Yakuhai

Yakuhai

Type	Yaku
Kanji	役牌
English	Value tiles
Value	1 han per counted meld
Speed	Very fast
Difficulty	Very easy

Yakuhai 「役牌」 is a group of yaku that focus on jihai, or honor tiles. Along with tanyao, these yaku are one of the easiest and most frequently occurring yaku in the game.

Tile patterns

To simply put, a player attaining a triplet of the appropriate honor tiles automatically produces yaku worth one han per qualifying honor triplet. Upon attaining yakuhai, the rest of the hand may be formed as any composition: open, closed, and whatever meld that helps complete the hand.

Agari:

Here, the triplet of the east wind satisfies the yaku requirement for the hand, for the dealer and/or any player during the East round. Now, consider the east wind triplet were to be replaced by a dragon triplet:

Agari:

The triplet of the green dragons satisfies the yaku requirement regardless of seating and wind round.

Agari:

Here, the 9-man triplet is replaced with a white dragon triplet. A hand looking like this counts each dragon triplet for 1-han each.

Rules

Yakupai	Kanji	Yakupai	Kanji
East seat	自風 東	East round	場風 東
South seat	自風 南	South round	場風 南
West seat	自風 西	West round	場風 西
North seat	自風 北	Green dragon	役牌 發
Red dragon	役牌 中	White dragon	役牌 白

Yakuhai are dependent among the different honor tiles. In the case of sangenpai (dragon tiles), any player may collect a set of either tile and attain the yaku for that tile. With regards to kazehai (wind tiles), yakuhai counts for the players in relation to their current wind seating and/or the current wind round.

Players are assigned a particular wind seat, or jikaze 「自風」, relative to the dealer position, who is always seated East. As a note, players need to remember the wind order of: East, South, West, and North 「東、南、西、北」, which is always the turn order barring calls for pon or kan. The wind seating rotates counterclockwise according to the rules; and under all circumstances, the order remains the same relative to the dealer.

For the seat wind yaku, players must collect their own set of wind tiles to qualify for yakuhai. For this, it is necessary for players to be aware of the current wind seating. Once again, this can easily be noted by paying attention to the dealer position. If a wind is neither the seat nor round wind, it is considered as an otakaze 「客風」 (off wind or guest wind). A set of such a wind is not counted towards yakuhai, which may or may not be helpful depending on the hand. Open calls for such wind tiles forces players to resort to other yaku for completion. Tile calls on guest winds may not be a wise decision. Though, it may actually signal to other players regarding some "unusual hand development".

Furthermore, the game has an assigned round wind. Typically, the round wind is denoted by either East or South. Occasionally, the game moves into West round as well, where the West wind counts as the bakaze 「場風」, or round wind. Marked by the dealer indicator, the round wind is the same for all players; and it only changes after all players had a chance to sit as East for at least one hand, when the game moves from the East round to the South round. Collecting a set of this wind satisfies the round wind yaku. Essentially, the round wind functions like the dragon tiles, where any player may collect them and have them counted for yakuhai. Finally, a tile grouping of the round wind work in conjunction with the wind seating. When seated as the same wind with the round wind, then the tile group counts double, such as Double East or Double South.

Finally, four yakuman utilizes the honor tile groups. All three groups of sangenpai in one hand creates daisangen. The wind tiles can be used for either shousuushi or daisuushii. Some assorted groups of honor tiles form tsuuiisou. Both daisangen, shousuushii, or daisuushii can mix with tsuuiisou for double yakuman. For each of these, yakuhai itself becomes irrelevant.

Usage

Along with tanyao, yakuhai are among the easiest yaku to learn and use. It is the simple collection of particular wind tiles or any group of dragon tiles. As for the rest of the hand, players are free to form any tile grouping, that they wish whether open or closed. Typically, yakuhai are open hands, as possession of the appropriately paired tiles makes it easy to complete by calling on the discarded third tile, or sometimes fourth. This ability makes this yaku exceptionally convenient, for the completion of fast hands. Therefore, this yaku is also called "express ticket".

Value

Each yakuhai koutsu (triplet) is a separate yaku worth 1 han. However, the value can be dramatically increased if the particular yakuhai koutsu is indicated as the dora. As dora, a hand is already guaranteed 4 han.

If a player's seat wind matches the round wind, a triplet of this wind counts as 2 han instead. For example, the dealer (sitting east) can claim a triplet of the east wind during the east round. It satisfies two different 1-han yaku (yakuhai for seat wind and round wind). Typically, this involves the east and south winds, as games normally involve the east round (tonkyoku) and south round (nankyoku) rounds. Of course, this may apply to the west round (shaakyoku).

Compatability

Main article: Yaku compatability

^ Ippatsu requires riichi to be of any use.

RCH

DRI

IPP

SMO

TAN

PFU

IPK

ITT

YAK

SDJ

SDO

TOI

SNA

SNK

CHA

JUN

RPK

SSG

HRO

HON

CHN

CHI

RIN

HAI

HOU

CHK

YAK

Yakuhai essentially works with any yaku, that has room or allows the use of honor tile groups, which gives it a great amount of versatility. Shousangen requires not just one, but two yakuhai. Honitsu is most effective, with the use of at least one yakuhai group. Finally, different groups of yakuhai tiles may be collected into one hand; and so, this yaku is compatible with itself.

The definitions of tanyao, junchan, and chinitsu eliminates the use of honor tiles all together. Yakuhai groups generate fu; and this prevents a combination with pinfu. ryanpeikou requires four sequence groups and chiitoitsu requires seven distinct pairs; neither has room for a triplet.

External links

• 役牌

Yakuhai in Japanese Wikipedia