Highlights

Baiman

November 29, Game 2, E3-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p332

In E3-0, Taro is the dealer in 1st place and wanting to extend his lead. He starts out 3-shanten with a red 5m and a red 5s double dora. Drawing another 5s, making an iipeikou and getting some ryanmen shapes, Taro gets to a perfect iishanten by turn 5. On turn 8, Taro gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 47m ryanmen wait. By calling riichi, he brings his han count to 6 to give him a haneman. Honda tries to chase Taro by calling pon on the just-discarded 5s dora, but he is just too slow. At the end of the 2nd row, Taro draws his winning 7m. Revealing two uradora, Taro wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu/Iipeikou/Dora 1/Aka 2/Ura 2 for 8,000 all, giving him a 36,800 point lead over 2nd place

Revenge Baiman

November 29, Game 2, E3-1
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p333

In E3-1, Katsumata is trying to get any points he can after Taro’s big dealer baiman tsumo. His hand starts out very well, being iishanten with an embedded iipeikou. Though Katsumata has an opportunity to take a turn 2 2p kanchan tenpai, he rejects it to aim for a better wait and/or better value. At the end of the 1st row, Katsumata draws a red 5p and calls riichi on a 47p ryanmen wait. With any one extra han, Katsumata would upgrade his hand to a haneman. On the ippatsu turn, Katsumata draws the 4p to win the hand. Revealing two uradora, Katsumata wins the hand with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tsumo/Pinfu/Tanyao/Iipeikou/Aka 1/Ura 2 for 4,000/8,000 to move up to 2nd place, closing the gap on Taro.

Sexy South 4

November 30, Game 1, S4-3
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p341

In S4-3, the score are close, with 6,100 separating 1st and 4th. 3rd place Kondo is 5,700 behind 1st place Kobayashi. Kondo starts out 3-shanten with a hand set for pinfu, while Kobayashi is 4-shanten with a pair of souths and a red 5p. The dealer Okada is also in the mix, who makes three early calls to get to tenpai on a 47m ryanmen wait. At this point, Kondo is 2-shanten and Kobayashi is iishanten with a pon of souths. Both of them choose to keep pushing, knowing that this hand is probably their best chance at keeping a good placement. In the 2nd row, Kondo draws to tenpai and calls riichi on a 69m ryanmen wait. With his pinfu and dora, the 3,900+2,900 would be enough to put him into 1st place. With Kondo’s just discarded 3m, Kobayashi has a chance to call it and get to tenpai. After taking over 40 seconds to decide, Kobayashi decides to call chii and discards the 9m to try for a 2s kanchan. With the 9m, Kobayashi ends up dealing into Kondo. Kondo wins the hand with Riichi/Pinfu/Dora 1 for 3,900+900 (plus two riichi sticks) to move him from 3rd to 1st and win the game.

Ishibashi’s Ippatsus

November 30, Game 2
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p342

In E2-0, Ishibashi is tied for 2nd place and 8,600 behind 1st place Kayamori. His hand starts out with a bad 4-shanten but has a good value with a pair of 5s dora (and one of them happens to be red). At the end of the 1st row, his hand is 2-shanten. Near the middle of the 2nd row, Takamiya gets to tenpai and stays dama on a 3s tanki wait. A turn later, she decides to call riichi with it. Soon after, Hori makes a call to get to tenpai on a 3s/5p shanpon and Ishibashi calls riichi on a 2s kanchan wait. On Ishibashi’s very next draw, he finds the 2s to win the hand. Ishibashi wins the hand with Riichi/Ippatasu/Tsumo/Dora 3/Aka 1 for 3,000/6,000 (plus Takamiya’s riichi stick) to move into 1st place.

Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p343

Skipping to S3-0, Ishibashi is still in 1st place, holding a 14,400 lead over 2nd place Kayamori. Ishibashi starts out 3-shanten for chiitoi with a red 5s for value. In the first row, Kayamori tries to rush her, calling pon on the south, chii on a 7p and chii on a 5s to get to tenpai on an east/7s shanpon wait. At this point, Ishibashi is iishanten and decides to keep pushing the hand. Soon after, Ishibashi gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 1m/9s shanpon wait. Considering there are no visible dora 2s and the wait being poor, it’s a risky riichi from Ishibashi. However, Kayamori draws the 9s right after the riichi and deals into Ishibashi. Ishibashi wins the hand with Riichi/Ippatsu/Aka 1/Ura 1 for 12,000 and to take a clear lead.

