Sankantsu (三槓子)
Three kans declared by one player.
How Sankantsu (三槓子) works
Sankantsu (three kans) is a 2-han yaku awarded for declaring three kans in one hand — open, closed, or added kans all count.
Any mix of concealed kans, open kans, and added kans (upgrading a pon) qualifies, as long as one player declares three of them. The han value is modest, but each kan piles on fu — a couple of honor or terminal kans routinely push the hand to 70+ fu, so the payout is bigger than 2 han suggests. Each kan also draws a replacement tile (a shot at rinshan kaihou) and flips a new dora indicator, which can swing the score further. Declaring a fourth kan upgrades the hand to the suukantsu yakuman.
- •Concealed, open, and added kans all count toward the three.
- •Kan fu adds up fast — 8 to 32 fu per kan — so the real payout usually outruns the 2 han.
- •A fourth kan turns it into suukantsu, a yakuman.
Sankantsu (三槓子) — FAQ
Do the three kans have to be concealed?
No. Any combination of concealed, open, and added kans works. Concealed kans are simply worth more fu (16 or 32 each versus 8 or 16 open).
Is sankantsu worth chasing?
Rarely on purpose — burning replacement draws on kans telegraphs your hand and feeds dora to everyone. It usually happens when a pair-heavy hand runs into its fourth tiles naturally.