Highlights
Your Weekly Dose of the Shortcut to Haneman
November 2, Game 2, E3-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-7_s30_p83
In E3-0, Hori starts out with a 4-shanten hand holding a dora and geared for tanyao, not exactly the most favourable starting hand. During the first few discards, Hori discarded the terminals and singleton yakuhai from his hand, looking to work towards a standard hand. By the end of the 1st row, Hori was 2-shanten for both a standard and a chiitoi hand. With the 7s dora being isolated, a push for chiitoi would be more favourable for value. He discards a 6m from a 556m block and discards a tile from a 2s ankou, cementing his hand to pursue chiitoi. In the middle of the 2nd row, Hori gets to tenpai, calling riichi to wait on the 7s dora tanki. With a dora wait, all Hori could do is wait for him to draw it himself. As luck would have it, in the middle of the 3rd row, Hori draws the 7s himself. Hori wins the hand for Riichi/Tsumo/Tanyao/Chiitoi/Dora 2 for 3,000/6,000 and the lead.
The Journey to 9 Honba
November 3, Game 1
It’s not very often that M-League games drag on forever. The previous game on November 2 only lasted 8 hands, the minimum number of hands. However, the first game on November 3 was very different.
In E2-0, the dealer repeats start off with Hagiwara winning a quick Riichi/Pinfu/Ura 1 for 5,800 off of Sasaki, who had done a chasing riichi.
In E2-1, Hagiwara wins an expensive open hand, this time being an Double East/Dora 1/Aka 1 to beat out Uotani’s riichi for a 4,000+100 all dealer mangan.
In E2-2, Hagiwara passes the dealer baton to Maruyama after going noten at ryuukyoku. Over Hagiwara’s three hands as dealer, he managed to take 19,100 points.
In E3-3, Maruyama takes hold and takes advantage of her east seat by winning a Double East/Green Dragon hand off Uotani for 5,800+900
In E3-4, Maruyama calls riichi on a riichi only hand in the 2nd row, which is immediately pursued by Uotani. However, Hagiwara deals into Maruyama’s suji trap right after Uotani’s riichi to give Maruyama Riichi/Ippatsu for 3900+1200.
In E3-5 and E3-6, Maruyama brings both hands to ryuukyoku to take payments. In E3-5, she did this through having a quick open hand and people having to hold on to the 2p dora, preventing them from advancing their hands. In E3-6, Sasaki had been going for a hopeless kokushi and everyone else going for generally slow hands, but Maruyama’s dealer riichi stopped any hole of the hands being completed.
However, in E3-7, Sasaki say that it’s his turn to be dealer, being the only one tenpai after scaring everyone with three calls and taking the dealership from Maruyama. Over Maruyama’s run as dealer, she managed to gain 16,800 points
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-7_s30_p86
In E4-8, Sasaki is the dealer and starts out with a haipai with an east ankou and a red dora, giving him a minimum of a mangan if he manages to complete his hand. By turn 2, he is 2-shanten for mangan and has the choice to call if he wishes.On turn 4, he draws dora 3s to also give him the option to go for a 345 sanshoku. After many turns of drawing and discarding, Sasaki eventually reaches tenpai by the end of the 2nd row. Sasaki calls riichi, breaking his double east ankou to go for sanshoku and wait on the 4s. On Sasaki’s ippatsu draw, he finds the 4s and reveals the two uradora from his north pair to bring his hand up drastically in value. Sasaki wins the hand for Riichi/Ippatsu/Tsumo/Sanshoku/Dora 1/Aka 1/Ura 2 for 8,000+800 all. At 9 han and a total worth of 27,400, this is the highest valued hand in both han and points so far this year.
In E4-9, the dealer repeat streak comes to an end, with Maruyama winning a Riichi/Pinfu/Ura 1 off of Hagiwara for 3,900+2700 hand. Despite only winning only one hand, Sasaki won the most during his dealer run out of the three dealers, winning 27,400.
