Jikaze

東 3 局	西家 23100 点
北家 24000 点		南家 24000 点
	東家 27900 点	1 1

Jikaze 「自風」 are the seat wind designations for each player. At all times, every player is designated as East, South, West, or North. For memorization, the winds are referred in that order. By rule, East is always the dealer, while South is to the right. West is across, and North is to the left relative of the dealer. Likewise, player turns follow the regular wind order, although the order may be disrupted by calls of pon or kan. The call for chii does not disrupt the turn order.

During the course of the game, the dealer seat rotates among the four players. So, naturally, the designation for East also rotates with the dealer position. Likewise, the designations for the other winds rotate in a similar fashion. At all times, the order remains the same: East, South, West, and North.

Renchan

Renchan are additional hands, by which the wind seating do not rotate. Overall, wind rotation is dependent on the hand status of the current dealer, or East seat. In general, the dealer may retain the position and prevent the wind rotation by bringing the hand to tenpai before the end of the hand and all the tiles are drawn. Of course, the dealer may also retain the dealer position by winning the hand. Naturally, other players may force wind rotation by winning the hand themselves.

Variation on the rotation rule may be applied depending on the requirement. Sometimes, the rule setting may require the dealer to win the hand, instead of merely achieving tenpai.

Yakuhai

Main article: Yakuhai

Players who collect corresponding wind tiles to their wind seat gains possesses 1-yaku, and in turn, 1-han. If a player's wind also corresponds with the round wind, then collection of their own wind is double, or worth 2-han. Commonly, the round wind is limited to either East or South. Some games may extend into the West round.

Oya

Players seated East is designated as the oya 「親」 or the dealer. The dealer seat has some benefits:

• If the dealer wins the hand, the wind seating does not rotate.
• If the dealer is tenpai at ryuukyoku (exhaustive draw), the wind seating does not rotate.
• The dealer's hand value is worth exactly or approximately 50% more than that of non-dealer hands.
• The dealer is always the first to grab four dealt tiles.
• The dealer always draws first and begins the hand.

In the event when the wind seating does not change, then the honba count increases by one. For each honba, the hand value for any player is increased by 300 points. Ideally, players greatly benefit by retaining the dealer position, in order to maximize point gains. Often, games may be won or lost in this manner.

The dealer is only disadvantaged, when non-dealer players win by tsumo. In this case, the dealer plays exactly or approximately double that of the non-dealers.

External links

• Seating designation diagram