M-League 2019 Finals: Games #7-8

Game 8

Uotani Strikes Again

Coming back after her win in the previous game, Uotani didn’t waste any time showing everyone who’s boss. In E1-0. Uotani improved her hand quickly, being 2-shanten by turn 3 for pinfu. On turn 5, she draws a red 5m and on turn 6, she sets herself up for sanshoku. By turn 8, Uotani is tenpai on Sanshoku/Pinfu/Aka 2, to which she adds Riichi to upgrade it to a haneman, waiting on the 14m. Both Sawazaki and Matsumoto try to push their hands, with Matsumoto even getting to tenpai. But soon after he gets there, Uotani draws her winning 4m. Uotani wins the hand for haneman for 3000/6000.

In E2-0, she starts out with a pair of white dragon doras and a pair of souths, later drawing an east pair on turn 3. To rush this expensive hand, she calls the east as soon as it comes out. Later on, she calls chii on a 7p to get rid of her penchan and becomes tenpai waiting on the 47m. Soon after, she calls tsumo with the 7m, winning Double East/Dora 2 for a hefty 4000 all.

Advance or Retreat?

In E3-0, Sawazaki’s haipai is heavily focused on tanyao. With a red dora in hand, he goes for the standard Pinfu/Tanyao/Aka 1 hand. Matsumoto’s haipai has a lot of pinzu for honitsu, but can flexibly be changed to an ittsuu or pinfu hand. Sawazaki is the first to get to tenpai, calling riichi with a 25p ryanmen wait. Matsumoto, whose hand was just reached tenpai on his draw after the riichi, had to figure out whether to push and take the tenpai or find a safer way to advance by going back a shanten.

He did have a red dora in his hand, but the resulting wait would be poor. He was facing a dealer riichi from the team who is last place in the standings. He decided to push for a better tenpai and discarded the 7m. The next turn, Matsumoto drew the 3p.

He could discard the 5p to get the wider wait (6 tiles), or he could go for pinfu by discarding the 2m or 5m (4 winning tiles). Considering the facts, he took the wider wait and called riichi. Unfortunately, the 5p dealt in to Sawazaki, who won a 12000 dealer mangan.

It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over

In E4-0, Sawazaki started the hand off very quickly. On the very first discard, he called his north wind to secure a yaku and called pon on the 1m a few turns later. Sawazaki called pon on the 6p to put him into tenpai for a 6s kanchan wait by his 4th discard. Despite his speed, he had to wait. Draw after draw, he kept throwing what he had just drawn. As Sawazaki was waiting, the others were advancing their hands. Matsumoto eventually got to tenpai near the end of the 2nd row, waiting on a 6s/9p shanpon wait for an expensive Riichi/Dora 2/Aka 1 hand. Draw after draw, it was a faceoff between Sawazaki and Matsumoto, seeing who would be the first to win. As the wall got shorter and shorter, it looked like neither of them was going to win. Sawazaki drew a 7s and converted his hand to a toitoi tenpai, though there was not much time to win. Then, on the very last tile, Sawazaki drew the 7s to complete his hand. Sawazaki won the hand with Toitoi/North/Haitei to get 2000/4000.

Matsumoto’s Comeback

Highlight video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-4_s30_p528

After dealing into hands and losing points to tsumo, Matsumoto came into S1-0 at -500. Being that far below, it could hurt their chances of winning the championship. Matsumoto knew that he needed to get out of that hole. In his haipai, he had a few pinzu that he could use in order to get to honitsu. He set his sights for honitsu when he called pon on the 9p. A few draws after, he drew more useful pinzu. When Kobayashi threw the green dragon, Matsumoto called pon and was tenpai with an east tanki wait. Kobayashi, who threw the east only a few turn earlier, threw another east. Matsumoto called ron for Honitsu/Green Dragon/Aka 1 for 12000 to move up to 3rd place.

In S1-1, Sawazaki had a fast looking hand, with a south ankou in hand and got to iishanten by turn 5. Kobayashi also had a fast hand and made two calls putting him near tenpai. Seeing Kobayashi’s speed, Matsumoto decided he needed to act fast. He called the green dragon and later became tenpai for 25p near the middle of the second row. As Sawazaki pushed his hand, he discarded Matsumoto’s winning 2p for 1500+300.

In S1-2 Matsumoto had a hand that started 2-away from chiitoi. Normally a slow hand to develop, it looked like Matsumoto’s dealership would end against Uotani’s standard Pinfu/Tanyao hand. However, Matsumoto was able to get to tenpai first, waiting on the north tanki. With the dealer riichi, Uotani started to bail. Matsumoto would later win off Sawazaki for Riichi/Chiitoi/Dora 2 wait and 12000+600.

In S1-3, Matsumoto got a quick turn 3 riichi, being tenpai on 69m. With everyone bailing, he was able to get an easy 3000 points (-1000 for his riichi stick).

In S1-4, Matsumoto had 4 pairs, with one of them becoming an ankou. His hand progressed fast for a hand with four pairs, forming ankous and converting pairs to better waits. By turn 8, he was tenpai with a 4p/north shanpon wait. Because of the north being an unlikely wait, Kobayashi threw the north on the ippatsu turn and dealt in. Matsumoto won the hand for Riichi/Ippatsu/Dora 1 for 9600+1200+1000. With that, Matsumoto went to 1st with 39700 points.

In five hands, he was able to go from 4th and in the negatives to 1st, showing that anything can happen in the M-League Finals.

Matsumoto’s Finishes It Off

In S4-0, Matsumoto was in the lead, but not by much. Uotani was just 3200 points behind. With the Sega Sammy Phoenix at the top of the standings, the Shibuya Abemas needed to place above them to gain some uma points on them.

Matsumoto’s hand was 3-shanten near the beginning of the hand, with no callable yaku. This fact forced him to play efficiently to get the fastest possible hand, discarding any honours he had. He managed to get his hand to pinfu tenpai by the end of the 2nd row, staying dama with a 47p ryanmen wait so as not to attract attention. As he waited for a winning tile to come out, Kobayashi, who was in last place, had build his hand favourably. Being the dealer and holding 3 dora, Kobayashi called riichi on a 58m ryanmen mangan minimum hand. As Matsumoto drew his next tile, he had to figure out what he should do.

Pushing would mean there would be the risk of dealing in, but also having the chance to win the hand and secure the game. On the other hand, folding would give Kobayashi more opportunity to win and, if it goes to ryuukyoku, allow Uotani to win the next hand. Weighing the benefits and risks, he pushes by discarding the 9s.

This risk pays off, with Matsumoto drawing the 4p a few turns later for 400/700 and the win.

Final Scores

	Player	Score	Final Score
1st	Matsumoto Yoshihiro	39600	+59.6
2nd	Uotani Yuumi	33500	+13.5
3rd	Sawazaki Makoto	24800	-15.2
4th	Kobayashi Go	2100	-57.9

Standings

With the win, the Shibuya Abemas get closer to the top. The Phoenix increased their point total, while the U-Next Pirates lost a lot of the ground they had made in the previous game. At this point, I think it’s safe to say that the Kadokawa Sakura Knights will not be winning the championship. It would take a miracle for them to win.

But miracles do happen! Just look at Asakura’s yakuman from Day 3! How will all this wrap up? We’ll just have to wait until next week to find out!

Page 1: Before the Games
Page 2: Game #7
Page 3: Game #8