By the end of the game, Ishibashi finishes with 58,600 to win his first game of the season.

Aki

December 2, Game 1

In E3-3, Aki is the dealer and sitting in 3rd place at 24,900. She starts out 4-shanten with a red dora for value and some ryanmen shapes. She advances to 2-shanten at the end of the row, but is still lacking in substantial value. By the end of the 2nd row, she has a ryanmen-ryanmen iishanten, but has a furiten risk with her 14m ryanmen. At the start of the 2nd row, Aki draws the 4m to avoid furiten and calls riichi on a 47p ryanmen wait. Within the first go-around, Mizuhara poses a risk by calling riichi on a 36s ryanmen wait, but the danger is immediately defused when Aki draws the 7p. Aki wins the hand with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tsumo/Pinfu/Aka 1 for 4,000 all (plus two riichi sticks) to take the lead.

In E3-4, Aki starts out with a poor chiitoi 4-shanten, not looking like her hand will amount to anything. She draws to 4 pairs by he end of the 1st row with a dora and a red 5m, though her hand still looks difficult to complete. In the second row, Aki switches the focus to a standard tanyao hand, getting rid of her terminal pair and making calls. In the middle of the second row, Kayamori makes a threat by calling riichi on a 2s kanchan suji trap for haneman minimum. Soon after, Aki gets to tenpai on a 5s kanchan wait. Even as Aki draws dangerous tiles, she keeps pushing. On Aki’s very last draw, she finds the red 5s to win the hand. Aki wins with Tanyao/Dora 1/Aka 2 for 4,000 all.

In Just two hands, Aki managed to more than double her starting score, looking like she would easily be the winner. However…

Maou

December 2, Game 1

In S1-1, Sasaki is in last place and wanting to at least move into 3rd. Even before he can make his first draw, Mizuhara calls pon on the green dragon to skip hist turn. His 3-shanten hand starts out with a pair of dora and geared towards tanyao. By the end of the 1st row, he is 2-shanten with tanyao guaranteed. When Mizuhara discards the 6p dora to get to iishanten, Sasaki calls it to get to iishanten himself. The very next turn, he gets to tenpai and waits on a 36m ryanmen wait. At the end of the 2nd row, he draws the 3m to win the hand. Sasaki wins with Tanyao/Dora 3/Aka 1 for 2,000/4,000 to put him into 2nd place.

Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p351

In S2-0, Sasaki starts out with a pair of souths and 9m, as well as an ankou of norths. With his hand being 2-shanten for honitsu, his hand is set to be expensive. On turn 3, he draws a third south to get to iishanten. As he waits, Mizuhara calls riichi on a 4p tanki chiitoi. On the ippatsu turn, Sasaki gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 7m/9m shanpon wait. A third riichi is added to the mix when Kayamori reached tenpai and makes the call on a 25p ryanmen wait. With Aki folding, nobody knew which of the other three would win the hand. In the middle of the 2nd row, Sasaki draws the 9m to win the hand. Sasaki wins with Riichi/Tsumo/South/Honitsu/Sanankou/Dora 3 for an incredible 6,000/12,000 sanbaiman, stealing Mizuhara and Kayamori’s riichi sticks in the process. With the win, it put him from out of the running to within 2,200 of 1st place.

Skipping to S4-0, Sasaki is in 1st place after Aki dealt into a 3,900 hand while in riichi. Looking to extend the lead with the dealer turn, Sasaki starts out with pairs of the green dragon, red dragon and dora 1p. Early on, he calls pon on both of the dragons and races with Kayamori (who has made two calls herself). With a third call, Kayamori gets to tenpai on a 4m kanchan wait before the end of the 1st row. Two turns later, Sasaki gets to tenpai on a 69p ryanmen wait for haneman. The very next turn, he draws the 6p to win the hand. Sasaki wins with Honitsu/Green Dragon/Red Dragon/Dora 2 for 6,000 all, pushing him above 64,300.

From last to first, he showed all the players at the table and all M-League fans why he is called Maou.

