Sankantsu
| Type | Yaku |
|---|---|
| Kanji | 三槓子 |
| English | Three kans |
| Value | 2 han |
| Speed | Very slow |
| Difficulty | Very hard |
Sankantsu 「三槓子」 is a yaku scored when a player has made three kan calls of any type. Despite being only worth 2 han, it is the rarest and most difficult out the regular yaku.
Tile pattern
Waiting for:
Kan must be called three times, and as a result, the tenpai hand will have at most four tiles in its closed section. If necessary, the hand can call again to have a single tile remaining.
Development
Of all the standard yaku, sankantsu is the most difficult and least frequent. It appears less often than several yakuman, being rarer than suuankou tanki, tsuuiisou, and shousuushii.
- Being able to call 3 kans is difficult on its own. It requires drawing 3 of the same tile type, then drawing/calling the fourth, three separate times. If any tile in a triplet is used in the dead wall or an opponent's hand, this yaku becomes unfeasible.
- Players may not want to call kan, even if able. Each kan reveals kandora; this is already risky after one kan, let alone three. And until the 3rd kan, there is no guaranteed yaku for calling kan (making the 1st and 2nd calls more dubious).
- Even when someone is tenpai for sankantsu, the hand can end in the event another player calls kan for a fourth time, invoking an abortive draw.
Overall, this yaku is not worth its measly 2 han value.
If the player calls kan for a fourth time, the hand instead gains the yakuman, suukantsu.
Compatibility
^ Ippatsu requires riichi to be of any use.
| RCH | DRI | IPP | SMO | TAN | PFU | IPK | ITT | YAK | SDJ | SDO | TOI | SNA | SNK | CHA | JUN | RPK | SSG | HRO | HON | CHN | CHI | RIN | HAI | HOU | CHK | |
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Three out of the four tile groups must be called for kan, which are treated as triplets. This leaves no room for iipeikou, ryanpeikou, ittsu, and sanshoku doujun. Pinfu and chiitoitsu forbid kan calls and are thus not compatible. Every other yaku is compatible.
Value
This yaku is set at 2 han. However, the number of kans will increases the hand's value through fu and (potentially) kandora.
At minimum, a hand with sankantsu is worth 2 han and 50 fu (3200 points), which is equivalent to 3 han and 25 fu. To reach the minimum score, you must have 3 open kan composed of simples (tiles 2-8). Each open simple kan is worth 8 fu, for a total of 24 additional fu to the base 20. The net total of 44 fu is rounded up to 50 fu.
External links
- Sankantsu in Japanese Wikipedia
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