Highlights
Dealer Baiman
January 25, Game 2, E3-2
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-7_s30_p313
In E3-2, Shiratori is the dealer and in last place. Shiratori starts out with a 2-shanten hand with a 3s dora. On turn 2, he draws another 3s dora, giving him flexibility to make another sequence with his 2334s shape. At the start of the 2nd row, Shiratori draws a 4s and breaks up his penchan to have a ryanmen-ryanmen iishanten with a chance at iipeikou. A turn later, Shiratori gets to tenpai and stays dama on a 25s wait for mangan. The turn after that, he draws a red 5m to bring his hand value to a guaranteed 5 han hand, a haneman if he wins on the 2s. At the end of the 2nd row, Sasaki puts pressure on the table by calling riichi on a 7m kanchan. With Shiratori not planning to fold, Shiratori chases Sasaki and calls riichi on his 25s ryanmen wait. Two turns later, Shiratori draws the 2s to win the hand. Shiratori wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu/Tanyao/Iipeikou/Dora 2/Aka 1 for 8,000+200 all and to catapult himself to 1st place.
Sashikomi Gyakuten
January 25, Game 2, S4-0
In S4-0, Katsumata is in last place and 10,300 behind 3rd place Hori and 13,500 behind 2nd place dealer Sasaki. In order to get out of 4th, Katsumata would need a 3/40 direct hit or haneman general ron or tsumo. His hand doesn’t start out with much promise, being 4-shanten with only a pair of green dragons and wests for value. When a west comes out on the first turn, Katsumata calls pon and breaks up his lone pinzu block, making it clear that he’s aiming for honitsu. The turn after, he makes an ankou of the green dragon to put him 3-shanten from mangan. In the middle of the 1st row, Sasaki discards the green dragon and Katsumata calls kan, a rare and desperate move in order to find more points. With the kan, it makes the 5s a dora, a tile that can easily be incorporated into Katsumata’s honitsu hand. By the end of the 1st row, Katsumata is iishanten. At the start of the 2nd row, Katsumata draws a 5s to get him to 5 han and a potential for a 3-sided wait. At the start of the 3rd row, Katsumata finds the 3s he needs to get to tenpai on a 3-sided wait. He chooses the 258s wait instead of the 147s in the small chance that he draws the 5s to get him to haneman for 2nd place. The very next turn, Katsumata draws the west and calls kan. The rinshan misses and Katsumata is back to waiting.
With three dora indicators now and Sasaki getting to tenpai, he calls riichi with a 36s ryanmen wait, trying to take advantage of the extra uradora chances. On Shiratori’s draw, he senses the potential danger of losing his 1st to dealer Sasaki.
Being in 1st place with a wide margin, he does have the luxury of intentionally dealing in (also know as sashikomi). Noticing that Sasaki has a 5s dora in his discards and Katsumata with an obvious honitsu, Shiratori discards the 5s and deals into Katsumata.
Katsumata wins the hand with Honitsu/Green Dragon/West/Dora 2 for 12,000, plus 1000 from Sasaki’s riichi stick. Because of the riichi stick, it gave Katsumata just enough points to get to 2nd place. For Shiratori, that deal-in let him keep his 1st place.
Back to Back Haneman
January 26, Game 1
In E3-0, Wakutsu is in 3rd place and starts out in 2nd place with an incredible iishanten starting hand with two red dora. On turn 4, she is still iishanten but guarantees a ryanmen wait whichever way she gets to tenpai. On the very next turn, she gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 58p ryanmen wait. On her ippatsu draw, she draws the red 5p to win the hand. Wakutsu wins with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tsumo/Pinfu/Aka 3 for 3,000/6,000 and the lead.
