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 pinfu, 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. Any complete sequence can be turned into an aryanmen if you draw either end of the sequence. This can help with scoring pinfu, for instance. 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 - drawing an adjacent tile to a triplet will result in 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