Keishiki tenpai

Keishiki tenpai 「形式聴牌」, also known as keitan or shaped tenpai, is a tenpai hand with no yaku. Such a hand cannot win normally, but can still gain points from the tenpai settlements at an exhaustive draw. It can also win if it gains a conditional yaku (those being haitei, houtei, rinshan, chankan, or menzen tsumo), but the former four are rare, and menzen tsumo requires a closed hand.

Strategy

Usually, players do not aim for keikshiki tenpai until late into a hand, the third row of discards at the earliest.

While the point gain/loss from tenpai is relatively small, it can still matter, especially in close point races. There is also a small chance that haitei or houtei can allow a win. Therefore, if pushing for keitan is safe, then do so. However, players must be wary of other players already in tenpai, so defense considerations are important. It is better to lose points via noten than to deal into a big hand.

Rule variation

Some house rules do not allow a keishiki tenpai to receive tenpai payment; the hand is treated as noten due to lacking a yaku. However, this practice is generally uncommon.

External links

• 形式聴牌

Keishiki tenpai in Japanese Wikipedia