Highlights

Daisangen?

November 15, Game 1, E3-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p241

In E3-0, Takizawa is in 1st place after having just won a dealer haneman two hands ago. He starts out with pairs of east, green dragon and white dragon, as well as a singleton of the red dragon.

With Sonoda sitting at the table, the scene reminded us of the 2nd yakuman in M-League history when Sonoda dealt into Takizawa for a daisangen win back in 2018 and sparked a song parody about it.

Early on, Takizawa calls both the white dragon and the green dragon, bringing him to 2-shanten to a potential daisangen.

A few turns later, he draws a red dragon to get to iishanten for the yakuman. With two of the red dragons left in the wall, the potential is still alive.

Unfortunately for Takizawa, Matsumoto the dealer has a very fast hand and gets to tenpai on a dama 14m wait. Within the first go-around, Hagiwara discards the 1m and deals into Matsumoto. Matsumoto wins the hand with Pinfu only for 1,500, killing the potential yakuman.

Yakuman Tenpai?!?

November 15, Game 2, E4-0

In E4-0, Ooi is the dealer in 2nd place trying to chase down 1st place Takamiya. Ooi starts out with a chiitoi 3-shanten hand while Takamiya is chiitoi 2-shanten. On turn 2, Takamiya draws a 5th pair to get to iishanten. As Takamiya waits, Ooi draws to chiitoi 2-shanten on turn 5, but draws ankous on turn 6 and 7 moves his hand to toitoi. On turn 8, Ooi gets to iishanten for a potential suuankou and Takamiya gets to chiitoi tenpai on a north dora wait. On turn 9, Ooi draws his 3rd ankou to get to tenpai and stays dama on a 7m/2s shanpon wait. With 3 of his waits still in the wall, it was yet another yakuman that has a good chance to be won. A faceoff between Ooi and Takamiya, everyone was at the edge of their seats.

On turn 12, the faceoff ended when Takamiya draws the north dora to win the hand. Takamiya wins the hand with Tsumo/Chiitoi/Dora 2 for 2,000/4,000.

From the Abemas locker room, we saw how the team (Matsumoto in particular) reacted to the lost yakuman.

Perfect Timing

November 16, Game 1, S2-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p251

In S2-0, Okada has just fallen into the negatives and severely behind, being 30,000 from 3rd place. Her hand starts out unsavoury, being 4-shanten with a red 5m for value. In the 1st row, advances her hand a bit and creates some ryanmen shapes, but her winning prospects are low with everyone else at iishanten. at the start of the 2nd row, Ishibashi is the first to get to tenpai and calls a dealer riichi on a 36p ryanmen wait.

With Okada having little to lose, she continues to shape her hand. In the middle of the 2nd row, Okada gets to iishanten and at the start of the 3rd row, she draws to tenpai and calls riichi on a 47p ryanmen wait. Okada is hoping for a 7p to add sanshoku to her hand and giver her maximum value.

Within the ippatsu turn, Ishibashi draws and discards the 7p, dealing into Okada.

Okada wins the hand with Riichi/Ippatsu/Sanshoku/Dora 1/Aka 2/Ura 1 to give her a huge 16,000 (plus Ishibashi’s riichi stick) gain. With the baiman, she moves her way into 3rd place.

Expensive Suji Trap

November 16, Game 1, S4-0

In S4-0, Aki is in 2nd place and is trying to use her dealer turn to chase Kondo who is 25,400 ahead of her. She starts out with a particularly unpleasant hand, being 5-shanten for a standard hand and 4-shanten for chiitoi. Despite her slow start, nobody else could advance their hand either. Near the end of the 2nd row, Aki is the first to tenpai, calling riichi on a 5p/6m shanpon wait. Having previously discarded the 3m and the 9m, the 6m becomes a dangerous nakasuji trap. With Okada being only 1,000 points from falling into last, she continues to push. At the end of the 2nd row, her hand has four 4m and has a flexible 2-shanten. She calls kan and reveals the 6m as the new dora. Near the start of the 3rd row, Okada draws the 6m. Since it doesn’t really help her hand, the tile is a nakasuji and the fact that Aki couldn’t have planned to wait on the dora since the kan was done after the riichi, she decides it’s good enough to throw. Calling ron, Aki wins the hand with Riichi/Dora 4/Aka 1/Ura 1 for 18,000.

