that player.
-Furiten is translated as '''sacred discard''' in Chinese.  In consequence, English terminology had made this the equivalent.  However, this translation bears no relation to the Japanese term ({{kana|振り聴牌}}: thrown-away tenpai).
+== Rule overview ==
+A hand in [[tenpai]] is in furiten in any of the following scenarios:
-== Rule statement ==
+* '''Discard furiten:''' When at least one winning tile had been discarded before, the hand enters furiten. This applies even if the hand couldn't actually win if it got that tile (due to lacking [[yaku]]). A  does not have to be in your discard pile to invoke furiten; if an opponent [[naki|called]] a tile, it will still trigger fuirten.
+* '''Permanent furiten:''' After declaring [[riichi]], if the first winning tile is skipped, the hand permanently enters furiten.
+* '''Temporary furiten:''' When not in riichi, when a winning tile is skipped, the hand enters temporary furiten. This furiten lasts until the player's next draw.
-A player in tenpai is in furiten in any of the following scenarios:
+While in furiten, the hand is unable to call ron upon a discard. However, it is still winnable via self-draw, assuming the hand has valid yaku.
-* They have discarded, at any point in the hand, one of their winning tiles.
+Note: If a hand is in furiten, it is unable to win off ''any'' player's discard, regardless of which tile caused the furiten. For example, if your hand is waiting to win with 2p and 5p, and you had discarded 2p before, you are unable to win off an opponent's 5p.
-* They are not in [[riichi]]; since their last turn, another player either discarded or made a [[shouminkan]] of one of their winning tiles; and they did not call ron on that tile.
-* They are in riichi; since they declared riichi, another player either discarded or made a [[shouminkan]] of one of their winning tiles; and they did not call ron on that tile.
-When evaluating furiten, [[yaku]] are not taken into account. A player may find themselves in a situation where they are forced to discard or pass on a tile that does not give them a yaku, but would otherwise have completed their hand. This will lead to furiten.
+=== Discard furiten ===
-A player who is in furiten cannot call ron, although they can still call tsumo or make any other legal play.
-=== Own discard furiten ===
 {{Discard pile
@@ Line 31: / Line 28: @@
 }}
-When a player is in furiten because of their own discard, it is sometimes called '''permanent furiten'''. This name is slightly misleading because a player can (unless they have declared riichi) change their waits to avoid this form of furiten.
+The most common case of furiten involves a player's own discard. If a player's own winning tile had been discarded before, then their hand enters furiten.
-All of a player's discards can be checked at any time during play, by looking at their discard pools and the rotated tiles in other players' tile calls. This leads to the most basic strategy to avoid dealing into a player's hand: tiles they have already discarded are guaranteed safe against a ron call from that player.
+You can tell what tiles a player discarded by looking at their discard pile, and looking at the rotated tiles in other players' tile calls. This leads to the most basic strategy to avoid dealing into a player's hand: tiles they have already discarded are guaranteed to be safe against a ron call from that player.
-During hand development, it is important to bear furiten in mind. Most of the time, if a hand gets to tenpai and is furiten at that point, it indicates that the hand was inefficiently developed. This is not always the case, as sometimes a player makes a tactically correct decision and finds themselves in furiten anyway.
+It is important to bear furiten in mind when developing a hand. Frequently, if a hand gets to tenpai and is furiten, then the hand was inefficiently developed. This is not always the case, however, as a player can make a correct decision but still be in furiten.
-The most common reason for furiten, however, is when a player is already tenpai with an open hand, and does not have a guaranteed yaku. While they may have a winning tile that provides them with a yaku, if that draw another tile which completes the hand without a yaku, then they will be forced into furiten on the next discard. This most commonly occurs with a [[shanpon]] wait, one pair of which would give [[yakuhai]], or with a [[ryanmen]] wait on 14 or 69 on a hand that would otherwise complete [[tanyao]].
