Highlights

Matsumoto Mania

November 8, Game 2, E2-0

In E2-0, Matsumoto is the dealer and starts out chiitoi 2-shanten with a pair of 3s dora and a red 5p dora. Though he does get to iishanten on turn 2, he chooses to aim for a faster standard hand. He gets rid of the red 5p on turn 6 and gets to a standard iishanten on turn 10. Soon after, Kobayashi gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 3m penchan wait. At the near of the 3rd row, Matsumoto gets to his desired mangan tenpai and stays on a 25s ryanmen wait (with the 5s also giving him iipeikou). Immediately after, Kobayashi throws the 5s and deals into Matsumoto.

Matsumoto wins the hand with Pinfu/Iipeikou/Dora 2 for 12,000, taking Kobayashi’s riichi stick and takes the lead.

In E2-1, Matsumoto starts out 3-shanten. His hand progresses quite nicely, picking up a dora and calling riichi on a 47p ryanmen wait at the end of the 1st row. 5 turns later, he draws the 4p to win the hand. He wins the hand with Riichi/Tsumo/Dora 1 for 2,000+100 all, breaking the 40,000 barrier.

In E2-2, Matsumoto starts out 3-shanten with a red 5s and two ryanmen shapes. Though still 3-shanten at the end of the 1st row, he now has 3 ryanmen shapes in hand. He draws well in the 2nd row and on turn 10, he gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 47s ryanmen wait. Attempting to call a chasing riichi on the ippatsu turn, Kobayashi throws the 7s and deals into Matsumoto. Matsumoto wins the hand with Riichi/Ippatsu/Pinfu/Aka 1 for 12,000+600, pushing Kobayashi into the negatives and Matsumoto over 50,000.

Ura 2 x 2

November 8, Game 2

In E3-0, Kobayashi has just gotten out of the negatives and wants to keep the momentum going. He starts his dealer turn with a 3-shanten hand with two red dora, giving him a decent chance at a mangan. He cleans up many of his bad shapes, gets an iipeikou and is iishanten at the end of the 1st row. He loses the guaranteed iipeikou in order to make space for even better shapes in the 2nd row and on turn 9, he gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 47s ryanmen wait for mangan minimum. On Kobayashi’s 2nd last draw, he finds the 4s to win the hand. revealing two uradora, Kobayashi wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu/Aka 2/Ura 2 for 6,000 all, a well needed win that lifts him up from 4th to 2nd place.

Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p202

Later on In E4-1, Kobayashi starts out with a 4-shanten hand with a red 5m and a 9s dora. His hand gets to 2-shanten at the end of the 1st row with ryanmen shapes. Though Kobayashi has a good hand, Katsumata’s is even better, being damaten at the end of the 2nd row with a dealer haneman chance if he draws the 3p. At the start of the 3rd row, Kobayashi draws a red 5p and calls riichi on a 36m ryanmen wait for mangan minimum. Immediately after, Katsumata draws a 3m to improve his 344556m shape to an iipeikou. He tries call riichi by throwing the 6m but ends up dealing into Kobayashi.

Again revealing two uradora, Kobayashi wins the hand Riichi/Ippatsu/Pinfu/Aka 2/Ura 2 for 12,000.

Gyakuten

November 8, Game 1, S4-0

In S4-0, Katsumata is the dealer and is 15,600 behind Matsumoto. He would need a 3/50 direct hit, a mangan tsumo or a haneman general ron to take 1st. He starts out with a well-organized 3-shanten hand with a red 5s and two ryanmen shapes. Looking around the table, Kobayashi, who is 12,600 behind Katsumata, starts out with an incredible hand with 10 souzu tiles. If Kobayashi can get a haneman tsumo, or make the chinitsu hand a baiman, it would be enough for 2nd place. By the end of the 1st row, Katsumata gets to iishanten and Kobayashi is 2-shanten for a closed chinitsu. As Kobayashi gets to iishanten, Katsumata gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 25p ryanmen wait. As Katsumata waits, Kobayashi continues to push his potentially expensive hand. At the start of the 3rd row, the tenpai comes and Kobayashi stays dama on a 2s/8s shanpon (with the 8s being 100% safe against Katsumata’s riichi). The very next turn, Kobayashi draws the 7s and improves the wait to a 369s sanmenchan.

