Game #2
Kadokawa
Sakura Knights
EX Furinkazan
Akasaka
Drivens
Shibuya
Abemas
Four Hidden Dora
May 10, Game 2, E1-0
In E1-0, Sonoda starts out as one of the closest to tenpai at 3-shanten. By turn 3, Sonoda is 2-shanten with two dora and a red dora, quickly getting to iishanten by turn 4. Uchikawa puts pressure on the table by calling a pon on the red dragon. With a pair of green dragons and a singleton of the white dragon, the potential for daisangen is still there. By the end of the 1st row, Uchikawa is iishanten for a honitsu. The focus is put back on Sonoda at the start of the 2nd row when he gets to tenpai by drawing another dora and waits dama on a 3m kanchan wait for a 5-han mangan. A few turns later, Shiratori discards the 3m and deals into Sonoda for Tanyao/Dora 3/Aka 1 for 8,000.
Thanks for the Stick
May 10, Game 2, E3-0
In E3-0, Takizawa starts out with the most interesting hand, holding a pair of red dragon dora and a pair of wests, being 3-shanten. By turn 4, the red dragon pair becomes an ankou, gearing him up for mangan minimum. He advances his hand on turn 5, getting him to 2-shanten. Uchikawa comes to challenge Takizawa by getting to iishanten by the end of the 1st row. Being the dealer, Sonoda tries to salvage his hand in any way that he can, calling pon on the 9s to aim for a distant chinitsu or honitsu. The first of them to get to tenpai is Takizawa, who calls pon on the wests to get to tenpai on a 36m ryanmen wait. Soon after, Uchikawa gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 25s ryanmen wait.
Takizawa doesn’t have to worry much about the riichi, as he draws his winning 6m to win the hand. Takizawa wins with Red Dragon/Dora 3 for 2,000/4,000, taking the Uchikawa’s just-thrown riichi stick with him.
Big Ippatsu
May 10, Game 2, S2-1
In S2-1, Takizawa is the dealer, in 1st place and has an 11,000 point lead over 2nd place Uchikawa. With the EX Furinkazan being 3rd place in the overall standings and needing to get some big points to get close to the top, Takizawa wants to make the most of the hand. Takizawa starts out with a 3-shanten hand that’s geared towards tanyao, but not much else in terms of value. The only other potential hand of worry would be Sonoda’s who has a potential junchan. By turn 5, both Takizawa and Sonoda are iishanten. Soon after, Shiratori gets to iishanten as well. Near the start of the 2nd row, Takizawa is the first to get to tenpai and calls riichi on a 14s ryanmen wait. Within seconds, Shiratori gets to tenpai as well and calls riichi on a 36p ryanmen wait. On Takizawa’s ippatsu draw, he finds the takame 4s to win the hand. Takizawa wins the hand with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tsumo/Pinfu/Tanyao/Ura 1 for 6,000+100 all and a huge lead.
More Haneman!
May 10, Game 2, S2-2
In S2-2, Shiratori is in last place and looking to make his way up. With his haipai, he has a pair of souths, giving him the abilty to call. However, his hand comes together without calling, drawing tiles that add a potential sanshoku to his hand. By turn 5, Shiratori is already tenpai with an embedded sanshoku, but chooses not to riichi on a 5p kanchan wait in order to get a better wait or find more value with the south pair. His wait pays off, as he draws the 3p the very next turn and calls riichi on a 25p ryanmen wait. Within the ippatsu turn, Takizawa makes a call in order to get to tenpai on a 47p ryanmen wait, but the shift only caused Shiratori to get the red 5p on his very next draw. Shiratori wins the hand with Riichi/Tsumo/Sanshoku/Dora 1/Aka 1 for 3,000+200/6,000+200.
3-Han Mangan
May 10, Game 2, S3-0
In S3-0, Takizawa starts out with a pair of sout dora, looking like the most promising hand. However, Sonoda pairs up the south dora on turn 2, putting them at an impasse. With neither Uchikawa nor Shiratori chained to a pair of souths, they move their hands freely, both of them getting iishanten by the end of the 1st row. The first of them to get to tenpai is Shiratori, who stays dama on a 14m ryanmen wait. In the middle of the 2nd row, Uchikawa calls an closed kan of white dragon. The replacement draw is favourable to him, as he gets an embedded iipeikou and gets to tenpai on a 1s tanki wait, staying dama. Because of the kan and therefore new chance at uradora, Shiratori decides to break his dama and call riichi his 14m wait. Even with the riichi from Shiratori, Uchikawa stays dama on his 1s wait, a safe tile against Shiratori.