Though Aki eventually lost the next hand and ended up in 2nd place, the +26.0 was good enough to bring her team above the +500.0 mark.

Riichi Roulette

November 16, Game 2, S2-2
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p252

In S2-2, Rumi is in last place and 20,600 behind 3rd place Asakura. She starts out the hand at 3-shanten with a pair of 9m dora. At the end of the 1st row, Rumi is 2-shanten, but is behind iishanten Sawazaki and Kayamori. At the start of the second row, all four players are iishanten. The first player to get to tenpai is Asakura, who calls riichi with his chiitoi on a 7s tanki.

Immediately after, Sawazaki gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 6s kanchan wait.

With two riichi calls, Rumi initially folds by throwing the 3s to break her 345s group. However, she draws another 9m dora to make an ankou and return to iishanten. In the middle of the 3rd row, she draws the 6s to complete the group again and calls riichi on a 3m kanchan wait. With three riichi calls, we waited to see who would be the eventual victor.

On the very last draw, Rumi finds the 3m and wins the hand. Rumi wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Haitei/Dora 3/Ura 1 for 3,000/6,000. Taking the two other riichi stick, a leftover riichi stick from a previous hand and extra honba points, the win brough Rumi to within 7,900 points of 1st place.

Same Wait

November 16, Game 2, S3-1

In S3-0, only 8,100 separates 1st place and 4th place. No one starts out with anything particularly valuable, with Sawazaki being closest to tenpai at 3-shanten. Being in last place, Asakura tries to rush the hand by calling pon on the white dragon early on. By the end of the 1st row, Sawzaki is still ahead at iishanten. The first player to get to tenpai is Rumi, who calls a chii and waits on a 58s ryanmen wait.

Within the first go-around, Asakura gets to tenpai as well, waiting on a 5s/south dora shanpon.

A few turns after that, Sawazaki becomes the 3rd player to get to tenpai, staying dama on a 58s ryanmen wait (with the 8s also giving sanshoku). A 58s vs. 58s vs. 5s/south battle, it seemed like whoever was going to win would have to draw it themselves.

However, in the 3rd row, Asakura draws the 6s. In order to improve his wait, he discarded the red 5s.

The red 5s was an interesting choice. On his Youtube channel, he stated that the 5s seemed like it had a relatively low deal-in rate and that discarding the red 5s would increase the probability of his wait coming out (like an Ishibashi trap)

With the 5s coming out, both Sawazaki and Rumi called ron, but only Sawazaki got to win the hand because of headbump. Sawazaki wins the hand with Pinfu/Tanyao/Aka 1 for 3,900+300.

Yakuman Tenpai!!?

November 18, Game 1, E3-1
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p261

In E3-1, Hagiwara has a clear lead as the dealer and Kayamori is down in 4th place. Hagiwara starts out with a 2-shanten hand with a 1p dora and Kayamori starts out chiitoi 3-shanten with a pair of doras. Neither of the two are able to make progress in the first row, with Kayamori only able to find one more pair to get to 2-shanten. The 2nd row is kinder to the two of them, with Hagiwara being able to call riichi near the end of the row on a 3p penchan wait.

After Hagiwara’s riichi, Kayamori draws her 5th pair and ends up making a 2nd ankou the very next turn. With a chance at suuankou, she pushes for the toitoi. The turn after that she draws her 3rd ankou to get to tenpai and stays dama on a 1p/4p shanpon wait. With another yakuman chance, fans are still waiting for the day that it will come true.

In the middle of the 3rd row, Hagiwara draws and discards the 4p, dealing into Kayamori. Though not the yakuman everyone was hoping for, Kayamori still wins the hand with Toitoi/Sanankou/Red Dragon/Dora 2 for 12,000, along with Hagiwara’s riichi stick. With the win, it brings her up to 2nd place and puts her just 4,000 from 1st.

Quadruple Riichi

November 18, Game 1, E4-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p262

In E4-0, the scores a fairly close, with 12,700 separating 1st and 4th. With the starting hands, it wasn’t clear who would be the favourite to win the hand. With players with pairs for chiitoi and half-completed blocks, nothing was particularly interesting. By the end of the 1st row, Kayamori’s chiitoi iishanten and Matsugase’s 2-shanten tanyao seemed like possible winners. Near the start of the 2nd row, Kayamori is the first to tenpai, staying dama on a south tanki wait (switching to a white dragon a turn later). As Kayamori waits, everyone else pushes closer to tenpai. Near the end of the 2nd row, Hagiwara is the 1st player to match her, getting to tenpai and calling riichi on a white dragon/7m shanpon wait.

