Riichi Mahjong:Pinfu

Pinfu (Japanese:平和（ピンフ）,Pinfu), is a 1-han yaku of Riichi Mahjong.

Introduction

Pinfu is a yaku that is easy to get in riichi mahjong. The occurrence rate of this yaku is the fourth highest among all yakus.

Pinfu in Riichi Mahjong

Pinfu is a yaku with slightly more regulations. To get pinfu, one's hand need to meet the following conditions:

• The hand is concealed.
• The hand has no triplets.
• The hand has a 2-side waiting pattern(リャンメン待ちryanmen machi). (i.e. A and A+1 waiting for A-1 and A+2)
  • Example: waiting for and .
  • The following waiting patterns ARE 2-side waiting patterns:
    • waiting for
    • waiting for
  • The following waiting patterns AREN'T 2-side waiting patterns:
    • waiting for
      This is called edge waiting(ペンチャン待ちpenchan machi).
    • waiting for
      This is called closed waiting(カンチャン待ちkanchan machi).
    • waiting for
      This is called pair waiting(シャンポン待ちshanpon machi).
    • waiting for
      This is called single waiting(タンキ待ちtanki machi).
    • waiting for
      This is called extended single waiting(ノベタン待ちnobetan machi).
  • Here are some examples that is slightly complex:
    • waiting for
      If this hand gets a or , pinfu counts.
      If this hand gets a , it counts as single waiting therefore no pinfu.
    • waiting for
      add pinfu to your hand while don't.
• The hand doesn't contain a yakuhai pair - that is, if your pair were a triplet in your hand, it shouldn't has any yaku itself.

In a word, pinfu counts when a hand doesn't has any fu(except for the fu bonus for the winning pattern). In some rules, pinfu and fully concealed hand cannot be added at the same time due to a 2-fu bonus for tsumo. The rule is called "pinfu–tsumo nashi" (平和自摸無し or 平和ツモなし, pinfu–tsumo invalid), sometimes contracted to "pinzumo nashi" (ピンヅモなし). If they can be combined, the rule is called "pinfu–tsumo ari" (平和自摸有り or 平和ツモあり, pinfu–tsumo valid). In the first rule, only fully concealed hand or tsumo is calculated according to a higher point rule.

Thanks to pinfu's regulations, this yaku is often combined with riichi and fully concealed hand, raising the han to 3. It's also easy to raise this number to 5 to reach mangan. Other yakus such as triple triplets and pure straight are often conbined with pinfu as well.

Pinfu in Chinese Standard Mahjong Rules

In Chinese Standard Mahjong Rules, there's a scoring hand with a same name 平和(pinhu) but a easier limitation: the requirements are only "no honor tiles" and "4 sequences, no triplets". It has a score of 2 points.