Highlights
Yakuman Tenpai!?!
April 12, Game 1, E2-1
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-7_s30_p451
In E2-1, Takizawa is in 3rd place, but the game is young. With Takizawa’s blocks more or less set, he got rid of dangerous tiles early in the 1st row, As Takizawa continued to wait for his hand to develop, Hori challenges the table by calling riichi near the start of the 2nd row. Even so, Takizawa continued to push.
In the middle of the 2nd row, Takizawa draws a 4p dora to give his hand 4 pairs and 2 ankou. If he breaks an ankou, he would be aiming for seven pairs and almost any tile would get him to tenpai. If he were to break one of the pairs, he would be aiming for toitoi and be iishanten from a potential suuankou.
He decides to aim for the toitoi route and discards his 9p pair.
The very next draw, he makes his 5p pair an ankou and gets to tenpai on a 4p/9s shanpon wait. If won by ron, it would be a haneman. If won by tsumo, it would be a yakuman. Looking around the table, everyone watching noted that there were still three of the winning tiles left in the wall. Soon after, Hori draws and discards the 9p, giving great pain to everyone watching. When Takizawa drew the 9p right after, it gave even more pain. Everyone kept watch, looking for the three tiles that would give Takizawa the yakuman. Turn after turn, it kept missing and the excitement became even more intense. With turns running out, Takizawa decides to call riichi in order to increase his han value if it comes from ron. With one draw for everyone, we were looking for Hori’s last 3s and Takizawa’s last three tiles. With Hori’s last draw and the last tile of the wall, the hand went to a draw, meaning that all four of the missing winning tiles were left in the dead wall.
The hand ends with Takizawa and Hori both tenpai.
Self Restraint
April 13, Game 1, E3-0
In E3-0, Maruyama is in 4th place and looking to make her way upwards. Though her had had some promise, an early riichi by Setokuma at the end of the 1st row slowed her down. In the 2nd row, Maruyama had a decision to make. She had to choose between a suuankou iishanten chance by throwing a dangerous 3p and a safe 2p, or to take the better wait by discarding two safe 7p. With one 7p already discarded and Setokuma already in riichi, she chooses the go the faster route and discard the 7p’s. Soon after Maruyama completes her third ankou. Even though it could have been suuankou tenpai, she is satisfied with the wait and calls riichi a few turns later on a 14p wait. In the 3rd row, Setokuma draws the 4p and deals into Maruyama. Revealing three uradora, Maruyama wins the hand with Riichi/Sanankou/White Dragon/Aka 1/Ura 3 for 16,000.
Shortcut to Haneman
April 14, Game 1, E4-0
In E4-0, Maruyama is in 2nd place and is very close to 1st place Matsumoto. Early on, Maehara makes some early calls and gets to tenpai early, making it seem like it wasn’t Maruyama’s time for a comeback. Added onto the fact that her hand was primed for chiitoi, a slow hand didn’t seem like it was going to win against a fast called hand. However, Maruyama pushes on and manages to get to tenpai in the 2nd row. With the tenpai, Maruyama decides to call riichi and wait on the 5m. Despite a middle wait being so bad, the fact that she has the red 5m is good enough to warrant a riichi. Her riichi is rewarded, as she ends up drawing her winning 5m near the start of the 3rd row. Maruyama wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Chiitoi/Aka 1/Ura 2 for 3,000/6,000.
0 in the wall? Tsumo!
April 13. Game 2, S3-0
In S3-0, Takamiya is in 3rd place and is 1,500 from the lead. Her hand progressed normally and aimed towards the most efficient route of pinfu. Through her discards of terminals and honours, she eventually got to tenpai near the end of the 3rd wall. She decides to call riichi on a 47s ryanmen wait for Riichi/Pinfu/Dora 1, with the 4s also giving ittsuu. The commentators were counting how many of her waits were left in the wall and they thought that there were 0 left. However, to their surprise, they miscounted and Takamiya ended up winning by drawing the takame 4s. With hysterics in the commentary both, Takamiya wins the hand with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tsumo/Pinfu/Ittsuu/Dora 1/Ura 1 for 4,000/8,000 for the lead.
Shousangen
April 13, Game 2, S4-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-7_s30_p462
In S4-0, Takamiya is in 1st place and the dealer. As she built her hand, Ooi calls riichi early at the end of the 1st row. With 1st basically in the bag for Takamiya and the Konami Mahjong Fight Club in 5th in the standings, she decides to push her hand. When the 2m dora comes out, she calls chii to put her iishanten with a chance at daisangen. Soon after, the 9p comes out and calls pon to be tenpai on a White Dragon/Green Dragon shanpon wait. two turns later, she draws the green dragon to win the hand. Takamiya wins the hand with Shousangen/Green Dragon/Red Dragon/Chanta/Dora 1 for 6,000 all. With the win, it puts her at 64,300, a higher score than any time in the regular season.
Yakuman Tenpai?!?
April 15, Game 1, S2-0
In S2-0, Sawazaki is the dealer and in 4th place. The start of the hand was dominated by efficient closed play all around. The first player to break the silence was 1st place Sonoda,who called pon on the green dragon to try to rush his hand in the middle of the 2nd row. Katsumata also adds to the rush, calling pon on the 5s to get to tenpai on a 3m. Even with the two fast hands, Sawazaki kept his hand closed. At the end of the 2nd row, Sawazaki draws a 2nd ankou and one turn later, he draws a 3rd ankou to get to tenpai for toitoi and a chance at suuankou. To slow down the others and to add points, he calls riichi on a 2s/north shanpon wait.
Sonoda, who is trying to defend, discards Sawazaki’s genbutsu 3m and ends up dealing into Katsumata and killing the suuankou chance. Katsumata wins the hand with Tanyao/Dora 1 for 2,000, plus Sawazaki’s riichi stick.
Hoping For Ura
April 15, Game 1, S4-1
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-7_s30_p471
In S4-1, Kurosawa is in 3rd place and 10,100 behind 1st place dealer Sonoda. In order to get to first place, she would either need a haneman off anyone, a 3/40 off Sonoda or a mangan tsumo. Kurosawa’s hand starts off close to tenpai, but doesn’t seem to have the value to surpass Sonoda. Sonoda, on the other hand, is far from tenpai but calling like crazy in order to rush the game to completion. Even with Sonoda’s attempts to go quick, Kurosawa is quicker, who creates an ankou of her seat wind on turn 5, gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 36s ryanmen wait. If she wins by tsumo and finds one more dora (whether ippatsu or ura dora), she would win the game. Three turns later, she draws her winning 3s. Revealing the 2s as the uradora indicator, she completes the mangan to take the game. Kurosawa wins with Riichi/Tsumo/North/Ura 1 for 2,000+100/4,000+100.
Shousangen (Again!?!)
April 15, Game 1, E3-0
In E3-0, Uchikawa is in 4th place and 16,600 from 1st place. Uchikawa starts out with a very good hand, having a pair of two dragons and a singleton of a 3rd. Early on, Uchikawa draws a 3rd red dragon to create an ankou and soon after, he calls pon on the green dragon to be 2-shanten. In the later turns, he is able to call pon on both the 9s and 2s to get to tenpai on a white dragon tanki. Despite the obvious honitsu, Katsumata decides to challenge Uchikawa and calls riichi on an 8m/9m shanpon wait. The risky riichi is punished, with Katsumata dealing the white dragon near the star tof the 3rd row. Uchikawa wins with Toitoi/Honitsu/Shousangen/Green Dragon/White Dragon for 16,000, plus the 1,000 riichi stick. With this hand, it put him from last place all the way to 1st place.
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