Shousuushii and daisuushii

Shousuushii and daisuushii are both yakuman, open or closed. Little four winds is three wind triplets plus a pair of the fourth wind. Big four winds is a triplet or quad of all four winds.

The names players use are shousuushii (小四喜) and daisuushii (大四喜). This site's glossary lists them as Little Four Winds and Big Four Winds. The EMA 2016 rules use the same English names.

Four winds, three ways to count them

The winds are East , South , West , and North . Each set can be a pon, a kan, or a triplet you drew yourself. Calls cost neither yakuman anything.

• Three wind triplets and a wind pair: little four winds. The fourth set can be anything.
• Four wind triplets: big four winds. The pair can be anything.
• Three wind triplets and no wind pair: no yakuman. Each triplet of your seat wind or the round wind is a yakuhai han, and that's all.

Big four winds is where the platforms split. Tenhou pays it as one yakuman. Mahjong Soul pays it as a double. The EMA 2016 rules pay one: their revision notes say "Dai suushii (Big Four Winds) is a yakuman, not a double yakuman".

One tile decides little or big

You called pon on East and on South: and . These seven tiles are still in your hand.

The hand waits on or , a wait on two pairs. Both tiles finish a yakuman. They don't finish the same one.

makes a 5 man triplet and leaves North as the pair. Three wind triplets and a wind pair: little four winds. A non-dealer ron collects 32,000. The dealer collects 48,000. Fu don't count once a hand reaches the limit.

makes the North triplet, the fourth wind set, and leaves 5 man as the pair. That's big four winds, and what it pays depends on where you play.

• Tenhou: one yakuman. A non-dealer ron collects 32,000, and the dealer collects 48,000. Tenhou's rules say すべてシングル役満: its yakuman are all singles.
• Mahjong Soul: a double yakuman. A non-dealer ron collects 64,000, and the dealer collects 96,000.
• EMA 2016: one yakuman, 32,000 or 48,000.

On Tenhou the two tiles pay the same. On Mahjong Soul the North pays twice what the 5 man pays. Those payments have no honba and no riichi sticks. The yakuman page lists what one, two, and three yakuman pay on a tsumo.

No one pays pao here. The North triplet comes from the winning tile, not from a call, so the discarder pays the whole ron.

Pao: the fourth wind

Call the fourth wind off an opponent's discard, and that opponent can end up paying for your big four winds. The rule is pao, also called sekinin barai (責任払い).

Tenhou's rules list it as 大三元/大四喜のパオあり: pao for big three dragons and big four winds, nothing else. Mahjong Soul's ranked rules say the same, 大三元/大四喜のみ. On both, the feeder pays all of a tsumo and half of a ron, and the feeder pays the honba.

The EMA 2016 rules apply liability to big four winds too. Section 3.3.9 names the player who feeds "the fourth wind pung/kong to an opponent with three melded pungs/kongs of winds". That player pays the whole hand on a self-draw. If another opponent deals in, the two share it, "but only the discarder pays for any counters".

Little four winds has no pao on any of the three. It can't: with three wind triplets showing, the fourth wind can still be the pair, so the yakuman isn't confirmed. Big four winds is different. Three wind triplets are already called, and feeding the fourth hands over the whole yakuman.

All four winds called

You called all four winds: , , , and . The North pon came off one opponent's discard. One tile is still in your hand.

The hand waits on alone, a single wait for the pair. Every way it wins, the North feeder pays.

• Tenhou: one yakuman. Draw the 5 man yourself and the feeder pays all 32,000. Win it off a different player's discard, and that player and the feeder pay 16,000 each.
• Mahjong Soul: a double. The feeder pays all 64,000 on a tsumo. On a ron off another player, the feeder and the discarder pay 32,000 each.
• EMA 2016: one yakuman. The feeder pays all 32,000 on a self-draw, and a discard win is split 16,000 and 16,000.

If the feeder deals in the 5 man, they pay the whole ron. As the dealer, the Tenhou and EMA 2016 tsumo is 48,000 from the feeder alone, and the split ron is 24,000 from each of the two. On Mahjong Soul the dealer's tsumo is 96,000 from the feeder.

With all honors on top

Keep the East and South pons. Swap the 5 man pair for white dragons.

The hand waits on or . Every tile is an honor either way, so both wins add all honors, a second yakuman. Tenhou and Mahjong Soul stack yakuman. The EMA 2016 rules say "Yakuman are not cumulative".

makes the white triplet and leaves North as the pair: little four winds and all honors.

• Tenhou and Mahjong Soul: two yakuman. A non-dealer ron collects 64,000, and the dealer collects 96,000.
• EMA 2016: one yakuman, 32,000 or 48,000.

makes the North triplet: big four winds and all honors.

• Tenhou: two yakuman, 64,000 or 96,000.
• Mahjong Soul: three, because big four winds counts double. A non-dealer ron collects 96,000. The dealer collects 144,000.
• EMA 2016: one yakuman, 32,000 or 48,000.

Open or closed

Open or closed. Mahjong Soul's in-game yaku list marks thirteen orphans, suuankou, and nine gates as closed only, and leaves both wind yakuman unmarked. The EMA 2016 entries have no concealed condition, and their liability rule is written around melded wind sets, so the yaku counts with calls. That's the row on this site: yakuman, open or closed, for both.

What sits with it

Ordinary yaku and dora add nothing to a yakuman. The wind triplets are yakuhai, and the hand can also be toitoi or honitsu, but none of those han count once the limit is reached. Another yakuman does count, on Tenhou and Mahjong Soul.

All honors fits when the last set and the pair are honors too. Suuankou fits when the hand stays closed and all four triplets are concealed. Daisangen can't join: three dragon triplets and four wind sets need more than four sets. In a stacked hand with pao, Tenhou puts the whole score on the pao split, while Mahjong Soul's pao covers only big four winds and the rest is paid normally. The daisangen page counts the same split for the dragons, and the scoring guide lists how each rule set treats two yakuman in one hand.

Common mistakes

• Missing the yakuman with three wind triplets. A wind pair makes it little four winds. A pair of anything else is a few yakuhai han.
• Paying big four winds as a double everywhere. Mahjong Soul doubles it. Tenhou and the EMA 2016 rules pay one yakuman.
• Looking for pao on little four winds. Pao covers big four winds, and the big three dragons.
• Feeding the fourth wind. With three wind sets showing, the pon you allow can put the whole yakuman on you.
• Adding the yakuhai and toitoi han. A yakuman pays the same with them or without them.