Shousangen
| Type | Yaku |
|---|---|
| Kanji | 小三元 |
| English | Small three dragons |
| Value | 2 han (Consider as 4 han) |
| Speed | Medium |
| Difficulty | Medium |
Shousangen 「小三元」 is a yaku scored when a hand has two triplets of dragons and a pair of the third dragon.
Tile pattern
Yasume: Takame:
This hand is a shousangen while winning on the cheaper winning tile. If it wins on the other tile, , it would give a daisangen yakuman instead.
Development
The hand requires two out of the four tile groups to be composed of dragon triplets, while the pair is always of the third type. That leaves two tile groups to be based off of any tile composition. Often enough but not always, such a hand may be tenpai for daisangen.
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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Shousangen requires two of the four tile groups to be dragon triplets, leaving no room for ittsu, ryanpeikou, sanshoku, and sanshoku doukou (which all require three groups). Chiitoitsu forbids mentsu and is similarly incompatible. Naturally, pinfu, tanyao, junchan, and chinitsu are incompatible because of the dragon tiles.
Every shousangen hand always scores at least two yakuhai from the two dragon triplets. Normally, when a yaku is guaranteed by another yaku, the guaranteed yaku is not scored. However, because shousangen does not guarantee any particular yakuhai (i.e., it does not guarantee "haku", "hatsu", or "chun"), the two yakuhai are scored.
Value
Shousangen is usually denoted as a 2 han yaku. However, because it is impossible to score shousangen without at least two yakuhai, shousangen is effectively worth 4 han.
The two yakuhai triplets are worth a minimum of 4 fu each, and the yakuhai pair is worth 2 fu. Therefore, the lowest scoring shousangen is 4 han 30 fu, barely shy of mangan. The requirements to reach 4 han 30 fu, assuming no additional yaku, are:
- The hand must be won by ron, as a tsumo would score 2 fu.
- The wait must be either a ryanmen or shanpon wait, as any other wait would score 2 fu.
- Both of the other groups must be shuntsu of different suits. If either was a koutsu, it would score at least 2 fu.
- Both of the yakuhai groups must be open, as they would score additional fu if closed. Note that as this is for the purposes of counting fu, if a group is completed by ron, it counts as being open.
- Neither of the yakuhai groups may be kantsu, as they would score additional fu as kantsu.
Two examples scoring exactly 4 han 30 fu:
Ron: 
Ron:
External links
- Shousangen in Japanese Wikipedia
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