Highlights
Mizuha-Rush
January 31, Game 1
In E1-1, the game is early and Mizuhara starts out with 3-shanten with a red dora and aimed for tanyao. Filling in a kanchan and creating a ryanmen, Mizuhara gets to iishanten by the end of the 1st row. At the start of the 2nd row, Mizuhara creates a sanmenchan and near the start of the 3rd row, Mizuhara gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 36m ryanmen wait. Within the ippatsu turn, dealer Uchikawa throws the 3m and deals into Mizuhara. Mizuhara wins the hand with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tanyao/Aka 1 for 8,000+300, moving into 1st place.
In E2-0, Mizuhara is 4-shanten for both chiitoi and a standard hand. On turn 2, she draws a red 5s to advance her hand and increase the hand value. She gets to iishanten at the start of the 2nd row and two turns later, she gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 47s ryanmen for mangan minimum. Though Shiratori kills the ippatsu with a call for tenpai, Mizuhara draws the 7s right away and wins the hand. Mizuhara wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Tanyao/Dora 1/Aka 1 for 2,000/4,000.
In E3-0, Mizuhara is 2-shanten with tanyao solidified and holding a red 5m and a 3p dora. Her hand moves quickly, getting to iishanten on turn 4 and getting to tenpai on turn 8, staying dama on a 25p ryanmen. On turn 11, Uchikawa draws and discards the 2p, getting hit by Mizuhara’s surprise mangan. Mizuhara wins with Tanyao/Pinfu/Dora 1/Aka 1 for 8,000.
In E4-0, Mizuhara is finally the dealer and starts out 3-shanten with a pair of red dragons. When the first red dragon is discarded on turn 1, Mizuhara chooses not to pon. She is immediately rewarded for her patience, drawing the last red dragon on turn 2. On turn 4, she gets to iishanten and on turn 9, she gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 36p ryanmen. On the ippatsu draw, she finds the 6p to win the hand. Mizuhara wins with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tsumo/Red Dragon for 4,000 all, putting her above 60,000
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p672
In E4-1, Mizuhara continues her dealership and starts out 4-shanten with two red doras and a 2m dora. Forming five concrete blocks, she makes it easily to iishanten by the end of the 1st row. However, tired of Mizuhara’s reign and bullying, Uchikawa challengers her by calling riichi in the middle of the 2nd row on a 14p ryanmen for mangan minimum. Within the ippatsu turn, Mizuhara gets to tenpai and chases Uchikawa with a 245s wait. In calling riichi, she chooses to discard the 100% safe 6m instead of the 9m suji, forgoing tanyao. A few turns later, Uchikawa draws and discards the 6s, dealing into Mizuhara. Flipping over an uradora to compensate for the lost tanyao, Mizuhara wins the hand with Riichi/Pinfu/Dora 2/Aka 1/Ura 1 for 18,000+300 (plus Uhcikawa’s riichi stick).
In five hands, Mizuhara got four mangans and a haneman, pushing her from 24,000 to 79,600. In the end, she would finish the game with 66,100, the highest score in her M-League career.
No More Ura San
January 31, Game 1
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p672
In S1-1, Sasaki is in 2nd place and just 2,300 ahead of 3rd place. His starting hand is 3-shanten for chanta, but otherwise unremarkable. On turns 2 and 3, he draws two white dragons to set up a yakuhai for value. By the end of the 1st row, Sasaki is iishanten with his guaranteed chanta hand. Drawing the last white dragon the very next turn, Sasaki gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 3s penchan for mangan minimum. Two turns later, Uchikawa the dealer chases and calls riichi on a 25m ryanmen. Immediately after, Sasaki draws the 3s to win the hand. Revealing the red dragon as the uradora indicator, Sasaki wins the hand with Riichi/Tsumo/Chanta/White Dragon/Ura 3 for 4,000+100/8,000+100 (plus Uchikawa’s just-thrown riichi stick). With the flip of an ura, a mangan hand is suddenly upgraded to a baiman.