In the middle of the 3rd row, Katsumata draws the 5p to win the hand. Revealing an uradora, Katsumata wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu/Dora 1/Aka 1/Ura 1 for 6,000 all, overtaking Matsumoto for the lead.

Noten

November 8, Game 2, S4-1

In S4-1, Katsumata holds an 8,400 point lead over Matsumoto. Katsumata’s hand starts out 4-shanten with a 5sdora and a pair of souths. He is not overly eager to advance his hand quickly, opting to pass on the discarded south. All three payers around him are pushing hard, trying to retain their position or move ahead. When the second south comes out, Katsumata decides he can advance safely and gets to iishanten with it. The first player to get to tenpai is Kopbayashi, who waits on a 7s kanchan in the middle of the 2nd row (later switching to a 6s/4p shanpon wait). In the 3rd row, Katsumata gets to tenpai moves out of tenpai to keep safe. With a chii near the end of the hand, Hagiwara gets to tenpai on a 3p kanchan.

Right after, Matsumoto gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 58s ryanmen wait, with his last draw being the ippatsu haitei.

The four players react differently to their last draw.

• Kobayashi decides to bail on his hand against the reach.
• Katsumata draws to tenpai on his last draw throws a safe tile while retaining his ready hand
• Hagiwara does a tsumogiri discard on a safe tile to retain his tenpai
• Matsumoto looks at his last draw and is disappointed that it’s not his winning tile

With no one winning, the hand ends in a draw. Katsumata now has a decision to declare himself noten to end the game and stay 1st, or to declare himself tenpai to try to get more points (à la Shiratori).

He chooses the former, declaring his ready hand as noten to end the game.

Killing the Drought

November 9, Game 1, E2-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p211

In E2-0, Murakami has just gone 40 hands without a win, trying to flip his season record of 0/0/1/4 and season score of -312.0 around. He doesn’t get a very good start, needing to discard middle tiles and aiming for a distant chanta or kokushi. By the end of the 1st row, he is 4-shanten for a Chanta/Sanshoku/Dora1 or Kokushi. Drawing dragons on turns 8 and 10, he abandons the potential kokushi to pursue a potential Shousangen/Chanta/Dora 1 3-shanten haneman. In the 3rd row, he fills in a 7m penchan, makes a red dragon ankou and calls pon on the white dragon to become tenpai on a green dragon tanki. Though Tojo and Takamiya get to tenpai later in the 3rd row, their attempts to collect tenpai payments were foiled when Murakami drew the green dragon. Murakami wins the hand with Shousangen/Green Dragon/Red Dragon/Chanta/Dora 1 for 3,000/6,000, taking 1st place and breaking the winless streak.

Precision

November 9, Game 1, S4-1

In S4-1, Murakami is in 1st place and is on the cusp of getting his first win of the season. With the dealer Takamiya starting out with an iishanten tanyao hand and Murakami holding a 3-shanten chiitoi hand, viewers thought it was clear who would win this hand. Struggles plagued Takamiya, not finding any tiles to advance her hand or give her any upgrades. growing tired of waiting, Takamiya calls a pon on the 5s in the middle of the 2nd row to get to tenpai on a 258p sanmenchan wait. Soon after, Murakami gets to iishanten for chiitoi and finds tenpai on a green dragon tanki a turn later. With two green dragons already discarded and Okada’s hand advancing, she discards her safe green dragon and deals into Murakami. Murakami wins the hand with Chiitoi/Dora 2 for 6,400+300.

With the deal-in, Okada drops down to 20,900, being tied for 2nd place with Takamiya. With the win, Murakami finally breaks the curse and wins his first game of the season.