Two turns later, Sasaki gets to tenpai and calls riichi on an 8p dora kanchan. If Sasaki wins, he would get at least a dealer mangan, with any extra han getting him to haneman.

With two riichi sticks already on the table, Kayamori decides to call a tsumogiri riichi with her white dragon.

Within the ippatsu turn, Matsugase gets to tenpai. With three riichi calls on the table and the knowledge that no one can fold and that there are no aborts in M-League, Matsugase decides to help make M-League history and call the 4th riichi, waiting on a 14p ryanmen wait.

With the riichi passing, it marks the very first time four players have called riichi in the same hand.

In the end, it was Hagiwara, the first to call riichi, who ends up dealing into Matsugase, the last to call riichi. Matsugase wins the hand with Riichi/Dora 1 for 2,600 and taking the riichi sticks of the other three players.

7 Honba

November 18, Game 1

Over the span of South 1 and South 2, the dealers Matsugase and Kayamori, respectively, kept winning or being tenpai at draw. So much so that they were able to rack up 7 honba, the highest honba count of the season.

Date the Dealer

November 18, Game 2

In S3-0, Date is the dealer and is 6,300 behind 1st place Kurosawa. Her hand starts out 4-shanten with a pair of souths. Though slow, at least she has the option to call a yakuhai. In the first row, she completes the south ankou, builds a sequence out of thin air and gets to iishanten by the end of the row. In the middle of the 2nd row, Date gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 3s penchan wait. Two turns later, she draws the 3s to win the hand. Date wins with Riichi/Tsumo/South/Ura 1 for 4,000 all and the lead.

In S3-1, Date has a score of 51,500 and starts out with 3-shanten hand with a pair of green dragons. Her hand developing quickly, she gets to iishanten by turn 3. Though she does get a chance to be tenpai at the start of the 2nd row, she rejects it to improve both the wait and the value of the hand. Soon after, she does get her upgrade and she calls riichi on a 36m ryanmen wait. Approaching the end of the row, Uotani tries to take tenpai by discarding the 3m, but ends up dealing into Date. Date wins the hand with Riichi/Aka 1 for 3,900+300.

In S3-2, Date’s dealership looks like it’s going to end with her 4-shanten chiitoi hand (5-shanten for a standard hand). She manages to find a bunch of pairs in the first row and gets to iishanten at the start of the 2nd row with two dora. With a bunch of calls, Katsumata is the first to tenpai with a tricky east/west shanpon wait. Right after he gets to tenpai, Date gets to tenpai and waits dama on a 3s tanki wait. A turn later, she switches to a 9m tanki wait and manages to call ron off of Kurosawa immediately after. Date wins with Chiitoi/Dora 2 for 9,600+600. With the win, it brings her score to 65,900.

In S3-3, Date holds a 2-shanten haipai with the potential of an iipeikou shape. With straightforward efficiency, she pushes her hand hand to iishanten on turn 2 and calls riichi at the start of the 2nd row on a 47s ryanmen wait. With only one 7s left in the wall to give her iipeikou, it looked like her hand would be riichi only. It take a bit of time, but she eventually finds the last 7s in the wall at the start of the 2nd row. Date wins the hand with Riichi/Tsumo/Iipeikou for 2,000+300 all. With the win, it brings her above the 70k mark to 72,800.

Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p263

In S3-4, Date starts out 3-shanten with a red 5m as the only value in the hand. Despite starting the hand out with only one pair, she somehow manages to get to chiitoi iishanten by the end of the 1st row. In the middle of the 2nd row, she finds the 6th pair and gets to tenpai on a 6p tanki for mangan minimum. Soon after, Katsumata gets to tenpai on a 47p ryanmen wait, staying dama because of his dora ankou. Right after, Date switches to a 7s wait. The 7s wait, however is actually a kanchan now, with her hand converted to the rare ryanpeikou. With only one 7s left in the wall, we though it was never going to come.

With Uotani getting to tenpai and calling riichi on a 3m kanchan wait, Date would have reason to fold.

With Katsumata adding a possible sanshoku to his hand and calling a chasing riichi, it would seem like Date would surely fold.

