Highlights
Setokuma’s Gyakuten
October 26, Game 1, S4-1
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-7_s30_p62
In S4-1, Setokuma is in 4th place and is 16,600 behind 3rd place Ishibashi. With one riichi stick on the table, Setokuma needs a general baiman ron, a direct mangan ron, or a haneman tsumo to get out of 4th. Setokuma’s haipai starts out with good potential, holding a red dora and a chance at tanyao, sanshoku and pinfu. On turn 3, he draws a red 5s and by turn 5, Setokuma is tenpai with an embedded sanshoku. He calls riichi on a 25p ryanmen wait, hoping to tsumo it or hit Ishibashi with a direct hit. On his ippatsu turn, Setokuma draws the 5p to win the hand. Revealing an ura dora, he upgrades his hand to a Riichi/Ippatsu/Tsumo/Sanshoku/Aka 2/Ura 1 baiman to get 4000+100/8000+100. With that, he takes 3rd place and comes within 100 points of 2nd.
Suurenkou
October 26, Game 2, S2-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-7_s30_p63
In S2-0, Takizawa is in the lead and starts out with a hand that has the potential to increase his lead. His hand has 9 manzu tiles and is 4-shaten from chinitsu. On the first few turns, Takizawa draws more manzu, letting get pairs of 1m, 3m, and 4m, as well as an ankou of 2m. When the 1m comes out, Takizawa calls pon, and he does the same with the 3m and 4m a few turns later. With these calls, he gets to tenpai on a Chinitsu/Toitoi hand waiting on the 9m. Hagiwara, who was the dealer in 4th place, continued to push his hand through making calls. Even when drawing the 7m he continues to push. Hagiwara’s hand eventually gets to tenpai waiting on the 9m as well. When Hagiwara draws the 2m, he throws it, keeping to his 9m wait. On Takizawa’s second-to-last draw, he draws a 3m, but declines the 3-sided wait to stick with the 9m tanki. This wait pays off, as Takizawa draws the 9m as the haitei. Takizawa wins the hand for Chinitsu/Toitoi/Haitei for 4000/8000.
It is interesting to note that this hand was won on M-League’s Yakuman Day. October 26 was declared yakuman day because Sasaki had won a kokushi on this day in 2018 and Setokuma had won a suuankou on this day in 2019. If local yaku were put in place, Takizawa would have won the local yakuman suurenkou, continuing the October 26 yakuman tradition.
Hagiwara’s Touch
October 26, Game 2, S4-0
In S4-0, there was an interesting ruling that occurred. As Hagiwara was drawing a tile, he accidentally flipped over the west from Ishibashi’s discards. Thinking that it was knocked over from the wall, Hagiwara picked it up and placed it “back” in the wall. Realizing his mistake, play was stopped to determine a ruling. The official referee ruling was that the infraction was minor enough that it could be reversed and play can continue without penalty.
Furiten Baiman Tsumo
October 27, Game 1, E3-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-7_s30_p66
In E3-0, Murakami is in 2nd place and starts out with haipai whose only hope for value is the possible riichi and pinfu. By the end of the 1st row, Murakami is still 3-shanten with no value in sight. In the 2nd row, Murakami throws out a 79s block in order to get closer to pinfu and tanyao. By the end of the 2nd row, he gets to iishanten, but a 78s block impedes his ability to advance easily due to furiten. In the 3rd row, Murakami draws to tenpai, but still hasn’t completed his 78s block. He waits two turns before he decides to call riichi. Being furiten and having only two draws left, the riichi is a big risk, though there may be big rewards as well. If he wins with the takame 6s, he will have a minimum of haneman and two chances for ura-dora to upgrade it to a baiman. Even with the yasume 9s, he will still get to 1st place. He misses the first draw, but on his second draw, the haitei, Murakami draws the 6s takame. Murakami wins the hand with Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu/Tanyao/Haitei/Sanshoku/Dora 1 for 4000/8000, the 3rd M-League baiman in as many games.
Dora, Dora, Aka, Aka, Aka
October 27, Game 2, E1-1
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-7_s30_p68
In E1-1, Sonoda starts off the hand holding a regular dora and two red dora. With so many dora, Sonoda wants go for a quick hand. In the middle of the 1st row, Sonoda calls pon on the 8p in order to speed up his hand. At the start of the 2nd row, Sonoda draws a dora 6s to be his pair and putting iishanten for a 5-han hand. Two turns later, Sonoda draws the red 5m, giving him all three red dora and puts him tenpai waiting on the 6p for a haneman hand. With a kanchan wait wait on a middle tile, it would be difficult for Sonoda to find it. At the start of the 3rd row, Sonoda draws the 6p to win the hand. Sonoda wins with Tanyao/Dora 2/Aka 3 for 3,000+100/6,000+100.
