Yakuhai: Round Wind
場風牌 | bakaze
Complete a triplet (or quad) of the wind tile matching the current round wind.
By Kenji Tanaka · Updated
Overview
Winds are the conditional dragons. The round wind (bakaze) is whichever wind matches the current round: East tiles are live value during the East round, South tiles during the South round of a hanchan. A triplet of the live round wind scores 1 han, open or closed, exactly like a dragon. The clock matters here in a way it never does for dragons. A South triplet collected during the East round is worth nothing yet, and an East triplet loses its round value the moment the South round begins, so wind pairs need to be judged against where the game actually is. The famous special case is the double wind: when the round wind is also your seat wind (East in the East round while you are dealer), one triplet scores 2 han at once. Wind triplets also stack toward the shousuushii and daisuushii yakuman.
Example Hand
1z 1z 1z 3m 4m 5m 2p 3p 4p 6s 7s 8s 9p 9p
Conditions
- Your hand must contain a triplet or quad of the wind tile that matches the current round wind
- The round wind is East during the East round (tonpuu) and South during the South round (nanpuu) in a standard game
- The triplet can be open or closed — you can call pon on a discarded wind tile
- If the round wind also matches your seat wind, the triplet counts as two separate yakuhai (1 han each, for 2 han total)
Strategy Tips
- The round wind is the same for all players at the table, which makes it more contested than seat winds. In the East round, all four players can score yakuhai from an East triplet, so East tiles tend to be held longer and discarded less often.
- Early in the East round, be cautious about discarding East wind tiles. Any player at the table could use them. The same applies to South wind tiles during the South round.
- Because the round wind is valuable to everyone, it’s harder to complete by pon since opponents are less likely to discard it. If you start with a pair of round wind tiles, factor in that the third might be difficult to obtain.