Aryanmen
Aryanmen 「亜両面」 is a variation on the ryanmen waiting pattern. Appearing as a complete sequence with one extra tile on an end,[1] it can either be interpreted as "a ryanmen next to the hand's pair" or "a complete sequence with a tanki wait". Aryanmen is generally weaker than ryanmen, since 2 of the 8 winning tiles are in the hand, though it is better than tanki if a hand needs a pair.
| Kanji | 亜両面 |
|---|---|
| English | Pair-attached open wait |
| Fu | Pair dependent |
| Tile types waiting | 2 sided wait |
| Tiles available | 6 tiles |
| Pattern example |
   |
Tile pattern
Waiting for: 
In this example, the underlying ryanmen wait is based on the 67m, but additionally, 567m can be viewed as a complete sequence, in which case the other 5m creates a pair wait.
Scoring
When aryanmen is won with the waiting tile not already present in hand, the wait can only be interpreted as a ryanmen wait, and it will score 0 fu.
When aryanmen is won with the waiting tile already present in hand, it can be interpreted as either a tanki or ryanmen wait. In this case, the highest-scoring option must be chosen. Normally, this will be the 2 fu for a tanki wait, but if the hand qualifies for the pinfu yaku, that will be scored instead.
Formation
If the hand currently lacks a pair, aryanmen is a relatively easy way to form a 2-sided wait. For each complete sequence you have, there will be 2 types of tile you can draw to form an aryanmen (and another 1-2 types that can form a nobetan). This can help with pinfu, which aryanmen counts for. However, aryanmen is weaker than ryanmen, since the tile acceptance is only 6 instead of 8.
Ryantan, kantan, and pentan can be formed in a similar way - by drawing an adjacent tile next to a triplet, you have a 2/3-sided wait for a pair.
Notes
- ↑ An extra tile on either end works, except for 1233 and 7789.
External Links
- Aryanmen in Japanese Wikipedia