Tanyao 断幺九

What It Is

Tanyao (断幺九, “cut off the ones, nines and honours”) means every tile in your hand is a simple: 2 to 8 of Characters, Circles or Bamboo. Melds count too, and so does the pair.

The shape doesn’t matter. Runs, triplets, even seven pairs: if there’s no terminal or honour anywhere, it’s tanyao.

What It’s Worth

Tanyao is 1 han, open or closed. On its own that’s a small hand, but red fives are simples too, so tanyao and aka dora go together very naturally.

Its real value is speed. Tanyao lets you call from the first go-round with a yaku already in sight, which is how a small hand beats a big one to the finish and stops a dealer from keeping the deal.

Open Tanyao

This game plays kuitan: tanyao still counts after a chi or pon. That makes it the go-to yaku for a fast open hand. Call a 3-4-5 here, pon some 6s there, and you’re ready while others are still sorting their tiles.

How To Build It

Start throwing terminals and honours from your first discard, unless you’re keeping a dragon pair for yakuhai. A hand with eight or more simples after the deal is a strong tanyao candidate.

Watch your edges. A 7-8 waiting on 6 or 9 is a trap: win on the 9 and the tanyao is gone. Prefer shapes like 4-5 or 5-6 that can only finish with simples.

Common Mistakes

• Calling into a dead end. Pon a 7 and keep a 1-2 in hand, and no finish gives tanyao. With the hand open there’s no riichi to save you, and the win is blocked.
• The terminal wait. 2-3 waits on 1 or 4, and only one of those is tanyao.
• Forgetting the pair. A pair of 9s or of a wind ruins an otherwise perfect hand.

What It Combines With

Closed, tanyao sits with riichi, pinfu, iipeikou and menzen tsumo: riichi, tanyao, pinfu and a dora is a hand every player knows. Open, it goes with toitoi, sanshoku and even chinitsu. It can never meet yakuhai, chanta or honitsu, which all need terminals or honours.