Highlights
Discard a Dora, Reveal Three More
January 10, Game 2, E3-3
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p553
In E3-3, Sawazaki is in 2nd place and 12,300 from 1st place. With a riichi stick and three honba up for grabs, a mangan tsumo for Sawazaki would put him within 100 points of the lead. Sawazaki starts out with a huge starting hand, holding a pair of south yakuhai and all four of the 6p dora. Very early, Sawazaki calls pon on the south to confirm a yaku, but declines to call kan on the 6p with each turn. By not calling kan, he is keeping the high value of his hand a secret. On turn 5, Sawazaki calls chii to get to tenpai and discards the 6p to wait on a white dragon.
With the 6p discard, it would appear to be just a quick hand to take the bonus sticks.
However, when Sawazaki draws the white dragon in the middle of the 2nd row, he reveals the value that he has. Sawazaki wins the hand with South/Dora 3 for 2,000+300/4,000+300 (plus a riichi stick) to be within a step of 1st place.
It’s Always Chiitoi
January 10, Game 2, S2-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p554
In S2-0, Matsugase is in last place and wanting to scrounge up any points he can get. His hand starts out with a decent iishanten, but the two kanchan shapes in his hand will slow him down. As he develops his hand, he gets more and more pairs and eventually gets to chiitoi iishanten on turn 5. Matsugase waits many turns to get to tenpai, but he eventually does get there near the end of the 2nd row by drawing the red 5p and calling riichi on a white dragon tanki.
Murakami treads lightly and pushes a bit, getting to tenpai in the 3rd row on a 69p ryanmen wait. However, in the middle of the 2nd row, Murakami draws a dangerous green dragon.
With only one green dragon discarded, there is a decent chance of dealing in with the green dragon.
Since Murakami can see three white dragons (one in the discards and two in his hand), he tries to discard the white dragon for safety.
With a ron, the strategy of calling riichi to coax out dragon pairs works. Matsugase win the hand with Riichi/Chiitoi/Aka 1 for 6,400.
False Sense of Security
January 10, Game 2, S4-1
In S4-1, Sasaki is in 2nd place, 2,700 behind 1st, while Matsugase is in last place, 21,300 behind 3rd. Both Sasaki and Matsugase are 4-shanten on haipai, though neither of them seem to have sufficient value to pass anyone. Sasaki’s hand came together very quickly, getting to tenpai by the end of the row on a 69m ryanmen wait. Because of the superior wait and the fact that pinfu alone wouldn’t be enough, he called riichi expecting positive results.
Meanwhile, Matsugase basically has nothing to lose. If he wants to have a chance to gain big points, he will have to push. When the riichi was called, Matsugase was already iishanten with a dora and a chance at pinfu. To both avoid the ippatsu and to push his hand closer to pinfu, he got rid of his penchan to go back a shanten. Over his next two draws, he drew another dora and completed the set to get back to iishanten. The very next turn, Matsugase gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 14m ryanmen wait. With his hand now 5 han, he needs to hit either Sasaki or Sawazaki plus get one more han (either tanyao, ippatsu or uradora) in order to escape 4th.
Within two turns, Sasaki drew the 1m and deals into Matsugase. Flipping the one uradora he needs, Matsugase wins the hand with Riichi/Pinfu/Iipeikou/Dora 3/Ura 1 for 12,000+300 (plus two riichi sticks). With just enough, Matsugase dream of escaping 4th and Sasaki’s nightmare of falling to 4th has come true.
All You Need is Tenpai
January 11, Game 1, S4-1
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p563
In S4-1, Asakura is 9,800 behind 3rd place Honda and 2nd place Shiratori is 2,800 behind 1st place Kayamori. On Asakura’s haipai, he is already iishanten and holding a red 5m. With a good chance at pinfu, all Asakura would need is to draw it himself and find another han to move out of last. Drawing a red 5p on turn 4, he gets the extra han he needs and on turn 5, he gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 47p ryanmen wait.
When Asakura called riichi, Shiratori was 2-shanten and Kayamori was iishanten. Both of them break their hand from their ideal shapes to avoid dealing the ippatsu. Seeing how Shiratori has broken up his 5m pair on the first two runs, Kayamori complete breaks up her hand, thinking that Shiratori would be noten as well and she would take the win. Shiratori, however, was just trying to fold the best he can and just happened to be getting closer and closer to tenpai. By the middle of the 2nd row, he was iishanten. Near the start of the 3rd row, Shiratori manages to get to tenpai and stays dama on a 2m kanchan wait. With the tenpai, Shiratori just has to sustain it until the draw to win the hand.
His next draws gave him safe tiles and allowed him to stay tenpai until the end of the hand. With Shiratori and Asakura the only ones tenpai at ryuukyoku, Shiratori passes Kayamori to take the top spot.