Houtei
February 1, Game 2, S2-2
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p682
In S2-2, Uotani is the dealer and in the lead. Her hand starts out slow, being 4-shanten for chiitoi (5-shanten for a standard hand) with a red 5m for value. Through the first row, she was able to make a lot of connections and get to 2-shanten by the end of the row. In the second row, Sonoda makes two calls to put the table on edge and makes Uotani be cautious. When Setokuma calls riichi in the 3rd row on a 47p ryanmen, Uotani has incentive to fold.
She begins break he hand when Katsumata makes a chasing riichi on a 3p kanchan.
With four tiles left in the wall, Uotani makes a call to shift the haitei away from Katsumata while putting her into iishanten
With one tile left in the wall, Uotani makes another call, this time to get to tenpai on a 69p ryanmen.
When Setokuma gets the haitei, he reveals the 6p, Uotani’s winning tile!
Uotani wins with Tanyao/Houtei/Aka 1 for 5,800+600 (plus the two riichi stick).
Tense Finale
February 1, Game 2, S4-1
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p683
In S4-1, Katsumata is 14,400 behind Setokuma and Setokuma is 3,600 behind 2nd place Sonoda. With the distance between Setokuma and Sonoda, Sonoda will want to win the hand since a ryuukyoku with only Setokuma tenpai would mean that he would drop to 3rd place. At the start of the hand, Sonoda has pairs of green dragon and east, Katsumata is 3-shanten and Setokuma is iishanten with two dora. In the first row, Setokuma pushes for chinitsu, Sonoda tries to rush with calls and all three of them advance their hands well. By the end of the row, both Katsumata and Setokuma are iishanten. In the middle of the 2nd row, Setokuma draws a red 5s and gets to tenpai (though not chinitsu) on a 47s. After a few turns of waiting, Setokuma decides that he’s kept quiet for too long and calls riichi.
On the ippatsu turn, Katsumata gets to tenpai and stays dama, waiting to either improve the hand or for the right time. Even with the riichi, Sonoda is still pushing a bit. With one more draw for Katsumata, he decides to take the ippatsu chance and calls riichi.
On Sonoda’s draw, he gets to tenpai. With the Akasaka Drivens being in 7th place and just outside the cutoff, Sonoda has to put it into consideration when deciding his next move. With his hand being a potential haneman and the need for as many points as he can get. Unfortunately, he ends up throwing the 8s to get to tenpai and deals into Katsumata.
Katsumata wins the hand with Riichi/Ippatsu/Dora 1 for 5,200+300 (plus Setokuma’s riichi stick and a riichi stick from the previous hand). Though Katsumata wasn’t able to get the ura for a placement change, it did affect Sonoda’s standing, pushing him into 3rd and Setokuma into 2nd.
Hinata Haneman
February 3, Game 1, E1-0
In E1-0, Hinata starts out 2-shanten with a red 5p double dora. On turn 3, she reject going to iishanten with mediocre tile acceptance to aim for the wider 2-shanten with the ability to shift to tanyao. On turn 4, she gets rewarded with another 5p dora and a ryanmen-ryanmen iishanten. At the end of the row, Hinata gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 47m wait for mangan minimum. Any single additional han would be enough to get her to haneman. Within the ippatsu turn, Sawazaki gets to tenpai as well and calls riichi on a 147s sanmenchan, with the hand being mangan minimum and the 1s giving him ittsuu for haneman. However, on Hinata’s ippatsu draw, she gets the 4m to win the hand. Hinata wins with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tsumo/Tanyao/Dora 2/Aka 1 for 3,000/6,000, plus Sawazaki’s riichi stick.
Patient Haneman
February 3, Game 2
In E2-0, Kayamori is in 1st place and starts out with a measly 4-shanten with no value. Through the first row, Kayamori got rid of her terminals and honours and advanced her tanyao hand to 2-shanten by the end of the row. Two turns into the 2nd row, Kayamori gets to tenpai and stays dama on a 3s kanchan. If Kayamori draws the 5s or 6s, she would have a chance to add sanshoku to her hand. The very next turn, she draws the 5s and calls riichi on a 36s ryanmen (with the 6s giving sanshoku). On her very next draw, Kayamori gets the 3s and wins the hand. Kayamori wins with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tsumo/Pinfu/Tanyao/Dora 1 for 3,000/6,000, increasing her lead.
