Ippatsu

Ippatsu 「一発」 is a yaku completely dependent on riichi. It is awarded if the player receives a winning tile within an uninterrupted set of opponent tile draws after the riichi declaration. The earliest possible chance to win with ippatsu comes from the shimocha's discard (player to the right). The latest possible chance to win with ippatsu is with the player's next drawn tile after the riichi declaration. By definition, ippatsu requires a riichi declaration to be in effect, for an additional 1 han. Therefore, ippatsu cannot function as a stand-alone yaku.

Ippatsu
Type Yaku
Kanji 一発
English One shot
Value 1 han
Speed Riichi dependent
Difficulty Luck

Tile calls may immediately end the chance for ippatsu any time before the riichi declarer draws the next tile. This includes any calls for kan, except for shouminkan. Once again, in order to award ippatsu, the cycle between a player's riichi discard and next turn to discard must be uninterrupted. Even if the hand wins before the next tile draw, ippatsu does not count of a tile call was made previously. Thus, players may actually use the option to make tile calls to deliberately deny a player that chance for ippatsu.

Examples

Kan is called prior to the riichi call; and the hand wins on the next draw without interruption. Therefore, ippatsu is valid.
This hand wins on a discard before the next draw.

Ippatsu nullified

In this example, the hand wins from an opponent discard before the next tile draw. However, two tile calls were made prior to the win. So, ippatsu is invalid here.

Compatability

RCH DRI IPP SMO TAN PFU IPK ITT YAK SDJ SDO TOI SNA SNK CHA JUN RPK SSG HRO HON CHN CHI RIN HAI HOU CHK
IPP                                                  

Ippatsu is unique among the yaku, for it requires riichi to even be applicable. Because of this, it is impossible for a hand to with with ippatsu alone. At the very minimum, a hand could be riichi with ippatsu. Unlike riichi, ippatsu is not compatible with every other yaku. Only two cannot mix with ippatsu: rinshan kaihou and houtei raoyui. Regarding rinshan kaihou, the required call for kan to invoke rinshan already cancels out ippatsu. As for houtei, the following example for haitei shows the last possible chance to call riichi, which aims for haitei raoyue.

With haitei

This is the last possible chance for riichi to be called in this hand, when there are eighteen tiles left in the walls, counting the dead wall. So, that leaves four tiles left for regular player draws. For haitei then, the fourth remaining and last tile tile draw goes to the riichi caller.

External links

Ippatsu in Japanese Wikipedia