Jigoku: Difference between revisions

The meaning of jigoku wait has undergone some changes over time. It commonly refers to any tanki wait as long as two copies of the winning tiles are visible, but it used to refer only to the case where the winning tile is '''shaa''' (「西」 or '''west''') or other honor tile. Some people now started to use the term to refer to non-tanki waits where there is only one winning tile left. This usage is technically incorrect and misleading for the following reason. The basic idea behind jigoku wait is that the winning tile appears safe in the eyes of the opponents, so that whoever deals in to a jigoku wait will feel like they fall into hell. For example, when two copies of an honor tile are already discarded, the third copy of that honor tile looks safe because it can only be claimed ron if someone has a tanki wait with the fourth copy of it. However, just because there is one winning tile left does not make that tile appear safer. For this reason, some people still think that the term jigoku wait should not be used to refer to numbered tile tanki wait except when all the other wait patterns are negated by suji and kabe.