Asakura

December 2, Game 2

In E4-1, Asakura the dealer is at 26,400 and 1,400 behind 1st place. He starts his hand at 4-shanten and holding a 7s dora. With two kanchans and no clear route to a yaku, it isn’t a good start for Asakura. In the first row, he draws an ankou, fills both kanchans and gets to iishanten with a guaranteed good wait. At the start of the 2nd row, Asakura gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 67p wait. Two draws later, he picks the 6p from the wall. Asakura wins the hand with Riichi/Tsumo/Dora 1 for 2,000+100 all (plus a riichi stick) to take the lead.

In E4-2, he starts out with a pair of east dora, as well as pairs of the white dragon and 9p. If he manages to call pon on both the white dragon and east, it would automatically bring the hand up to a haneman. On turn 5, he calls pon on the white dragon to get to iishanten. Soon after, both Tojo and Takamiya get to tenpai, with Takamiya calling riichi. Though Asakura could easily fold, he decides to continue pushing. In the middle of the 2nd row, Takamiya discards the east and Asakura calls pon, putting him tenpai on a 14s ryanmen wait. The very next turn, Takamiya draws and discards the 1s, dealing into Asakura. Asakura wins the hand with Double East/White Dragon/Dora 3 for 18,000+600 (plus Takamiya’s riichi stick). With the win, it puts Asakura above 50,000.

In E4-3, Asakura starts out with a 2-shanten hand, though the lack of dora and a penchan ruins the mood. On turn 2, he fills in the penchan and on turn 4, he gets to a pinfu tenpai and calls riichi on a 47m ryanmen wait. Near the end of the 2nd row, Asakura draws the 4m to win the hand. Asakura wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu/Ura 1 for 2,600+300 all, pushing him over the 60,000 mark.

Getting some tenpai payments in E4-4 and losing the dealership in E4-5, he gets back to it in S1-0. His hand starts out extremely well, holding an ankou of the dora easts and a red 5p. At the end of the 1st row, Asakura is iishanten with 8 different tiles getting him to tenpai. At the start of the 2nd row, he draws to tenpai. Because the east isn’t the round wind or his seat wind, he makes the east ankou into his pair and stays dama on a 36p ryanmen wait for pinfu. As Rumi tries to take a tenpai at the end of the 2nd row, she throws the 3p and deals into Asakura. Asakura wins the hand with Pinfu/Dora 2/Aka 1 for 8,000.

Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p352

Skipping to S4-0, Asakura starts his dealer turn 3-shanten with a red dora and a natural affinity to tanyao. He is extremely lucky with his draws and on turn 4, he is tenpai and calling riichi on a 36s ryanmen wait. If he can get the 3s or win by tsumo, it would bring his hand to a haneman. On his ippatsu draw, he gets the perfect result of drawing the 3s, upgrading his hand to a baiman. Asakura wins with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tsumo/Pinfu/Tanyao/Iipeikou/Dora 1/Aka 1 for 8,000 all, bringing him up to 95,000.

Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p353

In S4-1, Asakura is within a dealer mangan of beating Date’s 105,500 record from two weeks ago. His hand starts out with pairs of west and north and singletons of the south and east. Though shousuushii comes to mind, the prospect of honitsu is much more likely. He quickly calls pon on the north to start the gears going for the honitsu. Looking around the table, we see that Takamiya is tenpai on turn 4 for a pinfu. However, because she is in last place and 13,600 behind 3rd place, she opts to reject the 2,000 tenpai to aim for something else. This would prove to be useful to Asakura, who takes the extra time to build his honitsu hand. In the middle of the 2nd row, he gets to iishanten with pairs of east, west and 9p. Drawing the 9p on the next turn, he holds a valuable tenpai on an honour shanpon. Because of the obvious honitsu, everyone starts to become wary. Approaching the end of the 3rd row, Asakura draws his very last winning tile, the east, to win the hand. With his hand being 50 fu, Asakura wins with Honitsu/East for 2,600+100 all, bringing his score up to 104,900, being just the 3rd player to go above the 100,000 mark.

Even though Asakura had a failed riichi in S4-2 and lost some points to a tsumo, he still finished the game at 102,400 points, the second-highest final score of all time.

