Highlights
Tactical Call
January 24, Game 1, E3-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p632
In E3-0, Murakami is the dealer and in 2nd place, 12,400 behind 1st place. His haipai starts out with four pairs and a single 1m, a good setup for the shortcut to haneman. He finds the fifth pair on turn 5, but has trouble getting to tenpai for the next few turns. Finally, at the start of the third row, Murakami draws his sixth pair and sits dama on a 1m tanki. In the middle of the row, Sawazaki calls pon to advance his hand. For Murakami to prevent him from advancing he calls a tsumogiri riichi, keeping his 1m wait. If Murakami draws the 1m himself, he would get a haneman, upgrading to a baiman if he hits the uradora.
As the wall got shorter, the focus was on watching the haitei. In an interesting move, Date decides to make a daiminkan. The daiminkan didn’t shift the haitei nor break an ippatsu, so both viewers and commentators were left wondering. However, it did make Murakami’s 1m become double dora. With Murakami’s hand made more expensive, it was imperative to shift the haitei.
When Date discards the 3s, Shiratori calls chii to shift the haitei to Date.
When Date draws the last tile in the wall, it’s revealed that the haitei was 1m! With the chii call, Shiratori was able to foil Murakami’s guaranteed baiman with possible upgrade to sanbaiman if he found any uradora.
Instead, the hand went to a draw with Murakami the only one tenpai.
In a Tweet after the game, Date apologized and admitted that she made a mistake. Though, Konami Mahjojng Fight Club fans and Shiratori were quite forgiving, saying that we are only human and everyone makes mistakes.
Expensive Atozuke
January 25, Game 1, E3-0
In E3-0, Honda is in 2nd place and only a short distance from 1st place. From the very start, he holds an ankou of 9s dora, pushing his hand to an automatic mangan. With a pair of green dragons, he also has a yaku set and ready to call. As Honda sits 2-shanten at the end of the 1st row, Kayamori gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 9s tanki wait. With such a good hand, Honda calls a 678p chii to get to iishanten. In the middle of the 2nd row, Honda gets to tenpai and waits atozuke on a 4m/green dragon shanpon (with the green dragon giving a yaku). If he is also able to draw either of them, he would have the valid yaku of sanankou. A few turns later, Kobayashi draws and discards the green dragon, dealing into Honda. Honda wins the hand with Green Dragon/Dora 3 for 8,000 (plus Kayamori’s riichi stick).
Fighter
January 25, Game 1
In S3-3, Kayamori is in 4th place with 14,800 points and 8,300 behind 3rd place. She starts out with a red 5s in hand, but she is only 4-shanten and with poor shapes. Through the first row, she pairs up honours, calls pon on the west and green dragon yakuhai and gets to iishanten by the end of the first row. At the end of the 2nd row, she gets to tenpai with a mangan and waits with a 5s/7s shanpon. In the middle of the 3rd row, Kayamori draws the winning 7s to win the hand. Kayamori wins with Honitsu/West/Green Dragon/Aka 1 for 2,000+300/4,000+300, moving into 2nd place.
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p643
In S4-0, Kayamori is 9,00 behind 1st place. Her starting hand is excelling being iishanten with a pair of red dragon dora. On turn 2, she gets to a ryanmen-sanmenchan iishanten. On turn 3, she give her the flexibility to accept 7 different tiles for a good wait tenpai. When Kobayashi discards the red dragon, Kayamori calls pon and gets to tenpai on a 369s sanmenchan wait.
When Kobayashi discards the 3s, Kayamori chooses not to call ron. This is an incredible play, since passing allows her to hit Honda directly or to draw it herself in order to get to 1st place.
As Kayamori waits, the chances of her opponents being in tenpai grows. Through the first row and second row, none of the three tiles came out. As the 2nd row comes to a close, Kobayashi throws the 9s and Kayamori decides that she has waited too long. Calling ron, Kayamori wins with Red Dragon/Dora 3 for 8,000. Though she just misses first place by just 1,000 points, she was able to make a lot of ground over the last to hands to be in a much better position.
Ryanpeikou
January 27, Game 2, E4-1
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p654
In E4-1, Kobayashi is in 4th place and 12,300 from 3rd place. Kobayashi starts out with He starts out 3-shanten, but the hand composition doesn’t have anything of value other than chiitoi. In his first few turns, he created more pairs, but also had the pairs connect to make potential iipeikou shapes. On turn 5, Kobayashi gets to iishanten and on turn 6, he gets to tenpai.
