It tends to be a lot of pro players’ favorite hands so I guess it deserves more attention. It happens to be the hand I loathe more than any other so why they like it so much is really beyond me. However, without further flagellation let us re-examine a hand that usually turns out to be just a bunch of crap, 3 Colored Runs.

I first covered this hand in column #7, and wasn’t too charitable to it there either. Just a quick review, a hand qualifies for 3 Colored Runs when it contains a run with the same numbers in all three suits. An example:

The above example illustrates what I find so problematic about this hand: my wait was for the 4 or 7 of bamboos but if the 4 had come, I would not have qualified for the hand. All that trouble and I still can’t finish. This is why I never get excited about this hand early or late in the hand because the possibility of drawing the wrong tile is always so high. In fact, how about a hand like this:

Great potential for hitting the 3 colored runs but at each step of the way there’s a 50/50 chance of drawing the wrong tile. This great shot at 3 Colored Runs will only actually make it 12.5% of the time it’s completed. I’m supposed to get excited at a 12.5% shot? I’m much more excited about the wait in the bamboos which is actually a 3 tile open-ended wait when you put the 34567 all together. If I draw the 6 of Grands and even the 9, I drop the 3 of dots in a heart beat. Simples and Peace are enough to Reach with for the rules we normally play because there’s also the possibility of getting the First-turn Win or the Hidden Lucky Dragon bonuses. Hitting one of those is far more likely than the outcome where we happen to draw the right side of the next 3 waits. This also relates a bit to our discussion on “Shanten” in the second podcast. Any player who really wants to win this hand is going take the closer to ready option unless there’s some overwhelming need for the hand points. Unless we’re playing competition rules, I’d still rather depend on the bonuses than 3 suited crap.

How about one question on what you might throw away. Very similar to the hand above but there might be more than one way to play it.