Heavenly hand 天和 · tenhou
The dealer's starting fourteen tiles are already a complete hand.
| Value | Yakuman (closed hands only) |
|---|---|
| How often | very rare |
There is nothing to build and nothing to decide: either the wall deals the dealer a finished hand or it does not. Any complete shape qualifies — four sets and a pair, seven pairs, or the thirteen orphans pattern — and the win is declared as a self-draw before the first discard. What you can control is the habit: sort your opening hand properly every deal, because the one time it matters, you want to notice.
The near-misses are where the practical value lies. A dealer hand that arrives one tile short of complete is a tenpai テンパイ start, which means an immediate double riichi on your first discard. And keep the family straight: tenhou is the dealer's version, chiihou is the same event for a non-dealer completing on the first draw, and renhou, a first-go-around ron, is a local rule that many tables skip.
Key points
- Dealer only, before any discard or call
- Pure luck — roughly one in several hundred thousand deals
- The non-dealer equivalent is chiihou
Related yaku
- Earthly hand 地和 — A non-dealer completes their hand on their very first draw, before any call.
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