Little three dragons 小三元 · shousangen
Triplets of two dragon types and a pair of the third.
| Value | 2 han, open or closed |
|---|---|
| How often | rare |
The opportunity announces itself early: two dragon pairs in your starting tiles, or a dragon triplet plus a pair of another type. Pon ポン the dragons as they come. Each completed triplet is a yakuhai 役牌 yaku on its own, so your hand stays valid even if the full pattern never lands. The last two sets can be anything, sequences included, which makes shousangen more forgiving than most honor-heavy plans.
The value stacks itself. Shousangen's 2 han ride on top of 1 han per dragon triplet, so the realistic floor is 4 han before dora. Lean the rest of the hand into one suit for honitsu 混一色, or go all triplets with toitoi 対々和, and you're pushing into haneman 跳満 range. And if the dragon pair grows into a third triplet, the hand becomes daisangen 大三元, a yakuman.
The classic mistake is tunnel vision on that upgrade. Once two dragon pons are on the table, opponents hold back every dragon and most honors, so the third copy may simply never appear. Keep the third dragon as your pair, put the wait in an ordinary set, and take the strong hand that's actually there.
Key points
- Always worth at least 4 han in practice: 2 for shousangen plus 1 for each dragon triplet
- One tile pair-to-triplet upgrade away from daisangen, a yakuman
- Opponents will fold early when two dragon pons hit the table — expect a defensive game
Related yaku
- Big three dragons 大三元 — Triplets of all three dragon tiles — white, green, and red.
- Value-tile triplets 役牌 — A triplet (or kan) of dragons, your seat wind, or the round wind — 1 han each, open or closed.
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