Yakuhai

Yakuhai

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

Yakuhai is a yaku that focuses on yakupai, or valued honor tiles. It is commonly noted, that attaining this yaku revolves around the honor tiles.

Background

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

In the case of sangenpai (dragon tiles), any player may collect sets of these tiles and attain this yaku. However, with regarding to kazehai (wind tiles), the yaku operates in a similar fashion but differently. First of all, at any time, players are assigned a particular "wind seat", relative to the dealer position, who is always seated East. To count for this yaku, players must collect their own set of wind tiles. If the wind is not of their seat wind, then the set is considered to be "off wind", which does not count as yaku. Furthermore, the game has an assigned round wind. Marked by the dealer indicator, the round wind applies as yaku to any player. The first round is almost always East, followed by South. Occasionally, the game moves into West round as well, where the West wind counts as the round wind.

Tile patterns

Upon attaining yakupai, the rest of the hand may be formed as any composition: open, closed, and whatever meld that helps complete the hand.