In E4-0, Wakutsu is the dealer and starts out with a 4-shanten hand with no value. Through the first row, she sculpts her hand to tanyao while also keeping the possibility of sanshoku alive. It takes a while for her hand to take shape, but she eventually gets to iishanten with an iipeikou chance in the middle of the 2nd row. Nearing the end of the row, Wakutsu gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 369m sanmenchan wait. Looking at the waits, the 9m gives her iipeikou, the 3m gives her tanyao and the 6m gives both. On her next draw, she draws the takame 6m to win the hand. Wakutsu wins with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tsumo/Pinfu/Tanyao/Iipeikou for 6,000 all and take a big lead.
Final Hit
January 26, Game 2, S4-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-7_s30_p319
In S4-0, Kobayashi is in 3rd place and 3,900 behind 2nd place Kayamori. If he were to win a general 3/30 ron, he would tie with Kayamori, and he would need something higher than that to avoid splitting the uma. His starting hand is 3-shanten with a 6p ankou and a dora. With his starting hand being tanyao-centric, he would just need to find one more han (whether riichi or a red dora or another dora). By the end of the 1st row, Kobayashi is 2-shanten, but he’s still looking for the extra value he needs. In the middle of the 2nd row, Kobayashi draws a fourth 6p and calls kan. With his rinshan draw Kobayashi gets to tenpai.
From here, Kobayashi has a few dfferent routes, whether to throw the 3p or 4p and whether to riichi or dama.
Throw 3p: On ron, the hand would be worth 2/50, which is not enough to overtake Kayamori. However, with the need for a playoff spot, any extra points from fu is welcome
Throw 4p: The reduced fu can reduce the hand, but it gives a very small chance of more uradora. This is because the hand has 9 unique tiles instead of 8 if he throws the 3p.
Dama: The 5s is very unlikely to be thrown. By staying dama, he does have the choice of try to improve it to a ryanmen wait by drawing the 3s or have a 25p/4s wait if he draws the 4s dora. If Kayamori does end up throwing the 5s from pushing, he can call ron and overtake.
RIichi: The 5s is very unlikely to be thrown, so he should just call riichi to give him more time to draw it himself. Calling riichi also gives him a chance at uradora. With tsumo and enough uradora, he can get to a haneman and actually take 1st place.
In the end, Kobayashi decided to call riichi by throwing the 4p and wait on his 5s kanchan. As an audience, we could see that Kobayashi’s waits were all in people’s hands.
In 4th place, Hagiwara is looking to get out of last. On Kobayashi’s ippatsu turn, Hagiwara draws the 7s to make a 11357s shape, essentially trapping the 5s. However, on the very next turn, Hagiwara draws the 3s. He decides to shift his hand an discard the 7s since tiles around the dora are unlikely to be thrown and are probably in other people’s hands. The turn after that, he draws a third 1s to get to tenpai on a 36m ryanmen wait. Hagiwara tries to call riichi by discarding the 5s, but ends up dealing into Kobayashi.
Revealing 3 uradora, Kobayashi wins the hand with Riichi/Tanyao/Dora 1/Ura 3 for 12,000 to take 2nd place.
Shortcut to Baiman
January 28, Game 1, E2-1
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-7_s30_p322
In E2-1, Kondo is in last place and starts out with a chiitoi 2-shanten hand. On turn 2, he discards a 7m from a 79m block, essentially locking in chiitoi. Kondo is faced with a bit of trouble both Kobayashi and Uchikawa make calls in the middle of the first row, but Kondo kept going forward. With Uchikawa being tenpai on a 58s ryanmen wait and drawing the fourth 5p, Uchikawa calls kan. He misses the rinshan and makes the 5s in Kondo’s hand a dora. By the end of the 1st row, Kondo is iishanten for chiitoi and holding a single 5s. Near the start of the 2nd row, Kondo pairs up the 5 and calls riichi on a 9m tanki wait. At the start of the 3rd row, he draws the 9m and wins the hand. Revealing two uradora, Kondo wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Chiitoi/Dora 2/Ura 2 for 4,000+100/8,000+100 to take the lead.
