Hong Kong Mahjong · 1 fan

Seat Wind Pung (門風) in Hong Kong Mahjong: Fan, Finding Your Wind and Examples

In Hong Kong mahjong, a seat wind pung is worth 1 fan: three (or four, as a kong) of your own seat's wind give one fan. Each player's seat wind is different: the dealer is East, the player after the dealer is South, the one opposite is West, and the one before the dealer is North.

Seat wind and round wind are separate; if one wind is both, you score both fan.

The rules for a seat wind pung

• Three or four of your seat's wind: punged, exposed kong, concealed kong or drawn yourself all count
• A pair scores nothing — as the eyes it's worth no fan
• It's yours only: South seat punging South scores it; East seat punging South doesn't (unless South is the round wind)
• Also the round wind: one fan each for seat and round wind, two in total
• Three or four wind pungs are the limit hands Small Four Winds and Great Four Winds

Finding your seat wind

When the deal passes, seat winds move with it: the new dealer is East and the others follow in turn order. The last column shows the matching own flowers for each seat.

How a seat wind pung is scored

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

How it relates to other hands

• Round wind: a pung of this round's wind, 1 fan for everyone; if it's the same wind as your seat you get both.
• Own flower: each flower of your seat is 1 fan, scored alongside the seat wind.
• Dragon pung: Red, Green and White pungs score for every seat.
• Small Four Winds, Great Four Winds: three or four wind pungs make a limit hand.

Seat wind odds

A 13-tile opening hand has at least one wind pair about 17% of the time, but only one of the four winds is your seat wind. Over 100,000 hands of computers playing normally on this site, 10.0% of all wins included a seat wind pung, and 10% a round wind pung.

Playing your seat wind

• Pung your seat-wind pair: one fan, just as good as a dragon pung.
• Other players' winds aren't worth keeping: a lone West in the East seat scores nothing for you, but it does for the West player — check whether they could be holding a pair before you discard it.
• The dealer does best: in the East round, East is both round and seat wind for the dealer, so one pung is two fan.

To try it, open a table of online Hong Kong mahjong — the screen shows your seat wind for each hand.

Seat wind in other mahjong styles

Every style has seat winds, but scores them differently:

• Taiwanese mahjong: see the Taiwanese mahjong tai table
• Japanese mahjong: the seat wind is "jikaze", see the Japanese mahjong yaku list
• Chinese Official (Guobiao): see the Guobiao fan table

FAQ

How many fan is a seat wind pung?

In Hong Kong mahjong a pung (or kong) of your seat wind is worth 1 fan. If the same wind is also the round wind, add the round wind 1 fan.

How do I find my seat wind?

The dealer is East, the next player is South, the one opposite is West and the one before the dealer is North; it moves whenever the deal passes.

Does a seat-wind pair score?

No. Your seat wind only scores as a pung or kong; as the eyes it's worth nothing.

Related 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. Own Flower 1 fan Each flower of your own seat is 1 fan: which flowers belong to East, South, West and North, scoring two of them, and how often you get one. Dragon Pung 1 fan 1 fan for every pung of Red, Green or White — the easiest fan in the game: how it scores, when to pung, and how it leads to the three-dragon hands.