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Dragon And Wind Sets

In Singapore Mahjong a Pong or Kong of a dragon earns 1 tai, of your Own Wind 1 tai, and of the Round Wind 1 tai, whatever the rest of your hand looks like.

The simplest tai at the table: three of a dragon, or three of the right wind. Most first wins come from one of these, so it pays to know exactly which winds count for you.

What They Are

A Pong of Red Dragons, and a Pong of South: a tai each if South is your wind.

Three sets earn tai on their own, whatever the rest of your hand looks like:

  • A dragon set. A Pong or Kong of Red, Green or White Dragons. Every dragon set counts, for every player.
  • An Own Wind set. A Pong or Kong of the wind of your seat.
  • A Round Wind set. A Pong or Kong of the wind of the current round.

A pair of them doesn’t count. It has to be a full set of three or four.

What They Pay

What each set is worth at each table
TableCalledWorth
SingaporeDragon Set1 tai
SingaporeOwn Wind Set1 tai
SingaporeRound Wind Set1 tai
Hong KongDragon Set1 faan
Hong KongSeat Wind Set1 faan
Hong KongRound Wind Set1 faan
Malaysian 3 KakiDragon Set1 fan
Malaysian 3 KakiSeat Wind Set1 fan
Malaysian 3 KakiDong Set1 fan
Malaysian 3 KakiBei Set1 fan
RiichiHaku1 han

At a Singapore table each one is worth 1 tai, and they add together. Two dragon Pongs are worth twice that; a dragon Pong plus an Own Wind Pong, the same.

Own Wind And Round Wind

Your Own Wind depends on where you sit compared with the Banker. The Banker is East; the next player in turn is South, then West, then North. When the deal passes, everyone’s Own Wind moves with it.

The Round Wind belongs to the whole table. Play starts in the East round, and after four changes of Banker the round moves on to South, then West, then North.

So you can sit South in an East round: a Pong of South is your Own Wind, a Pong of East is the Round Wind, and both pay. West and North pay you nothing that hand.

When the two are the same wind, say you’re the Banker in the East round, a Pong of East counts twice: 1 tai as your Own Wind and 1 tai as the Round Wind. That’s the double wind, and it’s worth chasing.

Playing For Them

Keep pairs of dragons, your Own Wind and the Round Wind. One more copy makes a Pong worth a tai, and you can Pong it from any player.

Throw winds that are neither yours nor the round’s early. They’re worth nothing to you, and they’re safest while nobody has paired them yet. Count copies before you hold on: if two of a wind are already discarded, your pair can never become a Pong.

These sets also stack with bigger hands. Dragon and wind Pongs feed Pong Pong Hu and the half flush, and two or three of them lead to Xiao San Yuan or Xiao Si Xi.

At Other Tables

Hong Kong scores them the same way, a faan for each, with the double wind counting twice. At Malaysian 3 Kaki nobody sits North, so a North set counts for everyone, and the round never leaves East, so an East set counts for everyone too.

In Riichi these are yakuhai: Haku, Hatsu and Chun for the dragons, plus your seat wind and the round wind, each 1 han, open or closed.