Lots of Dora

November 9, Game 2, S2-0

In S2-0, Uotani is in last place and 14,000 behind both Takizawa and Hori. She starts out with a mediocre 4-shanten hand with a red 5p and a 5m dora. By the end of the 1st row, she has drawn another 5m for value, but has only advanced her hand to 3-shanten, slower than everyone else at the table. In the middle of the 2nd row, Sonoda is the first to tenpai with a white dragon call and a wait on a 2p kanchan. Immediately after, Uotani draws the red 5m double dora to get to iishanten, holding a total of 5 dora. At the end of the 2nd row, Takizawa also gets to tenpai, waiting on a 4s kanchan wait. Soon after, Uotani has the 3rd tenpai, calling riichi on a 7p penchan wait. Two turns later, Uotani draws the 7p to win the hand. Uotani wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Dora 3/Aka 2 for 3,000/6,000 and moves into 2nd place.

Yakuman Tenpai!?!

November 11, Game 1, E3-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p221

In E3-0, Kondo is the dealer and in 1st place. He starts out with an impressive 2-shanten hand with an ankou of both green dragon and 3p. On turn 4, his hand has two pairs and two ankou, making it 2-shanten for suuankou. On turn 5, he draws a 5th pair to get to iishanten. The very next turn, he makes his 3rd ankou and calls riichi on a 5m/6m shanpon wait. If Kondo draws it by tsumo, he would win the season’s first yakuman. Seeing that there are still 3 left in the wall, the wait is very live. Despite the dealer riichi, Katsumata pushes and he manages to get to tenpai on a 3m/north shanpon wait at the end of the 2nd row. However, Katsumata was forced to throw safely in the 3rd row. As the number of tiles winning dwindled from 3 to 2 to 1, the chances of winning shrank.

In the end, the hand ended in a draw with Kondo the only one tenpai

Double Riichi

November 11, Game 2, E4-1
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p222

In E4-1, Sawazaki is the dealer and 2,300 points behind 1st place Honda. With his starting hand, he is already tenpai, holding a very nice pinfu with a dora and a red 5m. With the extremely favourable haipai, he calls riichi and waits on a 47m ryanmen wait. With Aki holding three dora and Honda being close to tenpai, the both push. On turn 4, Honda stops to prevent him from incurring a big drop. Near the end of the 2nd row, Aki pushes her 1-shanten hand and throws the 4m, dealing into Sawazaki.

Sawazaki wins the hand with Double Riichi/Pinfu/Dora 1/Aka 1 for 12,000+300, taking the lead.

Dealer Mangan x 3

November 12, Game 2
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p231

In E1-0, Date is the dealer and starts out with a 3-shanten hand with a clear chance at sanshoku. To her right is Taro, who holds an ankou of norths, a pair of easts and a singleton of souths and wests. On turn 3, Date is already iishanten. However, she chooses to abandon the sanshoku in order to pursue a more expensive chinitsu. As Date slows down her hand, Taro advances his potential shousuushii, calling pon on the easts to be 3-shanten for the yakuman. In the 2nd row, Taro and Date both get to iishanten for their expensive hands. In the middle of the row, Date gets to iishanten and waits on a 147m wait for the chinitsu. The next player to get to tenpai is Asakura, who waits on a 78s wait. The very next turn, Asakura draws a 1m and deals into Date. Date wins the hand with Chinitsu only for 12,000.

In E1-1, Date again starts with 3-shanten, though lacking in value. Drawing to a pinfu and finding a dora, she is iishanten at the end of the 1st row. In the 2nd row, Asakura beats Date to tenpai and calls riichi on an 8m kanchan wait. Three turns later, Date gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 58p ryanmen wait. At the start of the 3rd row, Asakura draws the red 5p and deals into Date. Date wins the hand with Riichi/Pinfu/Dora 1/Aka 1 for 12,000+300, including Asakura’s riichi stick. With the win, it puts her over 50,000 in just two hands.

In E1-2, Date again starts out with another 3-shanten hand with an ankou of green dragon. Her hand progressed very well and got to a ryanmen-ryanmen iishanten at the end of the 1st row. Yet again, Asakura beats Date to tenpai, waiting on a 4s kanchan for a 5 han minimum hand. Near the end of the 2nd row, Date gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 69s ryanmen wait. Three turn later, Date draws the 9s to win the hand. Revealing the just-drawn 9s as the uradora, Date wins the hand with Riichi/Tsumo/Green Dragon/Ura 1 for 4,000+200 all.

With three dealer mangan hand in as many hands, Date was able to eventually win the game with 58,500 points.

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