There be Dragons
January 13, Game 1, E4-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p572
In E4-0, Mizuhara is in 1st place and ahead by 7,500. Her hand starts out exceptionally well, holding an ankou of green dragons, a pair of red dragons and a single white dragon. Getting rid of a pinzu on turn 1, her han was now only comprised of honours and souzu, setting herself up for honitsu or even shousangen or daisangen. On turn 5, she draws a white dragon to get to iishanten. Soon after, Mizuhara calls pon on the red dragon to get to tenpai on a 3s penchan wait. With the white dragon being useless in Matsumoto’s hand, it seems as though the daisangen tenpai would come. However, Kondo discards the 3s before then and deals into Mizuhara. Mizuhara wins with Green Dragon/Red Dragon/Shousangen/Honitsu/Dora 1 for 12,000 to extend her lead further.
Avoidance
January 13, Game 2, S1-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p573
In S1-0, Taro is deep into last place and trying his hardest to climb back up. He starts off decently at 2-shanten with his hand 2-shanten and aimed for tanyao. He draws poorly in the first row, barely moving his hand and still stuck with bad shapes. In the middle of the 2nd row, he fills in a kanchan and makes a ryanmen to get to iishanten. Despite being the first to iishanten, Tojo catches up to him at the end of the 2nd row and gets to tenpai first, staying dama on a 7m kanchan wait. Near the start of the 3rd row, Taro has a chance to get to tenpai.
He can choose to discard the 6m to wait on an 8m/5p shanpon or guaranteed tanyao, or discard the 7m and wait on a 69m ryanmen wait with a chance at tanyao and iipeikou (but deal into Tojo).
Despite the ryanmen seemingly being the better wait, Taro chooses the worse wait with the guaranteed tanyao, throwing the 6m and calling riichi.
On Tojo’s draw, she has a chance to improve her hand for a ryanmen.
With a guaranteed mangan and a chance at haneman, she tries to riichi while throwing the 8m and deals into Taro.
Taro wins the hand with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tanyao/Dora 1 for 12,000 to put him into 3rd place.
Haitei
January 13, Game 2, S1-1
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p575
In S1-1, Kobayashi is in 2nd place and 10,300 behind 1st place. He starts his hand out 3-shanten, holding 8 manzu tiles that are easy to call, nudging his hand towards chinitsu. In the first row, he draws more manzu, calls a kanchan, calls pon and gets to iishanten for chinitsu by the end of the row. A turn later, Kobayashi draws another manzu to get to tenpai on a 4m/5m shanpon wait. If Kobayashi wins the hand, it would give him baiman. Soon after, Kobayashi downgrades his hand to a haneman to get a better 356m wait.
As Kobayashi waits, Ooi challenges him. With some calls, Ooi get to tenpai near the end of the 2nd row on a south/2s shanpon, with south being the only tile to give him a yaku. Unfortunately for him, he ends up drawing the 2s. With the ruined hand, he starts discarding the 2s, shifts into a pinzu shape and gets to a yakuless tenpai by the middle of the 3rd row.
After Ooi gets to tenpai, Taro gets to tenpai on a 7p tanki wait.
Ooi draws the 7p after that and shifts his hand to another atozuke, this time on a south/7p shanpon.
When Taro draws the south, he switches his wait to be a south tanki.
When it seemed like the hand would end in a draw with three players tenpai, Kobayashi draws the 3m to win the hand. Kobayashi wins with Tanyao/Chinitsu/Haitei for 3,000+100/6,000+100 to take the lead.
It’s Always Chiitoi
January 13, Game 2, S3-0
In S3-0, Tojo is in last place and 3,900 from 3rd. Her hand starts out with three pairs (including a pair of white dragons) and is 3-shanten from both a standard hand and chiitoi. Having declined calling pon on the first discarded white dragon, it would indicate that she would be aiming for a chiitoi with a dora pair to add value to her hand. She draws her 4th pair on turn 2 and her 5th pair on turn 5 to get to iishanten. Though the wait was long, she eventually got to tenpai at the end of the 2nd row by pairing up the dora 8m and called riichi on a west tanki.
In the 3rd row, Ooi is iishanten and has to decide which tile to discard. Wanting to keep the iishanten and seeing that one west is already discarded, Ooi breaks up his west pair and deals into Tojo.
Tojo wins the hand for Riichi/Chiitoi/Dora 2 for 8,000, moving into 3rd place.
Quick and Expensive
January 14, Game 1, S2-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p582
In S2-0, Okada is in last place and the dealer. Still search for her first 1st of the season, Okada will be hoping to make her comeback with the dealership. She starts out with a very valuable hand, being 2-shanten, set for tanyao and having three dora (two regular and one red) for mangan minimum. She quickly gets to iishanten on turn 3 and on turn 4, she gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 25s ryanmen wait. If Okada wins on the 2s, she would also get sanshoku, upgrading her hand to haneman. If she can get both tsumo and the sanshoku, the hand would be a baiman. Two draws later, Okada draws the 2s to win the hand. Okada wins the hand with Riichi/Tsumo/Tanyao/Sanshoku/Dora 2/Aka 1 for 8,000 all. With the win, she jumps from 4th to 1st place.
Thanks to a dealer mangan the next hand and some avoidance from Setokuma in South 4, Okada went on to win the game, the first time she has done so this season.
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