Four Quads

What is Four Quads in Japanese Mahjong

Four Quads is one of the yakuman in Japanese Riichi Mahjong. It is a very rare and prestigious hand, requiring a player to form four quads (or kong) in a single hand. Four Quads is a yakuman yaku requiring four quads, each made from self-drawn tiles, and one pair. This hand is extremely rare and difficult to complete, but its high point value makes it one of the most prestigious hands in Riichi Mahjong. Players need to rely on self-drawing the correct tiles, and completing this hand is a significant achievement in the game.

How to Achieve Four Concealed Triplets？

Four Quads: The hand must consist of four quads, each made up of four identical tiles. A quad is formed by either drawing a fourth tile of a triplet you already have or by calling kong from your hand (if you already have a triplet and draw or claim a fourth tile).

Fully Concealed Hand: Four Concealed Triplets must be a concealed hand, meaning no calls (chow, pung, or kong) from other players. The player must draw all the tiles themselves to form the four quads. The quads can be self-drawn (from your own tiles) or called from the other players, but there can’t be any interaction with their discards. This means the entire hand must be made of tiles you draw yourself.

No Other Melding: In addition to the four quads, the player needs to have a valid pair. The pair can be any tile that completes the structure, and it must also be self-drawn.

Yakuman Tier: Suu Kantsu is classified as a yakuman (highest-scoring hand) in most scoring systems. This hand results in the maximum score for a single hand, typically awarding 32,000 points for the dealer and 48,000 points for a non-dealer.

What is the Strategy and Risk of Four Quads?

No Melding or Calling: Because Suu Kantsu requires a fully concealed hand, you cannot call pon, chi, or kan from your opponents’ discards. Your hand must be completed entirely by self-drawing tiles, which makes this a challenging and rare hand to achieve.

Collecting Quads: You must form four quads in your hand. This is a challenge because quads are rarer than triplets. Players may need to complete one quad via self-draw, then call kan on the remaining triplets they already possess. Even with the possibility of calling kan (a meld of four identical tiles), completing the hand still requires significant luck in drawing the correct tiles.

Strategic Tile Discarding: The main difficulty lies in waiting for the correct tiles to complete your quads. You will often be stuck with unwanted tiles in your hand while waiting for your quads to form. You may need to discard carefully to avoid giving away too much information about your hand to your opponents, particularly since they may hold onto your needed tiles to prevent you from completing your quads.

Opponent Awareness: Other players will likely become aware of your hand as soon as you call a kan. As Suu Kantsu is one of the rare yakuman hands, they may start avoiding the tiles you need. In cases where you are able to complete the hand entirely by self-draw (without calling for any quads), your opponents will have little opportunity to interfere, but it’s highly unlikely in most games.