+A common reason for furiten is when a player is in tenpai with an open hand, but it has no guaranteed yaku. In these cases, the hand will only gain yaku if it draws a certain winning tile. If a different winning tile is drawn, the hand will have no yaku, and is thus forced to discard its own winning tile - entering furiten. This most commonly occurs with:
+*A [[shanpon]] wait, with one tile completing a [[yakuhai]] triplet, and the other having no yaku.
+*A [[ryanmen]] wait on 14 or 69 on a hand that would otherwise complete [[tanyao]].
+These type of cases are known as [[atozuke]].
 Finally, a player considering a [[daburu riichi|double riichi]] should carefully inspect their hand before discarding; if they had a complete hand to begin with, then being in furiten will add insult to the injury of having [[http://osamuko.com/delicious-riichi-button-must-click-it/ passed]] on a [[tenhou and chiihou|tenhou or chiihou tsumo]].
+A hand can escape this type of furiten by changing its waits.
 '''Example tenpai hand'''
@@ Line 51: / Line 53: @@
 === Temporary furiten ===
 [[Image:TempFuriten.png|thumb|right|250px|Ron declined, so [http://tenhou.net/0/?log=2014022617gm-0089-0000-ee8c6631&tw=2&ts=11 temporary furiten invoked] until the next own's tile draw.]]
-Any player in tenpai has the option to ignore a winning tile.  By declining a call for ron, the player then becomes temporarily furiten until their next discard. This is called '''temporary furiten''', as it expires shortly after it occurs. Although most of the time, it will apply to a discarded tile, it can also apply to a tile used to create a [[shouminkan]]. Temporary furiten cannot apply to a tile used to create an [[ankan]], as if a player can call ron on an ankan, then they have a single-sided [[kokushi musou]] wait (and even then, this is not permitted in [[Rule variations#Kokushi and chankan|all rulesets]]). If they decline a ron, then their hand is dead and cannot be completed.
+Any player in tenpai has the option to ignore a winning tile. By declining a call for ron, the player then becomes temporarily furiten until their next discard. This is called '''temporary furiten''', because it only lasts for 1 turn. This applies to discarded tiles, as well as tiles used to create a [[shouminkan]].
+The primary purpose of the rule is to prevent a player from targeting a later player in the turn order. Once a player sees a tile discarded, they know that they can follow with the same tile and it will be safe for that turn.
-The primary purpose of the rule is to prevent a player from targeting a later player in the turn order. Once a player sees a tile discarded, they know that they can follow with the same tile and it will be safe.
+A player may deliberately skip a win, entering temporary furiten in the process. This is often done after [[situational analysis|point standing analysis]], such as:
-While this is often a mistake to enter temporary furiten, done by a player who does not know their waits correctly or is not paying attention, it may be done deliberately in order to achieve a higher scoring hand or to target a specific player. This becomes much more common in [[orasu]], where a player may gain little benefit from winning a hand that does not [[gyakuten|let them pass another player]]. Temporary furiten can also be entered by a player who does not have a guaranteed yaku, as described above. This is much less devastating than drawing the [[yasume]] tile, however, because it is only temporary.
+*When a player is close to [[tobi|bankrupting]], a player in 1st may want to target them in order to end the game faster.
+*When close to [[oorasu|all last]], a player may need to ron a specific player to [[gyakuten|rise up in rank]].
-Uncommonly, some rulesets [[Rule variations#Furiten|vary the rules]] by allowing a tile call made by another player to cancel temporary furiten. This variation is considered by many to be a poor one.
+Temporary furiten can also be entered by a player who does not have a guaranteed yaku, as described above. Otherwise, a player may mistakenly enter furiten if they don't know their waits correctly.
+Rarely, some rulesets [[Rule variations#Furiten|vary the rules]] by allowing a tile call made by another player to cancel temporary furiten.
 === Permanent furiten during riichi ===
@@ Line 63: / Line 70: @@
 {{main|Riichi}}
-When a player has declared riichi, the state of temporary furiten does not expire. Per the rule of riichi, a player cannot change wait. Therefore, the hand can no longer be adjusted to escape furiten.  The only one opportunity to call ron comes from the first instance of a winning discarded tile.  If the call to win is declined, then the only option to win the hand comes via tsumo. This rule is a critical part of defense against riichi, as it means that any tiles discarded since the declaration is safe to the riichi called player.