Skipping to S1-0, Kayamori is 9,900 points ahead of 2nd place and holds a good 2-shanten hand with a sanmenchan and a 1s dora. From the very start, last place Honda tries to rush the hand with a green dragon pon and gets to iishanten. By the end of the row, Kayamori joins Honda at iishanten. In the 2nd row, Honda gets to tenpai and makes a can call to try to get a 2s rinshan, but fails. With the kan call, the 6m becomes dora, increasing Kayamori’s han count by one. In the middle of the row, Kayamori gets to tenpai and stays dama on a yakuless 1s dora tanki, hoping to draw any tile to get a better wait or to just draw the dora 1s to win. In the 3rd row, Kayamori gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 369p wait. Three turns later, she draws the 6p to win the hand. Kayamori wins the hand with Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu/Tanyao/Dora 1/Ura 1 for 3,000/6,000 to increase her lead even further.
Takame Haneman
February 4, Game 1, E2-1
In E2-1, Kobayashi is in last place, but it’s still early in the game. He starts out with a 3-shanten hand with no value besides a distant pinfu. By the end of the row, Kobayashi only gets to 2-shanten and is still struggling in the wait quality and value department. In the middle of the 2nd row, Kobayashi gets to iishanten for pinfu. A turn later, Kobayashi draws and holds an 8m for a chance at sanshoku, despite throwing an 8m a row earlier. At the end of the row, Kobayashi’s gamble for sanshoku advances one step as he gets to tenpai. He calls riichi on his 58s ryanmen, with the 8s giving sanshoku. If Kobayashi is unfortunate enough (well, relatively) to need to call ron on the 5s, the hand would only be valued at 2 han. On the very next turn, Kobayashi draws the takame 8s to win the hand. Kobayashi wins with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tsumo/Pinfu/Sanshoku/Ura 1 for 3,000+100/6,000+100, moving into 1st place.
Hurried Haneman
February 4, Game 2
In E1-0, Date starts out 3-shanten with a floating 7s dora. Even though Date’s hand was slow to advance, only getting to 2-shanten by the end of the row, she was able to pick up both value in a red 5s and improved the hand wait potential with a sanmenchan in souzu. At the starts of the 2nd row, Date gets to iishanten with the sanmenchan still intact. As Date waits, she has to contend with Taro who is tenpai on a green dragon/north shanpon. In the 3rd row, Date finally gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 258s sanmenchan for mangan minimum. On the ippatsu turn, Date draws the 2s to win the hand. Date wins with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tsumo/Pinfu/Dora 1/Aka 1/Ura 1 for 3,000/6,000 and the early lead.
Moving on to E3-0, Date’s lead has been cut down to 4,600 and she starts out 4-shanten with a lot of difficult kanchans. In the 1st row, she begins to create ryanmens and a potential for a 567s iipeikou, though only progresses to 3-shanten. By the middle of the 2nd row, she fill in the kanchans and finishes the iipeikou, getting to a ryanmen-ryanmen iishanten. Just as she gets to iishanten, Mizuhara the dealer gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 369p wait. On the ippatsu turn, Date gets to tenpai as well and calls riichi on a 369m sanmenchan. Again on the ippatsu draw, Date finds the 6m and wins the hand. Date wins with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tsumo/Pinfu/Tanyao/Iipeikou/Aka 1 for 3,000/6,000 (plus Mizuhara’s riichi stick) to widen the lead yet again.
In E4-1, Mizuhara is in last place, 3,000 behind 3rd place and 18,400 behind 2nd place. Her hand was auspicious, being 2-shanten and holding an ankou fo 8p dora. On turn 2, she creates two ryanmens to allow her to get rid of her penchan. On turn 3, she gets rid of the penchan and makes a pair at the same time to get to a ryanmen-ryanmen iishanten. On turn 4, Mizuhara gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 58m ryanmen. Though both dealer Taro tries to make multiple calls to try to win the hand quickly, his speed is simply unmatched to Mizuhara’s wait, who wins just a few turns later. Mizuhara wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Dora 3/Ura 1 for 3,000+100/6,000+100, plus a riichi stick from the previous hand. Because Taro was 2nd place and was the dealer, the win gave Mizuhara enough points to move into 2nd place.
M-League Watch 