His hand is 566m778899s34455p and he calls riichi. He picks up the 6m and almost stops himself just as he begins to drop the tile. However, he notices the noten results just in the nick of time, puts the 6m back in the hand and calls riichi by throwing the 5m and wait on a 36p ryanmen wait.
Within two turns, Honda chases Kobayashi by calling riichi on the exact same wait: the 36p ryanmen. With six of them left in the wall, chance are that one of them was going to win.
As the two of them wait, Sawazaki works his hand around and tries to get to tenpai to keep his dealership. In the 3rd row, Sawazaki calls pon and gets to tenpai on a 25p ryanmen.
On Kobayashi second-last draw, he finds the 3p to win the hand. With the takame, Kobayashi wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu/Ryanpeikou/Ura 2 for 4,000+100/8,000+100 (plus two riichi sticks). With the win, it moves him from last to 6,200 from 1st place
Early Dealer Riichi Doesn’t Scare Me
January 28, Game 1, E2-0
In E2-0, Aki is the dealer and 1st place, while Takizawa is tied for 2nd place. Just the hand previous, Aki called ron off of Ooi while he was the dealer. Aki starts out with a very nice starting hand, holding an ankou of east and a pair of white dragons while iishanten. She gets to iishanten on turn 3 and gets to tenpai on turn 4, calling riichi on a 69s ryanmen (with 6s giving sanshoku).
For Takizawa, he was only 4-shanten by the time Aki called riichi. Because the dealer riichi call was so early, Takizawa could discard his honours and terminal to both advance his hand and defend against the dealer. After getting rid of his junk, he was 2-shanten with a mangan hand. With such value, he pushed forward. In the middle of the 2nd row, Takizawa makes a call and gets to tenpai on a 258p sanmenchan wait.
The next turn, Takizawa draws the red 5m and he draws 8p right after to win the hand. Takizawa wins the hand for Tanyao/Dora 1/Aka 2 for 2,000/4,000 (plus Aki’s riichi stick) to become the new leader.
Under New Leadership
January 28, Game 2
In E1-0, Sasaki is the dealer and he starts with a 3-shanten hand with a good chance at being pinfu and tanyao. He easily gets to iishanten by turn 3 and in the middle of the 2nd row, he gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 69p ryanmen. If he wins by drawing the 6p, he would get mangan. Sure enough, he draws the takame 6p two turns later to win the hand. Sasaki wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Tanyao/Dora 1 for 4,000 all to take the sole lead.
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p662
In E1-1, Matsumoto is 1,6000 behind Sasaki after the dealer mangan tsumo. His hand does start out 2-shanten, but it is filled with kanchans and not much value. Filling some kanchans and turning others into ryanmens, he gets to 2-shanten on turn 5 with a guaranteed tanyao and a chance at a 345 sanshoku as well. In the middle of the 2nd row, Matsumoto gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 47s ryanmen for mangan minimum. Soon after, Sasaki chases and calls riichi with a 47s ryanmen as well. In the middle of the 3rd row, Matsumoto draws the 4s to win the hand. Matsumoto wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu/Tanyao/Dora 1/Ura 2 for 3,000+100/6,000+100 (plus Sasaki’s riichi stick), making him the leader.
In E3-3, Rumi is the dealer and has just moved from 4th to 3rd after winning the previous hand. Her hand starts out 3-shanten, but has no clear path for value. By the end of the 1st row, she has slowing progressed to 2-shanten and entertaining the possibility of ittsuu. In the middle of the 2nd row, she draws a red 5p and in the 3rd row, she gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 356p wait. The very next turns, she draws the 6p to win the hand. Rumi wins with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tsumo/Pinfu/Aka 1 for 4,000 all.
After losing her dealership in E3-4, Rumi continues her pursuit for the lead in E4-0. She starts out with favourable 2-shanten hand that’s geared to tanyao. She gets to iishanten on turn 2, swaps the tanyao for dora 1p on turn 3 and pairs up the dora and calls riichi on a 147m wait the very next turn. Though the wait with the good wait took a while, she eventually draws a 7m in the middle of the 3rd row to win the hand. Rumi wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu/Dora 2/Ura 1 for 3,000/6,000, taking the lead. She would be able to hold onto the lead for the rest of the game to give her her first win since October 28.
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