M-League 2020 Finals: Games #1-2

Game #1

Big Start

May 10, Game 1, E1-0:

In E1-0, in the very first hand of the finals, Okada starts out with a 3-shanten hand with 8 pinzu and a pair of wests. With a choice to aim for a west only hand or to quadruple the value of the hand by adding honitsu, she aims for the bigger hand. Early on, she calls pon on both the west and the 5p to get to 2-shanten. Before the end of the 1st row, Okada makes a call on the 3p to get to iishanten. Around the end of the 2nd row, Okada draws a west and calls kan, hoping to get her iishanten hand to tenpai. Though the rinshan doesn’t hit, she does make her 9p pair a dora and gets her hand set up for haneman. Soon after, she gets to tenpai and waits on a 6p kanchan wait for haneman. The very next turn, she draws the 6p to win the hand. Okada wins the hand with Honitsu/West/Dora 2/Aka 1 for 3,000/6,000, a big win to start the finals.

Dama Haneman

May 10, Game 1, S3-0

In S3-0, Maruyama is in last place and 7,300 points behind 3rd place Matsumoto. She starts out with a 2-shanten hand with a dora and decent chance at tanyao and pinfu. Though her hand struggles to advance with the first few draws, She manages to draw to iishanten at the end of the 1st row by drawing a red 5m for a guaranteed mangan. Holding two dora, a red dora, tanyao and pinfu, the commentators not that adding riichi and tsumo and one more dora would give her a baiman hand and bring her within mangan range of 1st place. In the middle of the 2nd row, Maruyama gets to tenpai by discarding the 2p dora and stays dama for a mangan on a 47s ryanmen wait. The very next turn, Maruyama draws a red 5p to bring the hand up to 5 han. Though it seems like an easy waiting game for Maruyama and hoping to win by tsumo for haneman, Okada makes it just a bit harder by calling riichi on a 36m ryanmen wait near the end of the 2nd row. Within Okada’s ippatsu turn, Maruyama draws the 4s and wins the hand. Maruyama wins the hand with Tsumo/Pinfu/Tanyao/Dora 1/Aka 2 for 3,000/6,000, plus Okada’s riichi stick. WIth the win, it put her in 2nd place.

Desperation and Dealing in

May 10, Game 1, S4-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-7_s30_p571

In S4-0, Katsumata is in 3rd place and is within 2,000 of falling to 4th place. As the last hand of the game and his last dealership, he wants to make the most of it. Kastumata starts out with a really good starting hand, being 2-shanten with a pair of north doras and a red dora. By turn 2, Katsumata gets to iishanten. In order to rush the hand and keep her 1st place, Okada calls an early pon on a white dragon, despite being 3-shanten. On turn 4, Katsumata has a sanmenchan in hand and by turn 5, he is guaranteed to have a good wait no matter how he gets to tenpai. Because the north dora is not a yakuhai for him, he could stay dama for mangan if he gets to a pinfu hand. In the 2nd row, Katsumata struggles to get to tenpai and all the other get to iishanten with him. The first player to get to tenpai is Maruyama who waits on an 8p/red dragon atozuke (though she switches it out later for a tanyao hand). The next player to get to tenpai is Katsumata, who calls riichi on a 369p sanmenchan wait with a guaranteed mangan, haneman if he tsumos it. The very next turn, Okada joins in and gets to tenpai on a 47m ryanmen wait, with the 4m being 100% safe against Okada. The excitement in this hand was great, with Hiyoshi yelling extremely loudly. When Maruyama folded with her atozuke hand, she ended up drawing the red dragon that she could have won with. When Okada starts folding, she gets back to tenpai on an 8s/green dragon shanpon wait. With a call near the end of the hand, Maruyama pushes the haitei away from Katsumata and puts herself in a yakuless tenpai. In the middle of the 3rd row, Matsumoto draws the 6p, killing Katsumata’s chances to tsumo.

On the very next turn, Matsumoto draws a 6th pair to get him a chance to be tenpai at the end of the hand. However, aiming for tenpai would mean that he would have to discard the 6p or the 9p, both of which would deal into Katsumata. Being in last place, Matsumoto decides to push his hand deals in with the 9p. Katsumata wins this very long and exciting hand with Riichi/Pinfu/Dora 2/Aka 1/Ura 1 for 18,000. With the win, it puts Katsumata into 1st place, holding a 700 point lead on Okada.

Tactical Ron

May 10, Game 1, S4-1

In S4-1, Matsumoto is in 4th place and has no chance of making it out of last. However, he does have an effect on the outcome of the game. Because the difference between 1st and 2nd is 40 points after oka/uma and the fact that the Kadokawa Sakura Knights are the Shibuya Abemas’ closest rival, Matsumoto has to do everything in his power to prevent Okada from taking 1st place. In the first row, Katsumata calls pon on the green dragon to get to a quick iishanten. Though this is a good sign for Matsumoto, it doesn’t guarantee that Okada won’t win the next hand. Okada herself is trying to win the hand, getting to a pairless iishanten by the end of the 1st row with a single dora and a completed iipeikou shape. Matsumoto makes his first move by calling chii in the 2nd row, getting to iishanten. The first of the three major players to get to tenpai is Okada, who waits on a 47m ryanmen wait. Immediately after, Katsumata gets to tenpai on a 14s ryanmen wait and Matsumoto gets to tenpai on a 36m ryanmen wait. Even though Matsumoto’s 3,900 point hand is good value, it’s not very good for preventing an Okada 1st. If Katsumata were to deal in the winning tile or if Matsumoto were to draw it himself, it would drop Katsumata down to 2nd, so Matsumoto would have to tread very carefully. Luckily for him, Okada ends up dealing in the 6m for Matsumoto to win the hand and Katsumata to win the game. Matsumoto wins the hand with Tanyao/Aka 2 for 3,900+300.

Final Scores

Standings

After a big first place for the EX Furinkazan and a 3rd place from the Akasaka Drivens, the EX Furinkazan make it into the positives and move to 3rd place in the standings. The gap also closes between the Shibuya Abemas and the Kadokawa Sakura Knights. However, thanks to the tactical play by Matsumoto, he gap is only 52.3 and not 12.3 if the Sakura Knights had gotten 1st.

Intro | Game #1 | Game #2