Highlights
Turn 4 Dealer Haneman
March 7, Game 1, E1-0
In E1-0, Asakura is the dealer and starts out with an iishanten hand with his first 14 tiles. With a dora 2s, a red 5m and a hand close to pinfu, his hand is ripe for a mangan. The very next turn, he gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 36s ryanmen. Though he misses on the ippatsu turn, he draws the 6s a turn after to win the hand. Revealing two uradora, Asakura wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu/Dora 1/Aka 1/Ura 2 for 6,000 all, a huge start to the game.
Shortcut to Haneman
March 7, Game 2, E3-2
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p873
In E3-2, Shiratori is in 2nd place and 15,200 behind 1st place Katsumata. His hand starts out 4-shanten for chiitoi (5-shanten for a standard hand) with a red 5p for value. In the first row, Shiratori pairs up the white dragon, 7p and 5m to get him to chiitoi iishanten. At the start of the 2nd row, he gets his 6th pair and stays dama on a 1m tanki. A turn later, he switches his wait and calls riichi on a 2p tanki. Having already thrown the 5p, he sets up the sneaky suji trap. Near the end of the row, Hori tries to half-push by discarding the 2p and deals into Shiratori. Revealing two uradora, Shiratori wins the hand with Riichi/Chiitoi/Aka 1/Ura 2 for 12,000+600, putting him 2,only 600 behind the lead.
Sneaky Shiratori
March 7, Game 2, S4-2
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p874
In S4-2, Shiratori is the dealer and 2,500 behind 1st place. He starts out 4-shanten with a red 5p and a 7p dora. In the 1st row, he pairs up the dora 7p, forces the hand to tanyao and gets the hand to 2-shanten for both a standard hand and chiitoi by the end of the row. In the middle of the 2nd row, Shiratori draws a third 7p to get to tenpai, staying dama on a 36s ryanmen. A turn later, Shiratori draws the 3s to win the hand. Shiratori wins with Tsumo/Tanyao/Dora 3/Aka 1 for 6,000+200 all, taking the lead
Pinzu Honitsu vs. Manzu Chinitsu
March 8, Game 1, E3-1
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p881
In E3-1, Takizawa and Setokuma are 3rd and 2nd, respectively. With 1st place more than a baiman away from both of them, they both want to get as many points as possible. Setokuma starts out 4-shanten for a pinzu honitsu, while Takizawa holds 9 manzu/honours. Though his hand started out looking like a pinfu or a tanyao hand, he just kept drawing manzu and got to a manzu honitsu iishanten by turn 5. On turns 6, 7 and 8, he draws more manzu and shifts his hand to chinitsu. With a pon of the 7m in the middle of the 2nd row, Takizawa gets to tenpai on a 2m/5m shanpon.
By this point, Setokuma is already iishanten for both chiitoi and a standard hand. With an iipeikou, a pair of red dragons and being in the dora suit, Setokuma’s hand could easily upgrade to a haneman. However, bot Takizawa and Setokuma are disturbed when Kayamori the dealer gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 14s ryanmen at the end of the 1st row.
Soon after, Setokuma gets to tenpai on a 4p tanki for chiitoi.
When the 4m (a safe tile against Kayamori) comes out from Murakami, Takizawa calls chii and improves his wait to a 1467m wait.
When Setokuma draws the 5p dora, he reverts back to iishanten to aim for a standard hand without throwing either the 4p or the 5p. When Kayamori discards the 3p, Setokuma calls chii to get to tenpai on a 1p/red dragon shanpon.
On Setokuma’s very next turn, he draws and discards the 1m (a safe tile against Kayamori) and deals into Takizawa. Takizawa wins the hand with Chinitsu/Tanyao/Aka 1 for 12,000+300 (plus Kayamori’s riichi stick) to put him into 1st place and pushing Setokuma into 4th.
Takame
March 8, Game 1, S3-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p882
In S3-0, Murakami is in 3rd place and 11,000 behind 2nd place. He starts out 2-shanten with a red 5s. On turn 2, Murakami breaks his red 5s block to shift his hand to a more expensive chanta/junchan. On turn 3, he gets to iishanten with a chance at both junchan and sanshoku. At the start of the 2nd row, Murakami creates a pair of white dragons and gets to tenpai. Murakami is now put in a bind. If Murakami calls riichi and wins on a 4s, his hand would only have riichi. If he wins on the 1s, he would get a mangan and a chance at a haneman. Having thrown two 3s and a 2s, he thought that his chances at 1s were good and he called riichi. Soon after, Both Takizawa and Setokuma got to tenpai, with Setokuma calling riichi. First place Kayamori tried to throw the safest tile against all three players, the 1s, on Setokuma’s ippatsu turn and ended up dealing into Murakami. Getting the takame, Murakami wins the hand with Riichi/Chanta/Sanshoku/Ura 1 for 12,000, pushing him from 3rd palce to 1st place.
