Last-tile self-draw 海底撈月 · haitei raoyue

Short answer: Haitei raoyue is a 1-han yaku, open or closed and valid on its own, for winning by self-draw on the very last tile of the live wall.

Win by self-drawing the final tile of the live wall — “scooping the moon from the sea bottom.”

You can't build toward haitei, but you can see it coming. In the late turns, glance at the wall and work out who gets the final draw. If it's you and you're tenpai テンパイ, that last tile carries a bonus han on top of whatever the hand already scores: riichi plus a closed self-draw plus haitei is already 3 han before any dora ドラ.

Kans move the target. Every kan takes its replacement tile from the dead wall and shortens the live wall by one, so a single late call can shift the final draw from your seat to another player's, or hand it to you. You don't need to engineer this, but knowing it happens keeps you from being surprised when the last draw lands somewhere unexpected.

The habit that earns haitei over time is simply staying tenpai when the tiles you would discard are safe. You keep your chance at the last draw, at houtei on the final discard, and at the tenpai payment if the hand ends in a draw (see how winning works).

Key points

• A luck yaku: you cannot plan for it, but it stacks with whatever else the hand has
• Pairs conceptually with houtei, its discard-based twin

Worked example

You declared riichi on 78m, a two-sided wait. The hand goes around and around without a winner until you take the final draw from the live wall: the 9m. Count riichi 1, menzen tsumo 1, pinfu 1, and haitei 1 — 4 han 20 fu, paid 1,300 by each non-dealer and 2,600 by the dealer (5,200 in total).

Haitei has a twin on the discard side. After the last draw, that player makes one final discard; if it completes your hand, the ron is houtei, also 1 han.

Common mistakes

• Mixing up haitei and houtei. Haitei is your own final draw (tsumo); houtei is a ron on the final discard.
• Losing track of the last draw. Every kan pulls a tile from the dead wall and shortens the live wall by one, so the final draw can move to another seat.
• Thinking an open hand with no yaku can never win late. Haitei is itself a yaku, so a no-yaku hand that self-draws the last tile is a valid win — see winning a hand.

Related yaku

• Last-discard win 河底撈魚 — Win by ron on the final discard of the hand — “netting the fish from the river bottom.”

← All yaku · New here? Learn why every hand needs a yaku or check what this hand pays with the score calculator.