Highlights

Holding Out

January 17, Game 1, S4-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p592

In S4-0, Shiratori is in 1st place and Sasaki is in 4th place. In order for Sasaki to move up in placement, he has to find 6,500 points this hand. Sasaki starts off the hand by making an ankan of red dragons, giving him a yaku and getting a dora from the kandora flip. Though the kan and good draw gave Sasaki 3-shanten, Shiratori is ahead in terms of progress, being 2-shanten with a hand headed towards tanyao. Shiratori’s hand progresses quickly and gets to tenpai on a 7m kanchan at the end of the 1st row. With Sasaki holding an isolated 7m, his hand seems to be doomed for failure.

With every draw, though, he holds onto it. Holding onto it ends up paying of for him, as he draws a 6m to create a 58m ryanmen. With the tenpai and three dora in hand, he calls riichi with the ryanmen wait. Three turns later, he draws the red 5m to win the hand. Sasaki wins the hand with Riichi/Tsumo/Red Dragon/Dora 3/Aka 1 for 3,000/6,000, getting just enough points to finish the game in 2nd place.

Waiting

January 18, Game 1, E1-1
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p601

In E1-1, both Asakura and Hagiwara start out with 3-shanten hands, with Hagiwara holding a red 5s to have the edge on value. Hagiwara’s hand develops well and gets to tenpai on a 4s kanchan at the start of the 2nd row. He chooses not to call riichi because of the ability to improve the wait and the fact that drawing a 5p can upgrade the 2 han hand into a mangan.

As Hagiwara waits, Asakura continues to build his hand. He gets to iishanten soon after Hagiawara gets to tenpai and gets to tenpai near the end of the 2nd row, calling riichi on a 369s sanmenchan wait.

On the ippatsu turn, Hagiwara gets the ultimate draw of a red 5p to get sanshoku and calls riichi on his 4s kanchan. On Asakura’s ippatsu draw, he draws the 4s and deals into Hagiwara.

Hagiwara wins the hand with Riichi/Ippatsu/Sanshoku/Tanyao/Aka 2 for 12,000+300 points, as well as Asakura’s riichi sticks and the riichi stick from the previous hand.

Last One

January 18, Game 2, E2-1
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p603

In E2-1, Kobayashi is the dealer and starts out with a pair of white dragons, a red 5s and a single east dora. With an early call of the south yaku by Uotani, we see that she has a white dragon pair as well, making it difficult for Kobayashi to get a quick hand. However, in the middle of the 2nd row, Kobayashi draws a second east dora. If he can manage to complete it, it would bring his hand value to a dealer haneman. As Kobayashi waits, he tries to complete the rest of his hand while he tries to outrun two quick-calling players. In the middle of the 2nd row, Sonoda is the first to get to tenpai, waiting on an 8p tanki (which he switches multiple times over the course of the hand). It wasn’t until the start of the 3rd row that Kobayashi was able to get to tenpai, making a call and waiting on an east/white dragon shanpon. With the two white dragons in Uotani’s hand and one east stuck in Honda’s hand, there was only one more east left int the wall. On Kobayashi’s second to last draw, he finds that last east and wins the hand. Kobayashi wind with Double East/Dora 3/Aka 1 for 6,000+100 all to take a big lead.

South 4

January 18, Game 2
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p604

In S4-0, Sonoda is the dealer in 3rd place and start out with a 2-shanten hand with a red 5m. As is expected with a quick starting hand, Sonoda gets to tenpai quickly and calls riichi at the end of the 1st row on a 58s ryanmen wait. If Sonoda can draw the 5s himself and find one more han, it would be enough to put him into 1st place. In the middle of the 3rd row, Sonoda draws the red 5s to win the hand. Sonoda wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu/Iipeikou/Aka 2 for 6,000 all and to take the lead.

In S4-1, Kobayashi has just fallen into 2nd place after Sonoda won his big dealer haneman. Being 7,500 behind Sonoda now, Kobayashi needs a mangan ron, a 3/30 direct hit or a 4/20 tsumo to pass him. He starts out with a 4-shanten hand with a single dora 5m. Throwing out the inefficient honours, Kobayashi started to move his hand to pinfu. In the middle of the 2nd row, Kobayashi gets to iishanten and a turn later, he gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 69p ryanmen wait. Winning by tsumo would be enough from Kobayashi to win, otherwise he would have to hope for an uradora to win. In the middle of the 3rd row, Kobayashi draws the 9p to win the hand. Kobayashi wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu/Dora 1 for 1,300+100/2,600+100 and wins the game.

Honour Pairs

January 20, Game 1, E1-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p611

In E1-0, Takizawa is the dealer and starts out with pairs of red dragons, green dragons, norths and 9p. Even with the straightforward goal of yakuhai, toitoi and honitsu, Takizawa put off calling the first north in order to conceal his hand. He drew a pair of 2p on turn 4 to get his hand set for either chiitoi or a calling frenzy. When the first red dragon came out, Takizawa still held off on calling despite the good toitoi chance. The very next turn, he draws a north to shift his hand towards toitoi. In the middle of the 2nd row, Takizawa committed to toitoi by calling pon on the green dragon. In the middle of the 3rd row, Takizawa calls pon on the red dragon to get to tenpai on a 2p/9p shanpon. Two turns later, he draws the 2p to win the hand. Takizawa wins with Toitoi/Honitsu/Green Dragon/Red Dragon for 6,000 all.

Holding the Dora

January 21, Game 1, S1-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p621

In S1-0, Mizuhara is in 3rd place and 6,600 behind 1st place. Holding two dora, the framework for a mangan is there, but she is only 4-shanten and will need to draw good tiles to get there. She draws a dora on turn 3 to get a guaranteed mangan if she wins and is iishanten by turn 4. On turn 5, she draws the 4th 8p dora to make her hand even more valuable. Near the middle of the 2nd row, Mizuhara gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 3m penchan and in the middle of the 3rd row, she draws the 3m to win the hand. Mizuhara wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Dora 4 for 3,000/6,000 and takes the lead.

Dama Haneman

January 21, Game 1, S2-0

In S2-0, Ooi is the dealer and trailing 1st place by 8,400. He starts out the hand with a strong 2-shanten hand with a single dora. Though he barely makes any progress in the first 9 turns, he finally gets to iishanten on turn 10. While Uchikawa calls riichi on turn 11 14s ryanmen, Ooi pushes forward. Ooi draws a dora on turn 12, draws for tanyao in the 3rd row and gets to tenpai a turn later on a 36p ryanmen wait. With his hand valued at a mangan and the 3p being safe against Uchikawa, Ooi stays dama. The very next turn, he draws the 6p to win the hand. Ooi wins with Tsumo/Pinfu/Tanyao/Iipeikou/Dora 2 for 6,000 all (plus Uchikawa’s riichi stick) and the lead.

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