Tenpai vs Noten: Why Your Status Matters at the End of a Hand

Tenpai means your hand is one tile away from winning. Noten means the opposite -- your hand still needs 2 or more tiles. This status matters most when a hand ends with no winner (ryuukyoku, an exhaustive draw).

Tenpai/Noten Payments

If the wall runs out with no winner, tenpai players receive points from noten players. The split depends on how many players are tenpai: with 1 tenpai vs 3 noten, the tenpai player gets 3000 (each noten player pays 1000). With 2 tenpai vs 2 noten, each noten player pays 1500 to each tenpai player.

Why This Shapes Strategy

In the final turns before the wall runs dry, if your hand clearly can't win anymore, the best play is often to stay tenpai (even with a valueless/no-yaku hand) rather than fully folding -- just to avoid the noten payment.