Round Wind / Seat Wind (圈風 / 門風)

What is Round Wind / Seat Wind?

Round Wind (圈風) and Seat Wind (門風) are paired 1-faan bonuses in Hong Kong Mahjong, awarded for completing a pung or kong of a wind tile that matches either the current round’s prevailing wind or the player’s seat position. A single hand can score both simultaneously when the round wind and seat wind happen to coincide on the same wind tile.

How wind position works

A complete HK Mahjong game consists of four rounds, each named after a wind: East round (東), South round (南), West round (西), North round (北). The current round determines the Round Wind.

Each player’s seat is also assigned a wind based on their position relative to the dealer: the dealer is East (東), the player to the dealer’s right is South (南), then West (西), then North (北). This is the Seat Wind.

A pung of any wind tile other than the round or seat wind earns no faan. A pung of the round wind earns 1 faan. A pung of the seat wind earns 1 faan. A pung that happens to match both (e.g., East player in the East round drawing three East tiles) earns 2 faan from this single pattern.

Example hand

Faan value: 1 (or 2 when both match)

Each matching wind pung is worth 1 additive faan. The maximum from this single pattern is 2 faan, when round and seat coincide. Non-matching wind pungs (e.g., a North pung in an East round held by a South player) score 0 faan.

Common combinations

Wind triplets stack with most patterns:

• Round/Seat Wind + All Triplets (對對胡) — 1 + 3 = 4 faan, with a wind pung as one of the four pungs.
• Round/Seat Wind + Mixed Flush (混一色) — 1 + 3 = 4 faan, since Mixed Flush permits honor tiles.
• Round/Seat Wind + Self-Pick (自摸) — 1 + 1 = 2 faan.

Round and Seat Wind are structurally part of the higher-tier wind hands: Small Four Winds (小四喜, 6 faan) and Big Four Winds (大四喜, 15 faan). Those limit hands absorb the wind-pung scoring rather than stacking it on top.

Strategic note

Players in the East seat during an East round have a unique advantage: any East tile they draw or claim becomes worth 2 faan via this pattern alone. This is why the dealer position (always East seat) often plays more aggressively for wind pungs early in the round.