One Voided Suit

What Is One-Void Suit

One-Void Suit in Chinese Mahjong is a straightforward 1-fan pattern achieved by omitting one of the three suits entirely from your winning hand. It often occurs naturally if your draws gravitate away from a specific suit. While it offers a small scoring boost, you can leverage it as a stepping stone toward bigger patterns like Half Flush or Full Flush if your tiles converge favorably. Remember to remain flexible, watch opponents’ discards, and don’t cling too tightly to a missing suit if other, more advantageous patterns become available.

The Tile Pattern of One-Void Suit

No Presence of a Specific Suit

• The key requirement is that in the final, 14-tile hand, one of the three suits is completely absent.
• It does not matter how many tiles you have from the other two suits or how many honor tiles you hold; you simply must have zero tiles in the missing suit.

Examples

• Hand with Craks, Bams, and Honor tiles only, but no Dots.
• Hand with Bams, Dots, and Honor tiles only, but no Craks.
• Hand with Craks, Dots, and Honor tiles only, but no Bams.

Exclusions: If your hand has even one tile from a supposedly “voided” suit, you can no longer claim One-Void Suit.

Fan Value of One-Void Suit

Under Chinese Mahjong scoring, One-Void Suit is worth 1 fan. If you happen to fulfill this requirement along with other patterns, you add +1 fan to your total.

Strategies and Considerations of One-Void Suit

Natural Progression: Often, One-Void Suit arises naturally if you notice early in the round that you’re not drawing any tiles from a particular suit. Instead of forcing a tile from that suit, you can lean into building a hand from the other suits plus honors.

Potential Upgrade to Half Flush / Full Flush

• If you find yourself missing a suit (or two suits) entirely, you might consider developing a Half Flush (one suit plus honors) or Full Flush (all in one suit). These yield significantly higher fan counts.
• However, One-Void Suit is simpler to achieve—you can still have tiles from two suits (and honors) without strictly focusing on a single suit.

Tile Efficiency

• Avoid picking up tiles from the missing suit unless you truly need them. Doing so would cancel the pattern.
• If you draw or are passed a tile from the suit you’re trying to void, decide whether it truly benefits your hand. If not, discard it promptly.

Reading Opponents’ Discards: If you see certain players also ignoring a specific suit, they might be aiming for a Half Flush or Full Flush. Alternatively, they might be coincidentally void in that suit. Keep an eye on whether your prospective missing suit is widely discarded.

Flexibility vs. Committing: Committing to a “One-Void Suit” too early can be limiting if you find it difficult to form melds or pairs in the other suits. Maintain flexibility until you see a clear advantage or synergy with other patterns.