Chuuren poutou (九連宝燈) is a yakuman. It contains the 13-tile pattern 1-1-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-9-9 of the same suit, plus any one more tile from the suit. A chuuren poutou tenpai with the specific pattern already in place has a 9-sided wait, the winning hand is then called junsei chuuren poutou (純正九蓮宝燈).

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

The 13-tile pattern generates a 9-sided wait even as a normal hand with four sets and a pair. Chuuren poutou is therefore no hand shape exception, unlike chii toitsu and kokushi musou.

Tile pattern

Regular

              Agari:  

Note: This hand can also win with  . However, that would downgrade the hand to a mere chinitsu.

Nine tile wait

              Agari: Any pinzu 1 through 9.

 


Value

As a yakuman, it is worth 32,000 points for a non-dealer and 48,000 points for the dealer.

Some rules award a double yakuman instead when the hand goes out from the 9-sided wait.

Formation

The key to this yakuman is the possession of ankou of both 1's and 9's of one suit. Of course, that is in addition to the collection of a string consisting of 2-8 tiles of the same suit. Since this hand uses a single suit, it overlaps chinitsu during development. In fact, many tenpai formations may result in chinitsu, rather than the yakuman. This is due to the ability of chinitsu to form some complicated waits.

Sample tenpai configurations

Row Tenpai Yakuman Chinitsu Machi
Pure               Any None
1-A                    Shanpon, Penchan
1-B                    Kanchan, Ryanmen
1-C                     Shanpon, Sanmentan

External links

Chuuren poutou in Japanese Wikipedia