Yakuhai: Seat Wind

Conditions

• Your hand must contain a triplet or quad of the wind tile that matches your current seat wind (East, South, West, or North)
• Your seat wind rotates as the dealer position changes: the dealer is always East, the player to the right is South, across is West, and to the left is North
• The triplet can be open or closed — you can call pon on a discarded wind tile
• If your seat wind is also the round wind, the triplet counts as two separate yakuhai (1 han each, for 2 han total)

Strategy Tips

• Always know what your seat wind is at the start of each hand. It changes every time the dealer rotates. The tiles that are “your” wind are only valuable to you (and potentially to the round wind player), so keep track.
• Wind tiles that aren’t your seat wind or the round wind are completely valueless for yakuhai. Discard guest winds early. But be careful — what’s a guest wind for you might be a seat wind or round wind for someone else.
• If you’re the dealer (East) in an East round, your East wind triplet is worth 2 han because it counts as both seat wind and round wind. This makes East seat in East round especially powerful for fast, high-value hands.