Despite being such a high number of honba, this is not the record. The record for the highest number of honba is 10, which happened almost exactly one year ago on November 4, 2019
The Standings-Shifting Tsumo
November 3, Game 2, S4-1
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-7_s30_p88
In S4-1, the top three scores are close, with only 7,900 separating 3rd and 1st. Kondo, who’s the dealer and in the lead, starts out with an incredible and straightforward hand, starting 2-shanten with two red dora and can easily be called for tanyao. 3rd place Murakami also starts out 2-shanten, but is stuck dealing with poor waits and poor value. Facing difficulty reconciling with this, Murakami tries to find the balance between finding value and proceeding as quickly as possible. On turn 5, Kondo gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a nice 36m wait, trying to look to increase his lead and foil Murakami’s efforts at a comeback. Going for tanyao, Murakami discards his pair of norths and becomes iishanten by the end of the 1st row. In the middle of the 2nd row, Murakami draws to a ryanmen wait and calls riichi, waiting on a 25p wait, with 5p giving him iipeikou. For a chance at 1st, Murakami would have to find two more han from the current 2 han value of his hand. With the viewers seeing the tiles being used up, the viewers could see that there was only one tile left in the wall for his wait. Sure enough, on Murakami’s ippatsu, he finds the only tile left to complete his hand, the one 2p left in the wall and wins. Murakami wins the hand with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tsumo/Tanyao With that hand, Murakami jumped up from 3rd to 1st and Kondo dropped down from 3rd to 1st from oyakaburi.
Kobayashi’s Exciting East Round
November 5, Game 2
After injuring his right hand back in October, this was Kobayashi’s first game since. Because of the injury, Kobayashi used his left hand during the game. With this hand switch, he had some incredible luck with his M-League return in the east round.
In E1-0, Kobayashi starts out 3-shanten with one dora in hand. Picking up another dora and a red dora within the first row, he adds value to the hand, but only goes one step closer to tenpai by the end of the 1st row. Completing a ryanmen and turning one of his extra pairs into an ankou, Kobayashi gets to tenpai. He call riichi, setting a trap by discarding the red 5p and waiting on the 8p. With no one falling for trap, his opponents push their hands and get to tenpai. Kobayashi does calls kan on the 3s, but misses on the rinshan. On Hagiwara’s last draw, he draws the 8p. Wanting to keep his tenpai, he discards the 8p and deals into Kobayashi. Kobayashi wins the hand with Riichi/Dora 2 for 8,000. Because of the 3s kan, his hand has enough value to be a 3-han mangan, with 16 fu from the kan, 4 fu from the 7s ankou and 2 fu from the kanchan, bringing the hand value to 3/60 for kiriage mangan.
In E2-0, Kobayashi starts out with a 2-shanten hand holding an isolated green dragon dora. On turn 4, he pairs up the green dragon to bring his hand to a 5,800 minimum. In the middle of the 2nd row, he calls pon on the green dragon to get to iishanten for dealer mangan and a few turns later, he gets to tenpai waiting on the 25s. The very next turn, he draws the 5s himself for Green Dragon/Dora 3 and 2,000/4,000.
In E3-0, Kobayashi was able to get to tenpai at the last draw after initially bailing a few turns earlier. As the only one tenpai, he received 3,000 in tenpai payments and becomes the dealer going into the next hand.
In E4-1, Kobayashi starts his dealer turn with a very poor hand, being 4-shanten with only red dragon pair for value. With no one throwing the red dragon early, Kobayashi is forced to play as efficiently as possible. In the 1st row, Kobayashi is only able to fill in a kanchan, to get himself to 3-shanten. In the 2nd row, he makes a pair, fills in a kanchan and completes a ryanmen block to get to tenpai. Kobayashi calls riichi, waiting on a 6s/Red Dragon shanpon. Being in tenpai, Uotani draws and immediately discards the red dragon on Kobayashi’s ippatsu turn, giving Kobayashi the win. Kobayashi earns 7,700+300 from the Riichi/Ippatsu/Aka 1 hand, putting Kobayashi past the 50,000 mark.
In E4-2, Kobayashi extends his lead further, winning a small 1,500+600 Tanyao hand off of Hagiwara, despite the pressure from a riichi call from Uotani.
Despite his point streak, Kobayashi loses his dealership in E4-3 after Hagiwara wins a hand off Hinata. Over the whole eats round, Kobayashi was able to get 30,100 points.
Winning another mangan in S1-0 and keeping that lead through the end game, Kobayashi finishes that game in 1st place, a well needed 1st after two 3rds and a 4th earlier in the week from his other teammates. With that win, Kobayashi maintains his 100% top half rate and is the only player in the league to do so.
