Highlights

Rumi’s Rise

October 10, Game 1
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-14_s20_p704

In S1-0, Rumi is in 4th place, but is still within 9,800 of 1st place. She starts the hand off 2-shanten with a red 5p and an isolated 7s dora. Getting rid of a terminal kanchan and shifting to tanyao, she gets her hand to iishanten for a potential 567 sanshoku at the end of 1st row. In the 2nd row, Rumi’s progress is hampered slightly by Sonoda and Honda calling riichi. Just two turns after, Rumi gets to tenpai herself and calls the 3rd riichi, waiting on a 47p ryanmen. At the start of the 3rd row, Honda draws and discards the 7p and deals into Rumi. Rumi wins with Riichi/Tanyao/Aka 1 for 5,200 plus two riichi sticks.

In S2-0, Rumi is just 2,000 behind 1st place and starts out 4-shanten with two red fives. As with the previous hand, Rumi shifts her hand to tanyao and sits 2-shanten at the end of the 1st row. In the 2nd row, Rumi draws and fills a kanchan to get to tenpai on a 7s kanchan. In the middle of the 3rd row, Honda tried to call for tenpai, but ended up dealing the 7s. Rumi wins the hand with Tanyao/Aka 2 for 5,200, taking the lead.

In S3-0, Rumi is 3,200 ahead of 2nd and 3-shanten. In the first row, Honda made a call to take advantage of his dealership and ended up giving Rumi good draws. By the end of the row, Rumi was iishanten. In the 2nd row, Rumi drastically improved her hand to a sanmenchan-ryanmen iishanten. Near the end of the row, Rumi gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 58m ryanmen, with the 7m giving iipeikou. In the 3rd row, Hinata tries to discard the 4m to get to tenpai and deals into Rumi. Rumi wins the hand with Riichi/Pinfu/Tanyao/Ura 1 for 8,000.

No More Ura San

October 10, Game 2

In E2-0, Setokuma is the dealer and 6,400 behind 1st place. Setokuma starts out with a really good hand, being only iishanten with a dora 3p and north ankou in hand. As with many iishantens, the 1st and 2nd row were no help at all. During this time, Matsumoto was able to get to tenpai before him, draw a red 5p and calls riichi on a 7m penchan for a 5,200 minimum hand. On the ippatsu turn, Setokuma was able to get to tenpai and calls riichi on a 25p shanpon.

Within the ippatsu turn, Katsumata tries to call the third riichi, but throws the 5p in the process and deals into Setokuma. The tile below the dora indicator was revealed to be the west, making Setokuma’s north ankou dora and instantly upgrading his hand to haneman. Setokuma wins the hand with Riichi/Ippatsu/Dora 1/Ura 3 for 18,000 plus one riichi stick.

Dora Tanki

October 10, Game 2, S2-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-14_s20_p706

In S2-0, Katsumata is sitting at -6,700 and floundering 26,900 behind 3rd place. With no dealer turn left, Katsumata’s only hope is to get a big hand or a direct hit. His starts out decently, holding four pairs and a single dora 4p, setting himself up for a haneman chiitoi. On turn 2, he draws his 5th pair. On turn 4, he drew a red 5m and on turn 5, he paired it up to get to tenpai and called riichi on his 4p dora tanki.

While 1st place Matsumoto and 3rd place Murakami fold, 2nd place Setokuma keeps his options open. In the 2nd row, he creates an iipeikou with a red 5s and at the end of the row, he calls riichi on a 69m ryanmen.

However, on the ippatsu turn, Setokuma draws and discards the 4p dora and deals into Katsumata. Katsumata wins with Riichi/Chiitoi/Dora 2/Aka 1 for 12,000.

Dragon Tanki

October 10, Game 2, S3-0

In S3-0, Setokuma is in 2nd place and needing to recover after dealing into a haneman the previous hand. He starts out 4-shanten, though he does have one completed sequences and two ryanmens. In the 1st row, Setokuma drew tiles to give him a chance at a 789 sanshoku and got to 2-shanten at the end of the row. On turn 7, he drew a 9p to guarantee a sanshoku. A turn later, he advances to iishanten with a chance at chanta. In the middle of the 2nd row, Setokuma draws the 1p to guarantee chanta and sits dama on a west tanki. A turn after, he draws the white dragon and switches his wait and then calls riichi after waiting a turn.

Matsumoto gets to tenpai on a 2p kanchan soon after with Murakami following soon after with a 25p ryanmen riichi. On Murakami’s ippatsu draw, he finds the white dragon and deals into Setokuma. Setokuma wins the hand with Riichi/Chanta/Sanshoku for 8,000 plus a riichi stick.

