Four kans 四槓子 · suu kantsu

Declare four kans in one hand — then win with the single remaining pair.

Nobody sits down planning four kans. Suukantsu grows out of a pon-heavy hand, usually a toitoi shape, where triplet after triplet picks up its fourth tile. Each kan you declare draws a replacement from the dead wall, flips a new dora ドラ indicator, and hands that same dora to every opponent still attacking — so the third and fourth declarations take real nerve.

After the fourth kan your hand is a bare single-tile wait on the pair, and some of these hands end with rinshan, winning on the replacement draw itself. Know the draw rule before you try: when four kans are split among different players the hand is aborted, but when one player owns all four, play continues. The classic mistake sits earlier, though — declaring casual kans in ordinary hands, where the new dora helps your opponents at least as often as it helps you.

Key points

• After four kans the hand is a bare pair wait
• Generally considered the rarest yakuman in real play
• Four kans by one player also interacts with the four-kan abortive-draw rule — the hand continues only for that player

Related yaku

• Three kans 三槓子 — Declare three kans in one hand — open, closed, or added, in any mix.
• After-kan win 嶺上開花 — Win on the replacement tile you draw after declaring a kan — “blossom on the ridge.”

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