Three Riichi Calls
November 5, Game 2, S2-1
In S2-1, the race for 2nd place is on. With Kobayashi at an unreachable 1st place, Uotani, Hinata and Hagiwara are vying to get to get a good placement to gain points. Hagiwara starts out in the best position at the start, being 2-shanten, followed by Uotani and Hinata, who are both 3-shanten. At the end of the 1st row, Uotani takes the lead as the closest to tenpai, being just iishanten, while Hagiwara and Hinata lag behind at 2-shanten. At the end of the 2nd row, Uotani makes the first strike, getting to tenpai and calling riichi on a 25m ryanmen wait as dealer. Despite the threat of a dealer riichi, Hinata makes a chasing riichi two turns later, waiting on the 25p. Hagiwara joins the fray almost immediate after, calling riichi as well, waiting on the 14s. When Hinata calls draws her first tile after riichi, her ippatsu tsumo chance becomes Hagiwara’s ippatsu ron. With Hinata’s discarded 4s, Hagiwara wins the hand with Riichi/Ippatsu/Pinfu/Dora 2 for 8,000+300, taking Uotani’s and Hinata’s riichi stick too.
30,000+ In 4 Hands
November 6, Game 2
In E4-1, Sasaki is in 4th place and wanting to improve his placement and keep his 100% 4th place avoidance rate. His opening hand starts out well, being 2-shanten with an ankou and a pair of easts. With no one throwing the easts in the first row, Sasaki is forced to keep a high tile acceptance in the case that he needs to riichi. At the start of the 2nd row, Sasaki gets to tenpai with the east still a pair. He calls riichi and waits on a 36s ryanmen. 5 turns later, Sasaki draws the 3s to win the hand. Sasaki wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Dora 1 for 1,000+100/2,000+100.
In S1-0, Sasaki starts his dealer turn with a 4-shanten hand. Facing this obstacle, Sasaki tries to head for a simple tanyao hand so he can call as fast as he can. Katsumata, who doesn’t want his lead contested, quickly calls a red dragon to rush the hand. Near the end of the 1st row, Okada joins the fast hand crew, calling riichi on a 7p kanchan wait. Katsumata continues to rush after the riichi calling again to iishanten. Seeing both the calls and the riichi, Sasaki rushes his hand by calling pon on the 2p to put him atozuke tenpai on the 147m, with the 1m giving no yaku. In the middle of the 2nd row, Sasaki draws another 2p and calls kan. Sasaki draws the rinshan and calls tsumo, revealing the 1m. With one tile that normally wouldn’t have given him a yaku, Sasaki wins the hand for Rinshan/Dora 1 for 1,000 all.
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-7_s30_p98
In S1-1, Sasaki starts out with another good start, being 2-shanten. However, despite developing iishanten at turn 2, he is unable to improve the hand for many turns. It isn’t until the middle of the 2nd row that Sasaki gets to tenpai and calls riichi on an 8p kanchan wait. Having discarded the 5p early in the hand, Sasaki has a suji trap set up to help him win. Even with the dealer riichi, Okada calls riichi herself a few turns later, waiting on a 5m tanki wait. Needing to defend against two riichi calls with no 100% safe tiles, Taro discards the safest tile for both of them: the 8p. Sasaki calls ron and wins the hand for Riichi/Ura 2 for 7,700+300. With this hand, Sasaki takes the lead.
In S1-2, Sasaki starts out 4-shanten with a handful of isolated terminals and honours. Within the 1st row, Katsumata calls pon to try to rush the hand and Okada gets to iishanten. At the start of the 2nd row, Sasaki gets to tenpai, but doesn’t call riichi in the hopes of improving his wait. During this quest, Okada, for the third time in as many hands, calls riichi, waiting on the 236s. Right after Okada’s riichi, Sasaki finds the good wait he was looking for and calls riichi, waiting on the 457s. Two turns later, Sasaki finds the 4s to win the hand. With Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu/Tanyao/Dora 1 for 4,000+200 all, Sasaki breaks the 50,000 mark. In just 4 hands, Sasaki manages to get 30,900 points and helps him get to his 5th win this season. For comparison, the Shibuya Abemas and Sega Sammy Phoenix have four 1sts each, and the U-Next Pirates and Team Raiden have three 1sts each.
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