+When a player has declared riichi, the state of temporary furiten does not expire. Therefore, if a riichi hand skips a win, it is no longer able to call ron.
-A player in riichi never has to worry about [[yasume]] putting them in furiten unless they are playing with [[ryanhan shibari]]. When ryanhan shibari, a riichi without a guaranteed second yaku may be quite dangerous due to furiten.
+The purpose of this rule is to make it easier to defend against riichi. Any tiles discarded since the declaration is safe against that riichi player.
+A player in riichi never has to worry about having no yaku unless they are playing with [[ryanhan shibari]]. When ryanhan shibari, a riichi without a guaranteed second yaku may be quite dangerous due to furiten.
 == Strategy ==
 === Defense ===
+{{main|Defense}}
-{{main|Defense}}
+The furiten rule is essential for defensive play. Any tile that would invoke furiten to a player is 100% safe against that player:
+*Discard furiten: Any tile that an opponent discarded is 100% against them.
+*Permanent furiten: After an opponent declares [[riichi]], any tile anyone discards is 100% safe against that riichi player.
+*Temporary furiten: Any tile that the player to your left has discarded this turn is 100% safe against every player for this turn only.
-The furiten rule may be applied for defensive play, which focuses on discarding [[safe tiles]]. By discarding tiles that are also visible in an opponent's discard pile, a player can avoid a ron call by that opponent.  Likewise, usage of [[suji]] and [[kabe]] may also help players deduce safe tiles, based on opponent discard.  This is applied when a player does not have any matching tiles in the hand with opponent discard; or a player may rather keep certain tiles, for the sake of developing the hand without [[betaori|tearing it apart]].
+[[Suji]] is a technique that is related to furiten. When a tile is suji, a hand cannot have a [[ryanmen]] wait (2-sided wait; the most common type of wait) for that tile without being in furiten.
 ===Working with furiten===
+Sometimes, it may be necessary to enter tenpai when it would be furiten. Often, this is the result of developing the hand and defending simultaneously.
+An important thing to realize is that you only enter furiten when in tenpai. Therefore, it is not the worst thing to keep a wait that could cause furiten later. So long as you complete the wait before tenpai, there is no punishment.
+Even if you do enter furiten, a 3-sided wait in furiten is still strong, and a 2-sided wait in furiten remains reasonable (around the level of a 1-sided wait).
+Rarely, a hand in [[damaten]] can intentionally enter furiten. In this case, the hand is in tenpai, but after a winning tile is drawn, the player does not declare a win but declares riichi - immediately entering furiten. This may be done to score a yaku like [[pinfu]].
-Sometimes, it may be necessary to deliberately place the hand in furiten.  Often, this is the result of developing the hand and defending simultaneously.  To escape the bind applied by furiten, then the hand's [[machi|tile wait(s)]] must simply change by adjusting and changing the tiles in the hand with subsequent tile draws.  Of course, a player may place greater expectation on tsumo to win rather than ron.
+===Exiting furiten===
+To exit discard furiten, you can change the hand's [[wait]] so that it can no longer win off any of the discarded tiles. For example:
-=== Furiten tsumo ===
+:{{#mjt:22288m23p3456'78s}} Draw: {{#mjt:3p}} Waiting for: {{#mjt:14p}} (furiten)
-Hands in furiten can still win, as furiten imposes a limit of tsumo only.  For open hands, the hand requires a valid yaku.  For closed hands, [[mentsumo]] will be acceptable or added.
+If the hand had discarded {{#mjt:1p}} previously, it would be in furiten. By drawing {{#mjt:3p}} and discarding {{#mjt:2p}}, it now waits on {{#mjt:3p}} and {{#mjt:8m}}. Thus, the hand is no longer waiting on {{#mjt:1p}}, and is no longer in furiten.
 == External links ==