What you see here is a “San An Kou,” or “three concealed triples,” a fairly good hand in mahjong that scores some impressive points because it also happens to be a “Toi Toi Ho,” or “all triples.”
It might not seem like anything special, but it is for me, because this is the first time I’ve ever managed to pull it off, and it’s something I’ve been stubbornly wanting to achieve since I started playing (and actually knowing the rules). It’s not worth nearly as much as the Kokushi Musou I got a while back, but it’s a relief for me.
Kind of similar to the Kokushi Musou, the hand requires you to not steal any tiles from other players, and so relies pretty much entirely on luck, which I got plenty of from my starting hand. In certain ways, it’s almost harder to obtain because you have to fight the temptation to not call on any tiles.
Anyway, now that Saki is over (for the time being), I hope you guys don’t give up on playing mahjong. I’ll be right there sucking along with all of you.
OGIUE MANIAX 
But, it would be a ‘suu an kou’, ‘four concealed triples’, if you didn’t steal that last tile, right? (since even though your hand is ‘closed’ still if you Ron’d off the 5-sou, it ‘opens’ that fourth triple)
‘San an kou’ is pretty solid, but ‘suu an kou’ is a yakuman hand, so … well, maybe I’m the type of player that rather goes for the flashy kill instead of the solid hand you have here.
I guess what I mean to note is that ‘san an kou’ is definitely possible with an open hand. You can steal for one of your four triples (or a straight if you’re feeling silly), but it takes luck to draw the remaining three into your hand.
Still, you’re right in that setting up a ‘san an kou’ with a shot at ‘suu an kou’ requires a lot of luck and no stealing.
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I believe Suu An Kou requires you to win off a pair wait, which would’ve been a pain to achieve as I’d have had to discard one of my pairs.
Ah well, there’s always next time.
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Your two-sided wait was definitely a suu ankou wait (for a so-called “tsumori suu ankou” or “tsumosuu” for short). However, a suu ankou achieved from a pair wait (“suu ankou tanki”) is sometimes awarded a double yakuman as opposed to just a yakuman for tsumosuu.
So yeah, depending on how other players fared and already discarded tiles, it might have been worth it to wait for a tsumo agari.
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Interesting. Besides Saki, what draws you to Mah Jongg? What’s the appeal? As someone who’s never played, I’m intrigued to find out what about it is so fun.
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