What Is a Three-Sided Wait (Sanmenchan)?
Three-way wait (also called Shanpon in Japanese Mahjong or simply “3-sided wait” informally) are a powerful and slightly more advanced waiting pattern. While beginners often focus on simple two-sided waits, recognizing and utilizing three-way waits can give you an edge when building flexible hands and improving your win rate.
Let’s explore what they are, how they work, why they’re effective, and how to identify them during real games.
✅ Valid Three-Sided Wait Shape Example:
🀈🀉🀊🀋🀌 → waiting for 🀇 or 🀊 or 🀍
This forms a complete sequence: 🀇🀈🀉🀊🀋🀌 or 🀈🀉🀊🀊🀋🀌 or 🀈🀉🀊🀋🀌🀍
❌ Not Three-Sided Wait:
🀈🀉🀊🀊🀋 → only waiting for 🀉 and 🀌
This is only a two-sided wait, because you only have two possible winning tiles.
Cheat Sheet of Three-Sided Wait
The tiles are in the middle of a possible sequence (i.e., 23456, 34567, 45678)
And they are waiting for 147, 258, 369 respectively.
Why Three-Way Waits Are So Powerful
Three-way waits combine the tile coverage of two-sided waits with the flexibility of hand-building options. Here’s why they matter:
Let’s compare the different wait types:
Beginner Mistakes with Three-Way Waits
Breaking Three-Sided Wait too early
Many new players find Pong satisfying and straightforward, so they often aim to collect triplets early on. This causes them to discard tiles that could have formed a two-sided wait.
- You start with 🀈🀈🀉🀊🀋🀌 🀜🀝🀞🀟🀟🀠 and discard 🀉 & 🀠 in the early stage.
- Later in the game, you might end up with a pair wait like 🀈🀈 or 🀟🀟—only 4 winning tiles left instead of 11!
Not recognizing hidden Two-Sided Wait patterns
We’ve shown some of the most basic Ryanmen patterns—like 2-3-4-5-6 waiting on 1 or 4 or 7—but real games aren’t always that simple. When your hand starts filling up with multiple and different suits, it gets harder to see the hidden two-sided waits. Beginners often miss these opportunities because they don’t know what to look for.
📌 Example:
You might have a hand like:
When you set aside the 1-2-3 character tiles, you’ll notice your remaining hand includes 2-3-4-5-6 characters — which still gives you a three-sided wait for 1 or 4 or 7 characters.
There are actually several other tile combinations that also result in a wait for 1 or 4 or 7 characters. It’s a good idea to study — or even memorize — these patterns. That way, you won’t miss a winning opportunity during a fast-paced Mahjong game.
🎯 Tips:
And it’s not just 1 and 4 and 7— the same logic applies to other two-sided waits like 2 & 5 & 8, 3 & 6 & 9. Once you understand the pattern, you’ll be able to recognize and apply it on your own during real games! Practice identifying hidden two-sided wait patterns in actual hands. As your pattern recognition improves, so will your win rate.
Practice Hands and Quizzes
Test your understanding of two-sided waits with these quick examples. Try to spot the best waits and avoid common mistakes!
🔹 Quiz 1: Which tile should you discard to get a three-sided wait?
🔹 Quiz 2: Hidden Three-Sided Wait Challenge
✨ Tips for Practicing
- Always ask yourself: “Am I maximizing my winning tiles?”
- Look for patterns like 23456, 34567, 45678, etc. — they usually lead to Three-Sided Wait!
- Avoid breaking potential sequences too early in the game.
- Practice spotting Three-Sided Wait in more complex hands with 10+ tiles.