Highlights
The Dominance of the Demon King
April 22, Game 2
During the regular season, Sasaki had the highest total score out of all the players and the highest score in a single game. In the semifinals, he did not disappoint.
In E1-0, Sasaki didn’t have a particularly interesting starting hand. In fact, more attention was paid to Sonoda, who was holding two dragon pairs. With an easy starting hand, Sonoda calls a chii on the 8s in the middle of the 2nd row to get to iishanten and pon on the red dragon to get to tenpai for a simple yakuhai-only hand. Soon after, Sasaki surprises us and gets to a chiitoi tenpai with two dora and a red dora in hand. Staying dama on a 4p tanki wait, he caught Sonoda by surprised when he calls ron on his 4p discard in the middle of the 3rd row. Sasaki wins the hand with Chiitoi/Dora 2/Aka 1 for 8,000
Fast-forward to E2-5, Sasaki starts out with an impressive starting hand, being 2-shanten with his haipai. On turn 4, he gets a ryanmen-ryanmen iishanten and on turn 5, he gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 69s ryanmen wait (with the 6s giving tanyao). With Sonoda being the dealer and having no safe tiles, Sonoda continues to push his hand and even gets to iishanten. However, Sasaki manages to draw his winning 6s takame. Sasaki wins the hand with Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu/Tanyao/Dora 1/Ura 1 for 3,000+500/6,000+500. With the win, it gets Sasaki to 47,200.
Going to E4-1, Sasaki calls an early pon on the green dragon on turn 4 to give himself a yaku. On turn 5, he calls the red dragon to bring his hand value to 2 han. Despite discarding a manzu on turn 1, Sasaki manages to get his hand to a manzu honitsu tenpai near the start of the 2nd row and waits on a 36s ryanmen wait (which he later switches to a 147m sanmentan wait). Near the end of the 2nd row, Sasaki gets his winning 1m. Sasaki wins with Honitsu/Green Dragon/Red Dragon for 2,000+100/4,000+100. With the win, it put Sasaki over the 50,000 mark.
In S1-0, Sasaki starts out with two dora in hand. With everyone relatively slow, Sasaki is the closest to tenpai by the end of the 1st row, being 2-shanten with two ryanmen in hand. At the start of the 2nd row, Sasaki gets to iishanten with three dora in hand now. In the middle of the 2nd row, Sasaki gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 47m ryanmen wait. Despite the dealer riichi, last place Hori continues to push and eventually gets to tenpai for chiitoi. Even though he has a bad wait, Hori calls riichi on his 5m tanki wait. In the middle of the 3rd row, Sasaki draws his winning 7m. Sasaki wins the hand with Riichi/Tsumo/Dora 3 for 4,000 all. With the win, it puts him over 65,000.
In S1-1, it appears as if Sonoda will break Sasaki’s dealer turn, being iishanten by turn 2. However, a stall in Sonoda’s hand allowed Sasaki to catch up. At the start of the 2nd row, Sasaki gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 4m kanchan wait. On the ippatsu draw, Sasaki draws the 4m to win the hand. Sasaki wins with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tsumo/Aka 2/Ura 1 for 6,000+100 all. With the win, it puts Sasaki over 80,000 and in contention for the highest score in M-League history.
In S3-1, Sasaki adds to his total by calling riichi on turn 2 on a 58p ryanmen wait. Sasaki eventually wins by tsumo in the middle of the 2nd row for Riichi/Tsumo/Ura 1 for 1,300+100/2,600+100. The hand puts Sasaki at 86,200, just 8,200 behind the all time high score of 94,400 by Uotani last season.
In S4-0, Sasaki’s efficient style continues to pay off, with him being iishanten with a red dora by the start of the 2nd row. With him holding a pair of double south which is also the dora, calling pon on the south is guaranteed to be a haneman, enough to surpass the record. With Hori trying to get out of last place, he discards the south and Sasaki calls pon to get to tenpai on a 69s ryanmen wait. Hori, who sees the big hand from Sasaki, even decides to reject a tenpai and cut his losses instead of potentially dealing into Sasaki. In the middle of the 3rd row, Sasaki draws his winning 6s to win the hand. Sasaki wins with Double South/Dora 3/Aka 2 for 3,000/6,000.
With the last hand won, Sasaki ends the game at 98,200 beating the previous record by 3,800 points. The demon king’s dominance at the top is not lost, as he now holds the 1st, 3rd and 7th highest games in M-League history.
Good Waits Never Win
April 23, Game 1, E4-2
In E4-2, Takamiya is in 1st place and the dealer. With her starting hand, she is already 2-shanten with a pair of red dragons. Her hand value slowly increases with drawing more dora, but at the start of the 2nd row, Taro calls riichi on a 5s tanki. Having chiitoi with a red dora 5s, riichi was the only way that he could get any significant value and a chance to win. Soon after, Takamiya gets to tenpai by completing a dora ankou and calls riichi on a red dragon/north shanpon wait for mangan minimum. With the dealer and last place in riichi, Aki and Shiratori fold their hands.
As the mahjong gods would have it, Takamiya ends up drawing the 5s and deals into Takamiya. Takamiya wins the hand with Riichi/Chiitoi/Aka 1/Ura 2 for haneman. With the hand, Taro jump up to 2nd place and comes within 4,200 of 1st place.
Good Waits Never Win (Again…)
April 26, Game 2, E1-1
In E1-1, the previous hand had just gone to ryuukyoku and Sawazaki keeps his dealership. Ooi gets to a really good early start, having an ankou of dora and being 2-shanten. By turn 4, he has a wide array of tile that would get him from iishanten to tenpai. On turn 5, he draws the best tile that he could and gets to tenpai, calling riichi on a 134679p 6-sided wait. If Ooi manages to get the 1p, it would bring his hand to a haneman with ittsuu and pinfu, a tsumo would bring that to a baiman. With such a wide wait and an early riichi, fans expected everyone to fold and Ooi to draw his winning tile soon. However, with each draw, Ooi continued to miss and Sawazaki manages to push.
By the 3rd row, Sawazaki gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 2p dora kanchan wait. Every mused about how Ooi would be unable to call an ankan on the 2p dora and would unfortunately deal into Sawazaki if he drew the 2p. However, with each draw, neither of them found their tiles.
Even near the end, the dead wall had hoarded the tiles and the hand went to a draw with Sawazaki and Ooi in tenpai.
Shortcut to Haneman With Sanzou
April 26, Game 2, E2-3
In E2-3, the players are tired after the past three hands had gone to ryuukyoku and they will be playing for 2,900 in bonus sticks. Sawazaki has a good start with a turn 4 iishanten hand. Drawing an isolated dora in the 1st row, Sawazaki tries to incorporate it by making a call to push for tanyao in the 2nd row. Later, Aki makes a call as well to get to tenpai on a 2m, Ooi gets to tenpai on a 7s penchan for mangan minimum and Sawazaki gets to tenpai on a 6s kanchan for mangan minimum. Kurosawa is not to be forgotten, as she gets to tenpai as well for chiitoi for mangan minimum. With everyone tenpai, it was exciting to see who would win. In the middle of the 2nd row, Kurosawa manages to draw the 3s to win the hand. Kurosawa wins the hand with Tsumo/Chiitoi/Dora 2/Aka 1 for 12,000 to take the lead. This hand was the only hand that she won in this game, but it was enough to win the 5-ryuukyoku 10-round game.
M-League Watch 