Hori’s First Baiman
October 27, Game 2, S2-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-7_s30_p69
In S2-0, Hori is in 4th place and 16,400 behind 3rd place Wakutsu. Hori’s haipai doesn’t help his position, being 5-shanten and a red dora being the only value. At the end of the 1st row, Hori imporves his hand to iishanten, but still lacking in value. Over the course of the second row, Hori extends a 345m block to become a 34567m block for a sanmenchan and develops a chance Tanyao/Pinfu/Sanshoku. By the end of the row, Hori gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 258m wait, with 2m and 5m giving him sanshoku and a minimum of haneman. On the ippatsu turn, Sonoda, the dealer, has to choose between bailing or chasing with his own Riichi/Pinfu/Dora 1/Aka 1. With the potential to increase his lead, Sonoda tries to riichi by discarding the 2m and immediately deals in to Hori. Revealing an ura dora, Hori wins the hand with Riichi/Ippatsu/Pinfu/Tanyao/Sanshoku/Aka 1/Ura 1 for 16,000, bringing Hori to 3rd and Sonoda to 4th.
Against Two Riichi
October 29, 2020, Game 2, S4-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-7_s30_p74
In S4-0, Aki is in 2nd place and 3,700 points behind 1st place Uotani. Aki would need a 3/30 general ron or tsumo, or a 2/30 direct hit. Starting with a regular dora and a red dora, her prospects of a 3-han hand is promising. She builds her hand towards tanyao, allowing her to call for a faster win. At the start of the 2nd row, Aki draws a red 5p dora, pairing up the one in her hand and putting her 2-shanten for both a regular hand and chiitoi. On the next turn, she gets to chiitoi iishanten. At the start of the 3rd row, Aki is unable to advance to tenpai, and now begins to face some pressure. Kurosawa calls riichi at the start of the 3rd row waiting on a 3p penchan and Sawazaki calls riichi just after waiting on a 6m/5p shanpon. Aki continues to push and gets to tenpai in the middle of the 3rd row waiting on the white dragon, throwing a dangerous 6s to get there. The very next turn, Aki draws the white dragon to win the hand and the game. Aki wins the hand with Tsumo/Chiitoi/Dora 2/Aka 2 for 3,000/6000, plus Kurosawa and Sawazaki’s riichi sticks.
Better Than Baiman
October 30, 2020, Game 2, E4-0
In E4-0, Sonoda is the dealer and 8,400 behind 1st place Ooi. Sonoda starts out with a decent hand, holding a dora and 3-shanten with some ryanmen blocks. Ooi, on the other hand, starts out the hand with a white dragon ankou and a pair of both south and west. Ooi calls a quick pon on the west, putting pressure on Sonoda to go for a faster hand. Sonoda gets lucky with his early draws, filling a penchan and getting to iishanten on turn 4. Ooi continues to add pressure near the end of the 1st row, calling pon on the south and having a discard pile that indicates honitsu. After drawing a dora and completing a ryanmen, Sonoda gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 25p ryanmen wait for mangan minimum. With a dealer riichi, Ooi decides to bail, giving up on his own mangan chance. Near the start of the 3rd row, Sonoda draws his winning 2p. Revealing one ura dora, Sonoda wins the hand with Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu/Dora 2/Ura 1 for 6000 all, a sizeable gain that’s better than a non-dealer baiman.
A Double Riichi, a Riichi and a Dama
October 30, 2020, Game 2, S1-2
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-7_s30_p79
In S1-2, Sonoda, who is in 1st place, starts out with an amazing hand, being iishanten with his first 13 tiles. Drawing his 14th, he gets to tenpai and calls double riichi waiting on the 8s. This is the 2nd time in as many weeks that a double riichi has been called.
Having no real defence against the double riichi, everyone advances their hand standardly, throwing honours and going efficiently. By turn 5, Ooi gets to iishanten with a chance at sanshoku. At the start of the 2nd row, Ooi gets to tenpai, calling riichi on a 47m ryanmen wait for at least a mangan.
At this point, Maehara 2-shanten from chiitoi. During the first two turns after riichi, he discards tiles that have some degree of safety, and manages to get to chiitoi iishanten. When Maehara draws the dangerous 4m, he keeps it in his hand, bringing him iishanten to a normal hand as well. In the middle of the 3rd row, Maehara gets to tenpai on an iipekou only hand, waiting on the 4m. If either Asakura or Sonoda were to deal in the 4m, Sawazaki would win the hand instead of Ooi due to atamahane.
It was Ooi who ended up victorious by drawing the 4m, beating out the double riichi and the dama. Ooi wins the hand with Riichi/Tsumo/Dora 1/Aka 1 for 2000+200/4000+200, plus three riichi sticks.
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