Straits MahjongMenzen Tsumo 門前清自摸和
Menzen tsumo is the quiet safety net of Riichi. Keep your hand closed and draw your own winning tile, and you have a yaku even when the shape gives you nothing else.
What It Is
Menzen means “closed in front”: a hand with no chi, pon or open kan. Tsumo is winning on your own draw. Put them together and the win itself is a yaku. A concealed kan (ankan) still counts as closed.
That’s all it asks. The shape can be anything, even a hand with a guest-wind pair and a triplet of plain numbers that has nothing else going for it.
What It’s Worth
| Table | Called | Worth |
|---|---|---|
| Singapore | Men Qing Zi Mo | 1 tai |
| Riichi | Menzen Tsumo | 1 han, closed only |
It’s 1 han, closed only. Singapore’s Men Qing Zi Mo is the same idea, nothing claimed and a self-drawn win, worth 1 tai; see Men Qing.
On a tsumo everybody pays, and a tsumo normally earns a little extra fu too. The one exception is pinfu, which gives up the tsumo fu in exchange for its own yaku.
Closed Or Open
Closed only. One chi or pon and menzen tsumo is gone, which is why it’s worth thinking before every call. An open hand that wins by tsumo is still paid by all three players, but it needs a yaku from somewhere else.
How It Saves A Hand
Say you’re ready without a yaku and choose not to declare riichi. A ron is impossible: the hand has nothing to win with. Draw the winning tile yourself, though, and menzen tsumo makes it a legal win.
This is why a closed hand is rarely truly yakuless. It always has two roads to a win, riichi or tsumo, while an open hand without yakuhai or tanyao has none.
Common Mistakes
- Counting it on a ron. It needs your own draw. A closed hand won on a discard gets extra fu instead, not this yaku.
- Calling “just once”. A single pon opens the hand for good, and menzen tsumo, riichi and pinfu go with it.
- Forgetting it’s there. A hand you thought was cheap can climb with riichi, menzen tsumo and a dora on one draw.
What It Combines With
Everything closed. Riichi plus menzen tsumo is the most common pair in the game, and ippatsu, pinfu, tanyao and chiitoitsu all stack with it. Haitei raoyue, winning on the last tile of the wall, and rinshan kaihou, winning on a kan’s replacement tile, are tsumo wins too, so a closed hand collects menzen tsumo with them.