Chuuren poutou

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Chuuren poutou
Type Yakuman
Kanji 九連宝燈
純正九蓮宝燈
English Nine gates
Pure nine gates
Value Yakuman (closed only)
Speed Very slow
Difficulty Very hard

Chuuren poutou 「九連宝燈」 is a yakuman scored when a hand contains the 13-tile pattern of: 1-1-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-9-9 of the same suit, plus any one tile from the same suit. In addition, the hand must be closed. Calling a kan on the 1 or 9 invalidates the yakuman.

A special pattern of chuuren tenpai, junsei chuuren poutou 「純正九蓮宝燈」 ("pure churren poutou"), results in a 9-sided wait. It occurs when you complete the 1-1-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-9-9 pattern at tenpai, without any duplicate tiles. Unlike the 13-sided kokushi musou, this 9-sided wait is formed naturally with the four sets and a pair. Some rule variations consider this a double yakuman.

Tile pattern

Chuuren poutou winning over daisangen.

Regular

Waiting for: Yasume:

If this hand wins with either of the yasume tiles, the hand will score only chinitsu rather than the yakuman.

Nine tile wait

Waiting for:

In the above animation, the different winning tiles show the shifting tile group configurations as they count up 1 through 9. The groupings change with each winning tile. Sequential groups are marked in green, while the indicated pairs are marked blue. Then in red, the 1 or 9 indicated as triplets.

Value

Chuuren is a yakuman hand. However, while tenpai, some tile waits may actually award the hand for a considerably less value of haneman, as a closed chinitsu. Some rules award a double yakuman instead when the hand goes out from the 9-sided wait.

Development

Since this hand is made up of one suit, it overlaps with chinitsu during development. In fact, many tenpai formations may result in chinitsu instead of the yakuman.

The key to this yakuman is the possession of ankou of both 1's and 9's of one suit. If two copies of either 1 or 9 are unavailable, then the yakuman becomes impossible. Similarly, if all four of any other numbered tile is unavailable, then it also becomes impossible. Of course, gathering a string of 2-8 is also difficult.

External links

Chuuren poutou in Japanese Wikipedia
Kojima Takeo