Out of Last
January 28, Game 1
In S3-1, Uchikawa is in last place, but has his dealer turn to take advantage of. He starts out with a 2-shanten hand, but lacks any value besides a distant chance of sanshoku. By the end of the 1st row, he is iishanten and still lacking value. In the middle of the 2nd row, he manages to add pinfu and calls riichi on a 14m ryanmen wait. A few turns later, he draws the 1m to win the hand. Revealing two uradora, he upgrades the hand to a baiman. Uchikawa wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu/Ura 2 for 4,100 all. With the win, it puts him into 2nd place and makes Kondo, who had won a baiman earlier in the game, into last place.
In S3-2, Uchikawa starts again with a 2-shanten hand with no value besides pinfu potential. His hand develops much faster this time, getting to iishanten on turn 2 and tenpai on turn 4. Even with no value, he decides to call a dealer riichi and wait on a 9m/8p shanpon wait. On turn 6, Uchikawa draws and discards the 6m, setting up a suji trap. Near the start of the 2nd row, Aki falls for the suji trap and discards the 9m. Uchikawa wins the hand with Riichi/Dora 2 for 7,700+600. With the hand it puts Uchikawa into 1st and he eventually wins the game.
7 Honba
January 28, Game 2
Game 2 on January 28 (Game 130 of the season) had one of those rare high honba counts. It all started on Asakura’s dealer when poor draws and a late riichi from Katsumata caused the hand to go to ryuukyoku with Katsumata the only one in tenpai.
In E4-1, Uchikawa is in last place as the dealer. He starts out with a 2-shanten hand with a good potential for junchan. Asakura also holds a nice starting hand, being 2 away from chiitoi. By the end of the 1st row, Uchikawa is still in 2-shanten, while Asakura has converted his hand to a standard iishanten. In the middle of the 2nd row, Asakura gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 58m ryanmen wait. With a chance at both junchan and sanshoku, Uchikawa continues to push his hand. In the middle of the 3rd row, Uchikawa has the change to get to tenpai, but it would mean he would have to throw a dangerous 1m. As a results he throws his safer 9p pair. The very next turn, he calls the 3m to get to his safe 2m kanchan tenpai. The hand ends with Asakura and Uchikawa the only ones tenpai.
In E4-2, Uchikawa is 2-shanten for chiitoi and holds a pair of green dragons. With his other pairs away from the middle, Uchikawa decides that it’s faster to go for a standard hand and calls pon on the green dragon early. Soon after, he calls pon on both the 1s and the 2s to get to tenpai on a 4s kanchan. Even with both Katsumata and Asakura trying to catch up to Uchikawa, Uchikawa ended up drawing the 4s at the start of the 2nd row. Uchikawa wins the hand with Green Dragon for 700+200 all.
In E4-3, Uchikawa is 3-shanten with a red dora and two competed sequences. Through the first row, Uchikawa gets to iishanten and gives himself pinfu and a chance at iipeikou. Approaching the middle of the 2nd row, Uchikawa gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 47s wait. On Uchikawa’s ippatsu turn, Katsumata discard the 4s and deals into Uchikawa. Uchikawa wins the ahnd with Riichi/Ippatsu/Pinfu/Aka 1/Ura 1 for 12,000+900. With the win, he brings himself to 1st place.
In E4-4, Uchikawa starts out with a 2-shanten hand. On turn 5, Uchikawa is forced to discard the dora to advance his hand, which Katsumata calls pon on. In the middle of the 2nd row, Uchikawa gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 4m kanchan wait, putting pressure on Katsumata’s mangan minimum open hand. Despite Katsumata’s expensive call, he is unable to get to tenpai and the hand goes to ryuukyoku. The hand ends with Uchikawa the only one tenpai.
