M-League 2019 Finals: Games #3-4

Game 3

Don’t Mess With Dealer Hinata

In E4-0, Hinata got her first dealership in her first game of the finals. Her hand developed quickly, having three ryanmen and two red dora in her 2-shanten hand by turn 4. By turn 8, she called riichi for at least 7700 points. By turn 12, she won with Riichi/Tsumo/Aka 2 for 4000 all.

In E4-1, Hinata’s haipai was 3-shanten with two ryanmens and a pair of white dragons. She drew the tiles that she needed to get a fast hand, so that by the time she called pon off the white dragon, she was already in tenpai. She would win the hand for 2900+300 points, putting her firmly in the lead at 43200. Hinata would later get two more wins in her south dealership.

Ura Upgrade

In S1-0, Kondo started with a hand that was two away from tenpai with a red and regular dora in hand. By turn 5, he picked up another red 5, filled his kanchans and called riichi for Riichi/Pinfu/Dora 2. On turn 9, he drew his winning tile, bringing him to 5 han. Seeing the uradora, one more han was added on, upgrading his hand from a mangan to a haneman.

The Curious Throw of Kondo Seiichi

In S3-1, Kondo has decent value in his starting hand, with a pair of dora souths and a red dora. Later on, Kondo draws another south to complete his yakuhai. However, Kondo’s next move was quite interesting. Kondo decided to discard the red 5p. Though one may think that throwing a dora is foolish, it actually doesn’t add any value to the hand, since 4 and 5 han are both worth the same. Throwing the red 5 can also be a trap, since throwing a red 5 is usually an indication that you don’t need the 2 or the 8 (both of which Kondo was waiting for to get to tenpai). Kondo was able to win the hand for 2000/4000.

Yakuman Chance?

Highlight video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-4_s30_p517

In S4-0, Mizuhara was behind by 19900 from 2nd and 21500 from 1st. In order to improve her placement, she would have to get a direct hit haneman or tsumo a baiman. Considering, these facts and noticing that she had 2 of the 8p dora in hand, Mizuhara kept her hand flexible, having the options to go for Sanshoku/Junchan or Toitoi. As her hand progressed, she kept drawing pairs, eventually getting to chiitoi iishanten. Then Mizuhara completed an ankou, then another. Suddenly, Mizuhara was iishanten for yakuman. Hinata, seeing both Mizuhara’s suspicious discards and Kondo’s quick calling, decided to go for a quick tanyao. Hinata got to tenpai with two calls and was waiting on the 25m. Then Mizuhara drew her third ankou and was now tenpai for Toitoi/Sanankou with a 1s/9p wait, with a chance for suuankou yakuman if she wins by tsumo.

Kondo, who had already made two calls by this point and was in tenpai, drew the 1s. He took a bit of time to consider what to discard, and ended up discarding the 9m, avoiding a deal-in. Unfortunately for Mizuhara, her suuankou hopes were crushed when she drew the 2m and dealt into Hinata for 2900.

Just Say Noten

In S4-2 Hinata was faced with a lot of trouble. She had a very good hand potential with 2 red doras and a regular dora, but she got stuck at iishanten. Eventually, both Kondo and Uchikawa called riichi, which meant that Hinata had to tread carefully. Eventually, Hinata gets to the last discard and stays in tenpai. When the round went to a draw, Hinata decided to say that she was in noten, even though she was in tenpai (which is perfectly legal in most rulesets). This was the best move that Hinata could do. Because she was the dealer, declaring herself to be tenpai would have continued the game (because there is no agariyame). Since she was in the lead, declaring noten allowed her to take the game.

Final Scores

	Player	Score	Final Score
1st	Hinata Aiko	43600	+65.6
2nd	Kondo Seiichi	36700	+16.7
3rd	Mizuhara Akina	11900	-28.1
4th	Uchikawa Kotaro	5800	-54.2

Scores After Game 3

The Shibuya Abemas have gained considerable ground, though the Sega Sammy Phoenix are still adding points to their total.

Page 1: Before the Games
Page 2: Game #3
Page 3: Game #4