Waits & Tenpai
Tenpai
Also called: 聽牌, ready hand, ting
One tile away from completing a winning hand.
Tenpai means your hand is one tile from winning. The tile(s) that would complete your hand are called your waits. Reaching tenpai is the gate for declaring riichi in Japanese mahjong, and the basic precondition for any win in any variant. Calculators like this one show you exactly which tiles are your waits when you're in tenpai.
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