It didn’t take too long for Takizawa to eventually throw out the 1s from his hand and deal into Uchikawa.
Uchikawa wins the hand with White Dragon/Iipeikou/Dora 1 for 3 han 60 fu, getting him to mangan for 8,000 and to take 2nd place.
Passing the Win
May 10, Game 2, S4-0
In S4-0, Shiratori is the dealer and wanting to make a comeback. His hand doesn’t look too promising, but he draws pairs up in the first row until he gets to iishanten for chiitoi by turn 5. Soon after, Shiratori gets to tenpai and waits on a 6p. When Takizawa discards the 6p at the start of the 2nd row, Shiratori chooses not to call the win. A very interesting decision for Shiratori, but some order can be found within the chaos. Currently, the difference between 2nd place Uchikawa and 1st place Takizawa is 17,400. If Shiratori hits Takizawa for 2,400 it would cut the lead down to 15,000 and Shiratori would still be 3rd place behind Uchikawa. At the difference of 15,000, it would mean that Uchikawa can win a haneman tsumo to win the game. The logic behind passing the 6p is there, but puts Shiratori in a tricky position.
On Shiratori’s very next draw, he draws a 2s and calls riichi to wait on that. With the 5s already in Shiratori’s discards, the 2s becomes a suji and Shiratori is betting that the 2s in Takizawa’s discards means that he doesn’t have another one to throw. However, danger lies ahead.
Sonoda is 10,200 behind Shiratori, which means that a mangan tsumo or a haneman win off anyone is enough to get into 3rd place. If he wins with a haneman tsumo, it would get him to 2nd. By the time Shiratori had called riichi, he had already been close to tenpai. A few turns later, Sonoda gets to tenpai and calls riichi on an 8p kanchan wait. With a Riichi/Chanta/Sanshoku/Iipeikou, his hand is already at haneman range. With stress for both the Drivens fans and the Abemas fans, it was just a waiting game to see who would be victorious.
In the end, neither of them won and the hand went to a ryuukyoku with only the two of them tenpai.
Last-Minute Second
May 10, Game 2, S4-2
In S4-2, Uchikawa is 2,600 behind Shiratori. With two honba on the table, a 2 han 30 fu ron hand would tie Shiratori, anything higher would surpass him. Uchikawa starts out with good value in his hand holding an ankou of white dragons, but is still missing one more hand. Trying to push his hand forward and prevent Uchikawa from catching up, Uchikawa calls pon on the red dragon in the middle of the 1st row. Near the start of the 2nd row, Shiratori makes another call to get to tenpai, getting to iishanten a turn later on a 4s (later switching to a 2s kanchan to use up the 1s dora). Uchikawa continues to push his hand and around the start of the 3rd row, Uchikawa gets there and stays dama on an 8m kanchan with two dora in hand. With Sonoda trying to scrounge up any points that he can get, Sonoda gets to tenpai as well on a 23s wait. The very next turn, Sonoda draws the 8m. If Sonoda wants to stay tenpai, he would have to throw the 2s (which deals into Shiratori) or the 8m (which deals into Uchikawa). Seeing the 8m in Shiratori’s discards, the 5m being previously discarded by Uchikawa and seeing three of the 7m, Sonoda decides to go for it and calls riichi by discarding the 8m. Unfortunately for Sonoda, Uchikawa calls ron to win the hand. Uchikawa wins with White Dragon/Dora 2 for 5,200+600 to take 2nd place from Shiratori.
Final Scores
Standings
With another win from EX Furinkazan, they are closing in on the top. They are now only 121.3pts from 1st place and 92.2pts from 2nd place. If they get another 1st and either the Abemas or the Sakura Knights get last, they could potentially move up to 2nd or even 1st. Unfortunately for the Akasaka Drivens and their last place last game, the gap between them and the rest of the group widens, as the distance between them and 3rd is larger than that from 1st to 3rd.
And that’s how the first two games went! The EX Furinkazan has really made some strides and the top of the leaderboard is closer than ever! What surprises will Tuesday bring for us? As always, we’ll just have to wait and see!
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