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leaves the widest path to tenpai, and weakens what is already the best wait in the hand. No-brainer.

Attempt to play tanyao, with the 2-man pair. There's time, as it is early in the hand. If 2-pin comes, then there's pinfu as the backup.

Why not just discard the
The 667 bam can be completed with eight tiles ( 55556888) and then riichi for the win on the or
That's a total of 12 good tiles in play. Seems quick and painless.
Am I missing something?

. It doesn't improve shanten number, but it does keep as many options open as possible and will likely set up a stronger wait by keeping the stronger groups (667s and 113p). There is no rush to get to tenpai.

Most efficient way to making your hand ready.

or2az, what your missing is that by discarding the 3p you lose out on the 4 2p's in exchange for one shot at the last 6s.
You also lose out on drawing a 4 or 5p allowing you to discard the 1p pair and potentially transition into an all runs all simples hand.

Discarding the 2m or 1p at this point unnecessarily slows down your hand.

hmm, I see what you're saying.
The 113 dot can be completed with six tiles (112222) and then you can riichi on the with seven tiles available (5555888), a total of 13 good tiles, since at this point, you lose the option of using the 2-crack .
However, if we pick up the first, then our endgame becomes the same. You would probably discard your and I would discard my and we would both be calling riichi on the . Interesting.