A north, red dragon and west, the wall blessed Date with safe tiles. Right after that, she draws the last 7s to surprisingly win the hand. Date wins with Ryanpeikou/Tsumo/Tanyao/Aka 1 for 6,000+400 all. The ryanpeikou win is only the 3rd ryanpeikou in M-League history. Skipping the 80k barrier going through 90k barrier, Date moves up to 94,000 points.

Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p264

In S3-5, Date has a good 2-shaten haipai with a red 5p and a distant chance at sanshoku. She fails to advance through the 1st row, but her first two draws in the 2nd row get her to tenpai and she calls riichi on a 14m ryanmen wait (albeit losing the sanshoku). Even with all the points she has, she just wants to get more. A bit is stress is added when Katsumata calls riichi on his haneman minimum chiitoi 5m wait, but the fear is quickly allayed when Date draws the 1m on her ippatsu turn. Date wins with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tsumo/Red Dragon/Aka 1 for 4,000+500 all and taking Katsumata’s riichi stick.

With the win and her score up to 108,500, it beats the highest score ever achieved of 100,400 by Sasaki Hisato on February 18, 2021.

By the end of the game, she would finish with 105,500, beating the highest final score of all time of 98,200 by Sasaki Hisato on April 22, 2021.

At the start of the game, we were looking to see if Katsumata could get his 5th win in a row to beat the record of most 1st in a row. Instead, we were treated to an exceptional display from Date and some different records broken instead.

Perfection

November 19, Game 1, S2-1
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p272

In S2-1, Uchikawa is in last place and 5,000 away from 3rd place. He starts out with a 2-shanten hand with two dora, a red 5s and a pair of white dragons. With all those elements, it seems to be an easy path to mangan for 2nd place. With a decent chance at sanshoku and an almost guaranteed tanyao, he starts to discard the white dragon pair on turn 3. On turn 4, he holds a ryanmen-sanmenchan iishanten with sanshoku still being alive. At the end of the 1st row, Uchikawa finds tenpai and stays dama on a 258p sanmenchan wait (with 25p giving the 567 sanshoku).

As Uchikawa quietly waits for someone to deal in, Mizuhara has the option to throw the red 5p to get to tenpai (and unknowingly dealing into Uchikawa). She rejects it to be able to use it for her own hand. She has the option again the next turn, but stays strong. At the start of the 2nd row, Hinata gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 47p ryanmen wait. When Uchikawa draws the 7p on the ippatsu turn, he calls riichi by throwing the safe 2p and changes his wait to a 147p wait (with the 7p giving sanshoku). Near the end of the 2nd row, Mizuhara gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 36p ryanmen wait.

Within the ippatsu turn, Uchikawa draws the takame 7p to win the hand. Before the flip, Uchikawa already has enough for a baiman to get him to 1st place. When Uchikawa flips the uradora to show the 6p as the dora indicator, it makes his three 7p into dora and upgardes his hand to a sanbaiman. Uchikawa wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu/Tanyao/Sanshoku/Dora 1/Aka 1/Ura 3 for 6,000+100/12,000+100, plus 4,000 in riichi stick to move him from 4th to 1st.

Yakuman Tenpai???

November 19, Game 2, S3-0

In S3-0, Kobayashi is the dealer in 2nd and Murakami is in last place. Kobayashi starts out 2-shanten with a pair of white dragons, while Murakami is 3-shanten with nothing of value. Early on, Kobayashi calls pon on the 4p with the plans to call pon on the white dragon or convert to tanyao in the future to get to tenpai. With Kobayashi’s path clear, the focus goes to Murakami. By turn 3, Murakami has found multiple pairs and has gotten to iishanten for chiitoi. The very next turn, he gets an ankou for the potential for toitoi. In the middle of the 2nd row, Murakami gets his 2nd ankou to get to iishanten for suuankou and Kobayashi makes a call to get to tenpai on a 3s kanchan. Soon after that, Shiratori made a disruption by calling riichi on a 25s ryanmen wait. even with the riichi, Kobayashi and Murakami keep pushing. At the end of the row, Murakami gets his 3rd ankou, giving him a chance to get to suuankou tenpai. However, he would need to throw the 3s to take it. He calls riichi and throws the 3s, dealing into Kobayashi

Kobayashi wins with Tanyao only for 1,500

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