Big Flip

December 3, Game 1, E3-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p361

In E3-0, the scores are close with no one more than 4,000 from where they started. Hagiwara, who is still even, starts out 3-shanten with a red 5s and a 9m dora. Through the first row, Hagiwara draws inside tiles, forcing him to discard the 9m to maintain tanyao. By the end of the row, he is 2-shanten. In the 2nd row, Hagiwara gets rid of his remaining terminals and honours and at the end of the row, he gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 36m ryanmen wait. The hand being 3 han, any single other han would be enough to bring the hand up to mangan. Within the ippatsu turn, Maruyama discards the 6m and deals into Hagiwara. Making a big flip, he reveals the best possible ura dora indicator, the 4s, to make the four 5s in his hand into new dora. Hagiwara wins the hand with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tanyao/Aka 1/Ura 4 for a 16,000 baiman, thrusting him into the lead.

South 4

December 3, Game 1, E3-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p362

In South 4-0, the battle for final placement has begun. Maruyama has 16,500, Matsumoto has 20,400, Uchikawa has 25,800 and Hagiwara (the final dealer) has 37,300. Looking around the table, Maruyama holds a beautiful iishanten hand that looks like it could be a Riichi/Pinfu/Dora 1 to tie Matsumoto, while Matsumoto holds 3-shanten with good shapes with a 4s dora and a red 5s. Both Maruyama and Matsumoto improve their hands in the first row, ryanmen shapes in both their hands. At the start of the 2nd row, Maruyama gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 25p ryanmen wait. If she can tsumo it and get another han along with it, it would be enough to put her into second.

Avoiding the ippatsu by discarding a safe tile, Matsumoto gets to tenpai on his very next draw and calls riichi on a 36s ryanmen wait. If Matsumoto could manage to win on the 3s, it would give him sanshoku and push him to haneman. If he draws it himself, it would give him enough points to jump to 1st place and win the game.

Seemingly out of nowhere, Uchikawa also manages to get to tenpai and stays dama on a west/2p shanpon. A tsumo by Uchikawa would be enough to get to 1st.

Getting close to the middle of the 3rd row, Matsumoto draws the 6s to win the hand. Though it isn’t the highest scoring draw, a single uradora would be enough. Finding the one uradora he needs, Matsumoto wins the hand with Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu/Dora 1/Aka 1/Ura 1 for 3,000/6,000 (plus one riichi stick) to overtake hagiwara and win the game.

The West

December 3, Game 2, E1-0

In E1-0, Kurosawa starts out as the south seat and holds a a nice iishanten hand with a pair of south dora. Her hand comes together very quickly, getting to tenpai on turn 4 by drawing a red 5s and calling riichi on a 6m/west shanpon wait. A dora wait is typicially very unlikely to come from anyone else, but Kurosawa has had some very good luck with the west in the past. On turn 6, trouble comes along when Shiratori calls riichi on a 14s ryanmen wait. Though it takes a while, Kurosawa manages to draw the west at the end of the 2nd row to win the hand. Kurosawa wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Dora 3/Aka 1 for 3,000/6,000 to take the early lead.

Unfortunate Kan

December 3, Game 2, S1-0

In S1-0, Sonoda is in last place as the dealer and Kurosawa is trying to chase first place Sawazaki. Sonoda starts out 4-shanten while Kurosawa holds a 3-shanten hand with a pair of red dragons. In true Kurosawa fashion, she rejects calling pon on the red dragon on turn 3 and aims to keep her hand closed. By the end of the 1st row, both Sonoda and Kurosawa have advanced to iishanten. At the start of the 2nd row, Sonoda gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 58s ryanmen wait.

On the ippatsu turn, Kurosawa gets to tenpai as well and calls riichi on a 14s ryanmen wait.

Two turns later, Sonoda draws a fourth 9s and calls kan. Flipping the 3m as the new dora indicator, it gives both of them an extra dora.

On Sonoda’s rinshan draw, he finds the 4s and ends up dealing into Kurosawa.

With the uradora indicator under the 3m being a 6p, it gives Kurosawa two more dora. Kurosawa wins the hand with Riichi/Iipeikou/Dora 1/Aka 1/Ura 2, just enough for a 12,000 point haneman. With a single kan from Sonoda, he turns the 5,200 hand into a 12,000 hand, loses his riichi stick and goes into the negatives in the process. As for Kurosawa, the win would move her above Sawazaki. Kurosawa would eventually go on and win the game, breaking Team Raiden’s 18-game winless streak.

Intro | Highlights | Results | Standings