Kurosawa Comeback
March 8, Game 2, S4-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p883
In S4-0, the scores are close, with 4th place Kurosawa being only 5,100 away from 1st place. She starts out 3-shanten with a pair of souths being her only value. In the 1st row, she makes and ankou of wests and shifts her hand to honitsu, getting to 2-shanten. As Kurosawa slowly advances, 1st place Taro tries to shut it down by calling a quick tanyao. However, Kurosawa gets to tenpai first, waiting in the middle of the 2nd row on a 2p kanchan.
Right after, Takizawa gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 7m penchan.
With a third call, Taro gets to tenpai on a 58p ryanmen.
With three players tenpai and ready to take the win, things were tense. However, it was Kurosawa who got the winning tile, calling ron off of Takizawa. Kurosawa wins the hand with Honitsu/South for 8,000 (plus Takizawa’s riichi stick) to move from 4th to 1st in one hand and win the game.
From 4th to 1st
March 10, Game 1, S2-0
In S2-0, Maruyama is in 4th place and 18,800 behind 3rd place after losing a riichi faceoff in E3-0. In this hand, she is the dealer and starts out 3-shanten with two ryanmen and a 5p dora. Though she doesn’t progress her hand significantly in the 1st row, her hand moves forward in the 2nd row. On turn 9, she finishes a ryanmen and on turn 12, she fills in a kanchan and calls riichi on a 47p ryanmen. On the very next turn, Maruyama draws a 4p and wins the hand. Flipping one uradora, Maruyama wins with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tsumo/Pinfu/Dora 1/Ura 1 for 6,000 all. With the 18,000 gain and the 6,000 loss of the other players, the single hand was able push her all the way from 4th to 1st.
Passing the Ron
March 10, Game 2, S2-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p894
In S2-0, Sonoda is in 1st place and Katsumata is 5,000 behind chasing him. Katsumata starts out 3-shanten with a completed sequence and two ryanmens. His hand moves quickly, getting to iishanten and set up for pinfu by turn 4. At the start of the 2nd row, Katsumara gets to tenpai and waits dama on a 25p ryanmen wait. He stays dama to see if anyone would call pon on the dora green dragon and cause him to take evasive action.
Within the first go-around, Matsumoto draws and discards the winning 2p. But Katsumata doesn’t call it!
With the semifinals coming up, Katsumata wants to get as many points as he can. If he takes the 2p now, he would get 2,000 points. However, he can get 3,900 or a mangan if her calls riichi, a two to four fold increase in the hand value.
As expected, Katsumata calls a tsumogiri riichi the very next turn.
A few turns later, Sonoda draws the 2p. Under normal circumstances, a tile discarded before a tsumogiri riichi should be safe. Holding a decent hand and wanting to ruin Katsumata’s riichi, he throws the “safe” 2p and deals into Katsumata.
With a confused look on Sonoda’s face, Katsumata wins the hand with Riichi/Pinfu/Tanyao for 3,900 and the lead.
Mizuhara MVP
March 11, Game 2
The 180th game of M-League 2021 featured the MVP battle. With 12.8pts separating 1st place Mizuhara and 2nd place Sawazaki, whichever one ranks higher in this game wins the MVP award. Also in this game is Sasaki Hisato, last season’s MVP, and Hagiwara Masato. In short, Mizuhara vs. Makoto vs. Maou vs. Masato.
In E1-0, Mizuhara starts out 4-shanten and has a frustrating group of five different honours. Through the first row, she gets rid of some annoying terminals and honours, getting to iishanten by the end of the row. In the middle of the 2nd row, she gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 69s ryanmen. Two turns later, Hagiwara gets to tenpai on a 58s ryanmen. However, Mizuhara ends up getting her tile first, drawing the takame 6s in the middle of the 3rd row. Mizuhara wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu/Tanyao/Ura 1 for 2,000/4,000 (plus Hagiwara’s richi stick) to take an early lead.
In E2-0, Mizuhara is faced with a 1st row riichi from Sasaki, but was able to keep her hand moving forward and was able to win a Pinfu only for 1,000 near the middle of the 2nd row.
In E3-0, Mizuhara is the dealer and sits 3-shanten with an ankou of 3s dora. She draws a pair of white dragons in her first few turns and is able to call pon on it soon after to get to iishanten with a yaku. Later, she creates a perfect iishanten and then gets to tenpai on a 36p ryanmen at the start of the 2nd row. Soon after, Mizuhara draws the 3p to win the hand. Mizuhara wins with White Dragon/Dora 3 for 2,000/4,000, putting her 29,000 ahead of 2nd place Sawazaki.
