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Furiten
Furiten means no ron: if any tile you wait on is already in your own kawa, only tsumo can win. The three cases, with a 3-6 sou example.
What furiten prevents
Furiten is a state that bars you from winning by ron. The moment even one of your waiting tiles (your ukeire) appears in your own kawa, your discard pile, you may no longer call ron on any of your waits. Tsumo, the self-draw win, always stays available.
The three ways to become furiten
There are three cases. Discard furiten lasts while the wait contains one of your own discards, even if the resulting hand would have no yaku. Under Tenhou rules, temporary furiten from a passed tile clears after your next discard; your own call does not clear it immediately. WRC 2025 clears it on your next draw or your own call. After riichi, it lasts until the end of the hand.
A 3-6 sou wait example
The trap is that furiten covers all of your waits, not only the tile you already discarded. With a two-sided wait on 3-6 sou, if you threw a 6 sou earlier, you are furiten on the 3 sou just as much as on the 6 sou. As a result, that hand can now only be completed by tsumo.
Check your kawa before riichi
In practice, always check your kawa before locking in a wait. Furiten is not always a flaw (a furiten riichi is sometimes a deliberate tactic that bets on the self-draw), but for a beginner it is above all the rule that voids a ron they thought had won. Building the habit of scanning your own discards prevents the most frustrating mistake in the game.
Rules references
- Tenhou rulesReference profile used for game mechanics and scoring.
- WRC Rules 2025International rules compared whenever their options differ from Tenhou.