Half flush 混一色 · honitsu
The whole hand uses a single suit plus honor tiles.
| Value | 3 han closed · 2 han open |
|---|---|
| How often | common |
The decision comes early. When your deal leans hard toward one suit — eight or more tiles of it, counting honors — honitsu is usually faster than forcing a balanced hand. Honor pairs sweeten the switch: a pon ポン of dragons or your seat wind adds a yakuhai 役牌 han, and because honitsu still works open, calling costs you one han rather than the whole yaku.
Calling is the point of the open version. Chii チー inside your suit, pon the honors, and the hand comes together fast for a dependable 2 han plus whatever yakuhai and dora attach. Closed, it climbs to 3 han and fits riichi or chiitoitsu 七対子 shapes just as well. If the honors fall away while the suit fills in, you're one step from chinitsu 清一色 at 6 han closed, 5 open.
The trade-off is visibility. Ten discards in, everyone can see which two suits you've abandoned, and careful players stop feeding you. The more common beginner error runs the other way, though: forcing honitsu from a hand that isn't genuinely skewed, tearing down finished sequences to chase it. If the lean isn't there within your first few draws, play the normal hand.
Key points
- 3 han closed, 2 han open — one of the best-value open strategies
- Stacks naturally with yakuhai, toitoi, and chiitoitsu
- Telegraphs itself: opponents see your discards abandon two suits, so expect them to defend
Related yaku
- Full flush 清一色 — The entire hand is one suit — the highest-value regular yaku in the game.
- Value-tile triplets 役牌 — A triplet (or kan) of dragons, your seat wind, or the round wind — 1 han each, open or closed.
- Pure straight 一気通貫 — The sequences 1-2-3, 4-5-6, and 7-8-9 in one suit — a straight through the whole suit.
← All yaku · New here? Learn why every hand needs a yaku or check what this hand pays with the score calculator.