Maou MVP
March 11, Game 2, E3-1
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p902
In E3-1, Sasaki is in 3rd place and trying to close the gap made by Mizuhara. He starts out 3-shanten for both a standard hand and chiitoi with a 4m dora. By the end of the 1st row, Sasaki only gets to 2-shanten for chiitoi. However, he gets to tenpai just three turns later and calls riichi on a 4m dora tanki.
In the ippatsu turn, Sawazaki gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 5p kanchan.
With the 5p and the 4m being useful tiles, the two of them could only expect to draw them by themselves or to win it off the other. With two tiles left in the wall, Mizuhara tries to make a chii to shift the haitei, but ends up giving Sasaki the 4m draw in the second-last spot in the wall. Flipping two ura, Sasaki wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Chiitoi/Dora 2/Ura 2 for 4,000+100/8,000+100 (plus Sawazaki’s riichi stick) to put him within 4,600 of Mizuhara.
Makoto MVP
March 11, Game 2, S1-1
In S1-1, Sawazaki is in 3rd place and 17,600 behind 2nd place. He starts out 3-shanten with a pair of 1p dora. He gets to iishanten on turn 3 and on turn 6, he gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 25m ryanmen. Soon after, the dealer Hagiwara calls riichi on a 3s kanchan. In the end, the ryanmen was the winner, with Sawazaki drawing the 2m at the end of the 2nd row. Sawazaki wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Dora 3 for 2,000+100/4,000+100 (plus Hagiwara’s riichi stick)to put him within 6,000 of 2nd place.
Scary Sawazaki
March 11, Game 2, S2-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p903
In S1-2, Sawazaki is the dealer and in 3rd place, only 6,000 from 2nd place and 10,600 from 1st place. He starts out 4-shanten with a very distant honitsu being the only possible value. In the first row, Sawazaki makes an ankou of the south, draws some more pinzu (including a 9p dora) and gets to 2-shanten for honitsu (1-shanten for a hand without honitsu). He draws yet another pinzu at the start of the 2nd row and confirms honitsu by breaking his souzu ryanmen block. Soon after, he draws an ankou of wests.
Over the next few turns, he struggled to find any useful pinzu. With every turn, he got tiles that wouldn’t help him. With everyone not willing to donate any pinzu or honours to Sawazaki, his only hope would be to draw it himself. On Sawazaki’s last draw a 4th west. With a chance to get one more draw, he calls kan.
Even though it’s useless, the flip of the kandora instantly made Sawazaki’s west ankan into dora! It was up to the rinshan draw to see if Sawazaki gets to keep his dealership. Sawazaki takes the tile and reveals…
…the 9p dora! He discards the 4p and gets to tenpai at the last minute.
The hand ends in a draw with Sawazaki the only one tenpai, putting him even closer to the lead group.
The Final Hand
March 11, Game 2, S4-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s30_p905
In S4-0, the scores are as followed:
Sasaki: 41,500 (dealer)
Mizuhara: 32,700
Sawazaki: 24,600
Hagiwara: 1,200
With Sawazaki being behind Mizuhara by 8,100, it will all come down to the last hand. The dealer Sasaki starts out incredibly with a pair of green dragons and red dragon, being 3-shanten. Sawazaki starts out with a big hand as well, being 2-shanten with a 3p dora. If he can tsumo a mangan or hit Mizuhara directly, then he would get the title of MVP. With Mizuhara wanting to defend her lead over Mizuhara, she is satisfied with her 3-shanten hand with a clear path to tanyao.
In the middle of the 1st row, Sasaki calls pon on the green dragon to get to 2-shanten. Soon after, Mizuhara gets to 2-shanten with a chii. By the end of the 1st row, Sasaki is iishanten, while Mizuhara and Sawazaki are 2-shanten. Near the start of the 2nd row, Sasaki calls pon on the red dragon gets to tenpai on an 8p kanchan.
With the threat of an expensive hand and even a daisangen, Mizuhara treads very carefully. But Sawazaki, who doesn’t have much to lose, just throws the white dragon down, not fearing the daisangen possibility.
With each draw, Sawazaki couldn’t get to tenpai and Sasaki couldn’t get his winning tile. He does switch his wait from an 8p kanchan to a 36p nobetan to a 258p wait, but still can’t find it. On Sasaki’s last draw, he maintains his tenpai.
Sasaki now has a choice. Sasaki could choose to call himself tenpai and give himself both tenpai points and a chance to get more points. Being in the lead, Sasaki also the choice to call himself noten and take the win. The declaration of an MVP hangs in the balance with this one decision. With one motion, Sasaki Hisato declares himself…
…noten! With that, he ends the game and Mizuhara takes the title of the league MVP!
After the game, Sawazaki shook Mizuhara’s hand and congratulated her on her win. This moment was truly an excellent showing of good sportsmanship in M-League.
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