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」 (lit. "nine-lotus treasure lamp") 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. It is known in English as nine gates.
A special pattern of chuuren tenpai, junsei chuuren poutou 「純正九蓮宝燈」 ("pure chuuren poutou"), results in a 9-sided wait. It is therefore also known as chuuren poutou kyuumen machi 「九蓮宝燈9面待ち」 ("chuuren poutou 9-sided wait"), or chuuren kyuumen 「九蓮9面」 for short. 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
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. Some rules award a double yakuman instead when the hand goes out from the 9-sided wait.
Most hands that are in tenpai for chuuren are also tenpai for the cheaper chinitsu, which is a worth a haneman closed (assuming no more than one dora).
Development
Since this hand is made up of one suit, it overlaps with chinitsu during development. Many tenpai hands that could score chuuren could also score a regular chinitsu.
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.
Getting the 9-sided wait variant of chuuren poutou to tenpai without discarding any duplicates is extremely unlikely, so 9-sided chuuren is almost always subject to furiten, requiring it to win by tsumo.
External links
- Chuuren poutou in Japanese Wikipedia
- Mathematical study
- Chuuren (YouTube)
- Kojima Takeo
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