Hong Kong Mahjong · Limit

Great Four Winds (大四喜) in Hong Kong Mahjong: Limit Hand, Examples and Odds

In Hong Kong mahjong, Great Four Winds (大四喜) is a limit hand, scored at Limit: when you win, East, South, West and North are all pungs (or kongs), plus any pair.

A limit hand isn't added up — it's worth the 10-fan maximum straight away. All four sets are pungs, so it's always All Pungs too, but that no longer matters.

The rules for Great Four Winds

• Three or four of every wind — East, South, West and North: punged, kongs or drawn yourself all count
• The pair can be anything: a suit tile or a dragon
• Claiming is fine — it doesn't need to be concealed
• Scored at the limit; round wind, seat wind, All Pungs and No Flowers are not added

Great vs Small Four Winds

This site scores both at the limit; many tables, though, give Small Four Winds a fixed number of fan instead.

How Great Four Winds is scored

The fan below are computed live by the same scoring code the game uses.

How it relates to other hands

• Small Four Winds: one set short, the fourth wind is only the pair — also a limit hand on this site.
• Round wind, seat wind: normally a wind pung only scores 1 fan if it matches the round or your seat; with all four winds the limit replaces all that.
• All Honours: Great Four Winds with a dragon pair is all honours — also a limit hand.
• All Pungs: Great Four Winds is always All Pungs, but limit hands don't stack.

Great Four Winds odds

Great Four Winds needs twelve wind tiles, three of each wind, out of only 16. A 13-tile opening hand has two or more wind pairs about 0.90% of the time, and three or more only 0.014%.

Over 100,000 hands of computers playing normally on this site, Great Four Winds came up 0 times and Small Four Winds 0 times. Once two of any wind are in the discards, Great Four Winds is impossible.

When it's worth going for

• Three or more wind pairs at the start: pung the winds — each pung may also be your round or seat wind.
• Keep a way out: three wind pungs plus a wind pair is already Small Four Winds; failing that, the wind pungs usually make All Pungs or Mixed One Suit.
• Others will defend: with two or three wind pungs exposed, nobody will discard a wind — the last set mostly has to be drawn.

To try it, open a table of online Hong Kong mahjong — the computers play with you and count the fan for you.

Great Four Winds in other mahjong styles

• Japanese mahjong: Daisuushii is a yakuman, see the Japanese mahjong yaku list
• Taiwanese mahjong: see the Taiwanese mahjong tai table
• Chinese Official (Guobiao): see the Guobiao fan table
• American mahjong: winds have their own hand category (American mahjong Winds and Dragons)

FAQ

How many fan is Great Four Winds?

In Hong Kong mahjong Great Four Winds is a limit hand: it scores the 10-fan maximum straight away, without adding up other fan.

What's the difference between Great and Small Four Winds?

Great Four Winds is pungs of all four winds; Small Four Winds is three wind pungs with the fourth wind as the pair. Both are limit hands on this site, but many tables score Small Four Winds as a fixed number of fan instead.

Can you claim tiles for Great Four Winds?

Yes. The wind pungs can be claimed, konged or drawn yourself; the hand doesn't need to be concealed.

Related hands

Small Four Winds Limit Three wind pungs and the fourth wind as the pair: a limit hand on this site, one tile short of Great Four Winds — and tables score it differently. All Honours Limit Every tile a wind or dragon — a limit hand scored at the maximum at once, always All Pungs, and how it overlaps the three-dragon and four-wind hands. Round Wind 1 fan 1 fan for a pung of this round's wind, for every player — East in the East round, South in the South round, plus another fan if it's also your seat wind.