Fu

Fu 「符」 (pronounced as foo) is a component of scoring. It takes the hand composition into consideration in terms of tile groups, wait patterns and/or win method. In addition, every hand begins with a default start value of 20 fu. To determine the final number of fu, the sources of fu are added up along with the base number and then rounded up to the nearest 10. One exception falls on the chii toitsu yaku, which is always 25 fu, regardless of other factors.

Tile groups

For shuntsu (sequences), the fu count is 0. For koutsu (triplet) and kantsu (four-of-a-kind), the fu value depends on whether they are tanyaohai (simples) or jihai/routouhai (honor/terminals).

English	Romaji	Simples	Honor/Terminal
Open triplet	Minkou	2 fu	4 fu
Open kan	Minkan	8 fu	16 fu
Closed triplet	Ankou	4 fu	8 fu
Closed kan	Ankan	16 fu	32 fu

Waits

The different basic wait patterns count for fu as well. Other wait patterns not listed include nobetan and ryanmenten. Nobetan counts for a tanki; and ryanmenten counts for ryanmen. Other combination patterns factor fu the same as the basic patterns listed here. However, the fu counts only one time. For example, a combination of tanki and kanchan only generates 2 fu from one pattern but not for both.

As for shanpon, the fu generated with this pattern rests on the tile groupings themselves as indicated in the above table.

English	Romaji	Fu value
Open wait	Ryanmen	0 fu
Closed wait	Kanchan	2 fu
Edge wait	Penchan	2 fu
Pair wait	Tanki	2 fu

Yakuhai pair

If the hand's pair is of tiles that would score yakuhai in a koutsu, then this scores 2 fu.

Depending on the scoring rules used, if the pair is of the round wind and the seat wind, it may score 2 fu, or 4 fu.

Winning condition

• Winning with a closed hand by ron, the hand is awarded 10 fu. These 10 fu are called menzen-kafu and do not count against the player for achieving pinfu.
• A win by tsumo with an open or closed hand is worth 2 fu.
• An exception to the fu for tsumo is a closed hand that satisfies all other criteria for pinfu. Such a hand does not score 2 fu for tsumo and instead gains the han for pinfu.
• Depending on the scoring rules used, a hand won with a kan replacement tile may also be ineligible for the 2 fu for tsumo, instead scoring only the han for rinshan kaihou.
• An open hand won by ron without any fu from koutsu or the waiting pattern (i.e. 20 fu) is forced to 30 fu. This is often described as being worth 2 fu for an open pinfu.

1 han and 110 fu

A hand with 1 han and 110 fu is an exceptionally rare hand. Its requirements are particularly limited, because the hand must be composed of all, not just some, the conditions in the following example.

Example of a 1 han and 110 fu hand:

South player at South round: Ron: (tsumo produces 3 additional han - mentsumo and sanankou)

• 1 han from yakuhai
• base fu: 20
• closed hand ron: 10
• composition of hand:
  • open triplet: 4
  • closed quad: 32
  • closed quad: 32
  • double wind pair: 4

Total 102, round up to 110

This is the greatest fu count for any hand, worth 1 han or even 2 han. With the mangan limit applied, counting this many fu for anything 3 han or higher is no longer relevant, unless the scoring system of aotenjou is used. With aotenjou, higher counts of fu remains relevant towards point calculation.

External links

• 符

Fu in Japanese Wikipedia