Tanki

Tanki

Kanji	単騎
English	Pair wait
Fu	2 fu
Tile types waiting	1 sided wait
Tiles available	3 tiles
Pattern example
Tenhou.net example	Tanki using otakaze Tanki as dora Harabote

Tanki 「単騎」 is one of the basic wait patterns. While most mahjong hands wait to complete the fourth tile group, a tanki wait serves to complete the hand's pair. Thus, it may be referred to as a "pair wait" in English. Unlike the other basic patterns, there are a few types of pair waits to consider.

Pattern

The wait pattern involves waiting for a single tile. In doing so, the hand is looking to complete the pair, while the rest of the hand is completed.

Hadaka tanki

Hadaka tanki in an indefensible position.

Hadaka tanki 「裸単騎」 is a special type of tanki wait. After a hand calls for a discard 4 times, only one tile will be left closed in the hand. The hand waits for another copy of said tile, like a regular tanki. A suukantsu tenpai always has a hadaka tanki wait.

A hadaka tanki wait does not have any special properties of its own. However, because only one tile can be discarded, the hand is left with little option for defense. The worst case scenario for a hand in hadaka tanki involves both the waiting tile and the drawn tile as winning tiles for another player. In this case, the player has no choice but to deal in.

Jigoku

Main article: Jigoku

Jigoku 「地獄」 ("hell wait") is a tanki wait where two of the three tiles are visibly unavailable (e.g. discarded, used as dora indicators). Thus, only one tile is left, making a win particularly unlikely. The final tile could be in another players hand or the dead wall, making a win totally impossible.

Nakabukure

Nakabukure 「中膨れ」 is a type of pair wait. Here, the middle tile is duplicated in a sequence, and the hand waits on said tile. With two of the tiles already in the hand, this gives the wait one less tile to wait for compared to a regular tanki. An alternate term, harabote 「腹ボテ」, may be used, but it is also an inappropriate term.

This shape is not good as a tenpai wait, but is strong before tenpai. The middle tile is an especially strong lone tile. With a nakabukure 4, as shown above, drawing any of 2s-5s or 3s-6s will end up with a ryanmen wait (compared to a normal 4, which only get a ryanmen when drawing 5s or 6s).

Nobetan

Main article: Nobetan

A nobetan is a two-sided tanki wait. The hand waits to complete a pair, but two types of tiles are eligible to complete the pair, because the to-be-paired tile is next to a sequence. Here, if a 3p is drawn, you are left with a 3p pair and 456p sequence. If a 6p is drawn, you are left with a 345p sequence and 6p pair. A nobetan is aligned with suji intervals.

Sanmen nobetan

Sanmen nobetan is a three-sided tanki wait. It works like a nobetan, but attached to two sequences instead of one sequence.

Value

By default, the tanki wait counts for 2 fu.

• If the pair happens consist of yakuhai tiles, then an additional 2 fu is added for said pair.
• If the pair is both the round wind and your seat wind, it may - depending on the ruleset - adds 4 fu instead of the usual 2 fu for yakuhai.

Chiitoitsu hands always have a total of 25 fu, regardless of their wait, types of pairs, or winning type.

Strategy

Tile discarded appearing to be safe, when two already discarded.

A one-sided tanki is considered a "bad wait". It can only wait for a maximum of 3 tiles (of one type), making it the least accepting of all the basic waits.

However, the greatest advantage of tanki is that it you can wait for any type tile, so long as there is at least one copy of the tile remaining. This makes it strong when wishing to win from another player's discard. It is immune to suji and kabe, so it can be used to set suji traps. A tanki wait on an honor tile that was once-discarded is actually strong, as players may believe said tiles to be safe. A hell wait on an honor tile, while unlikely to actually win, is particularly strong if you want to win from another player.

Chiitoitsu hands always have a tanki wait.

A nobetan can be treated like a ryanmen wait - it has good acceptance (maximum of 6 tiles of two types), but other players can use suji against it. (However, it cannot be used for pinfu.)

Related Complex Waits

These complex waits are related to tanki waits.

Aryanmen

Main article: Aryanmen

A ryanmen wait that is adjacent to the hand's pair. When winning with the 6p, this hand can be interpreted as either a "66 + 78" tenpai (a ryanmen wait) or a "6 + 678" tenpai (a tanki wait). The interpretation that would result in the most final points is used.

When winning with 9p, the other side of the ryanmen, the hand can only be interpreted as having a ryanmen wait.

Ryantan, Kantan, & Pentan

Main articles: Ryantan, Kantan, and Pentan

These three wait patterns can all be described as "a triplet with one adjacent tile attached". They are effectively combinations of tanki and another type of basic wait.

Ryantan (Ryanmen + Tanki) - Triplet with a tile that is numerically adjacent, and neither the triplet or the extra tile are a terminal tile. This can be interpreted as "33 + 34" or "333 + 5", thus waiting on 3 types of tiles (2 or 5 or 4). This wait is worth fu only if it wins off the lone tile (in this case, the 4).

Kantan (Kanchan + Tanki) - Triplet with a tile that is numerically 2 away. This can be interpreted as "33 + 35" or "333 + 5", thus waiting on 2 types of tiles (4 or 5).

Pentan (Penchan + Tanki) - Triplet with a tile that is numerically adjacent, and at least one tile is a terminal. This can be interpreted as "11 + 12" or "111 + 2", thus waiting on 2 types of tiles (2 or 3).