In E4-5, Uchikawa starts our with a 4-shanten hand with one dora. By the end of the first row, Uchikawa incredibly transforms his hand to have a big ittsuu opportunity and sits at 2-shanten. Katsumata, who is in last place, tries to take calls to speed up his hand and eventually gets to tenpai on a 47p ryanmen wait. In the middle of the 2nd row, Uchikawa completes his ittsuu with a red 5p draw and waits at iishanten. Two turns later, Uchikawa gets to tenpai and stays dama on a mangan with a 58s ryanmen wait. Soon after, Asakura, who is pushing with a mangan potential hand of his own, draws and discards the 5s and deals into Uchikawa. Uchikawa wins the hand with Pinfu/Ittsuu/Dora 1/Aka 1 for 12,000+1,500 to break the 50,000 barrier.
In E4-6, a row 3 riichi call from Uotani and some unlucky draws from Uchikawa caused the hand to go to ryuukyoku with Asakura and Uotani tenpai and the dealership to pass to Uotani. It almost wasn’t a ryuukyoku, as a last minute call from Uchikawa shifted the haitei away from Uotani, which would have been her winning 9m dora.
In S1-7, Asakura starts out with a 2-shanten hand with a dora. His hand quickly develops, getting to iishanten by turn 2 and sets up a ryanmen nearing the end of the 1st row. Approaching the middle of the 2nd row, Asakura gets to tenpai and calls riichi on an 8p kanchan wait. With 3,100 in points up for grabs, his 5,200 minimum hand is essentially worth a mangan. A few turns later, Asakura draws the winning 8p and stops the honba count at 7. Asakura wins the hand with Riichi/Tsumo/Dora 1/Aka 1 for 2,000+700/4,000+700.
This 7 honba occurrence comes weeks after another 7 honba game in week 13.
Dora to Haneman
January 29, Game 1, E1-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-7_s30_p326
In E1-0, Maehara is the dealer and starts out with a 3-shanten hand with an ankou of north doras. On turn 3, he fills in a kanchan and already has an iishanten hand. At the end of the 1st row, Maehara picks up a red dora and has a very good chance at a good wait. The very next turn, he gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 25s ryanmen wait. A few turns later, as Taro pushes his damaten pinfu hand, he discards the 2s and deals into Maehara. Revealing an uradora, Maehara wins the hand with Riichi/Dora 3/Aka 1/Ura 1 for 18,000 for a big start to the game.
Last-Ditch Effort
January 29, Game 2, S4-0
In S4-0, Sonoda is 1,400 ahead of 4th place Takamiya and is looking to avoid being overtaken by Takamiya by taking advantage of his dealer turn. At the other end, 1st place Kurosawa and 2nd place Ooi are only 1,200 away from each other. Sonoda starts out with a 4-shanten hand with one dora, Ooi starts out with a 3-shanten hand with a pair of green dragon and a dora, and Kurosawa starts with a 2-shanten chiitoi hand. Ooi’s hand quickly turns to iishanten by turn 3, while Sonoda picks up another dora for value. At the end of the 1st row, Sonoda makes a crazy chii to make a 123s open sequence. Holding only a single south and a single green dragon, his hand is nowhere close to having a yaku. However, the call may be sufficient enough to slow the hands of the other players and potentially bring the hand to ryuukyoku. A few turns later, he makes another call and still remains without a yaku.
As Sonoda continues to go along with the bluff, Ooi gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 7p penchan wait.
A few turns later, Kurosawa gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 58s ryanmen wait. Having already made two calls and the fact that he would be in last if he was the only one not tenpai, Sonoda went for an efficient push.
However, Sonoda’s attempt at a sneaky plan fails when Kurosawa draws the 8s on her ippatsu turn. Kurosawa wins the hand with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tsumo/Aka 1/Ura 1 for 2,000+4,000, plus Ooi’s riichi stick. Because Sonoda was the dealer it means that he had to pay 2,000 more than Takamiya made him place 4th at the end of the game, losing only by 6,00 points.
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