Hadaka Tanki

October 11, Game 1, S1-1
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-14_s30_p703

In S1-1, Nakabayashi and Shibukawa are 3rd and 4th respectively. Both of them are trying to chase league veterans Uotani and Hisato. Shibukawa the dealer starts out 4-shanten with a red 5p and an 8m dora, while Nakabayashi is 2-shanten with a single 8m. Nakabayashi already has a chance to take a tenpai on turn 3, but rejects it to utilize the 8m. On turn 5, he successfully does so and calls riichi on a 7m kanchan.

At this point, Shibukawa is iishanten with a guaranteed mangan. However, he has a penchan 3m in his hand which overlaps his 36m ryanmen. To try to speed up his hand and kill the ippatsu, he calls chii on the 6m. Two turns later, Shibukawa calls chii on the 3m to get to a 147p sanmenchan (though only waiting on the 47p for a yaku). When Nakabayashi discards the 4p, Shibukawa calls chii for the third time and waits on a furiten 25p ryanmen. When Nakabayashi draws and discards the 8m, Shibukawa makes his 4th call and waits on a 3p tanki.

On Nakabayashi’s last discard, he draws and discards the 3p, dealing into Shibukawa. Shibukawa wins the hand with Tanyao/Dora 3/Aka 1 for 12,000+300 plus Nakabayshi’s riichi stick to move into 1st place.

Hisato

October 11, Game 1

In S1-3, Hisato is in 3rd place, 4,600 behind 2nd and 24,100 behind 1st. He starts out 3-shanten with an 8s dora and a chance at a 123s iipeikou. With eight souzu, the possibility of chinitsu isn’t out of the question either. Drawing multiple souzu in the first row, he confirmed his pursuit by calling a 789s chii in the first row. Soon after the chii, Uotani calls riichi and waits on a 25m ryanmen. The few honours Hisato held onto for the potential of honitsu served as safe tiles first the first few turns of the riichi. When Uotani discards the 2s, Hisato calls chii to get to tenpai on a 457 wait. Seeing no overflow in Hisato’s discards, Nakabayashi throws Uotani’s safe 7s and ends up dealing into Hisato. Hisato wins with Chinitsu/Dora 1 for 12,000 plus Uotani’s riichi stick.

In S2-0, Hisato is in 2nd place and 10,200 behind 1st place. He starts out with four pairs, including a pair of red dragons. With a clear path to toitoi or chiitoi, he starts out by throwing middle tiles and twice cut honours. At the start of the 2nd row, he draws his 5th pair for iishanten. While Hisato waits for his 6th pair, Shibukawa gets to tenpai on a dama 6p kanchan to move the game along. It took a lot of waiting, but near the start of the 3rd row, Hisato pairs up the dora green dragon and calls riichi on a west tanki. With the riichi, Shibukawa folds and plays safely until the hand went to a draw and Hisato was the only one tenpai.

Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-14_s40_p705

Jumping to S4-1, Hisato is just 4,000 from 1st place and starts out 4-shanten with no value in hand. If he wants to take 1st place, he would have to find two additional han. On his first few draws, his hand moved towards pinfu, taking care of one han. On turn 5, he draws the north dora, giving him another option to get to 3 han. At the start of the 2nd row, Hisato draws the red 5m, getting him to iishanten. Soon after, Hisato gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 14m ryanmen with pinfu. He is soon chased by the dealer Nakabayashi on a 258s/3p wait. After many turns of waiting to see who would win, the hand ended when Nakabayashi drew the 4m on his last draw, dealing into Hisato. Hisato wins the hand with Riichi/Pinfu/Aka 1 for 3,900+300 plus Nakabayashi’s riichi stick to win the game.

Hori

October 11, Game 2

In S1-0, Hori is in 4th place and 11,000 behind 3rd place. He starts out 4-shanten with a red 5p and many isolated honours (including the dora white dragon). In his first few turns, Hori pairs up the double wind south and the calls pon on it to secure a yaku. By the end of the row, Hori is 2-shanten with two red dora and the isolated white dragon. At the start of the 2nd row, Hori draws the white dragon to pair it up and get to iishanten. Near the end of the row, he connects the red 5p to guarantee hamenan. A turn later, Hori gets to tenpai and waits on a 47m ryanmen. Soon after Hori gets to tenpai, Takizawa gets to tenpai on a 14m ryanmen. But, during the ippatsu round, Hori was able to draw the 7m and win the hand. Hori wins the hand with Double South/Dora 2/Aka 2 for 3,000/6,000 plus a riichi stick to move into 3rd place.

In S2-0, Hori is now the dealer and 2,00 behind 2nd, 8,400 behind 1st. He starts out the hand 3-shanten with no discernible value besides a distant pinfu. On turn 3, Hori is already iishanten with pinfu, but he gets rid of pinfu for a slightly better wait of more value. While Hori sit iishanten, Yu makes an early call to get to tenpai on a 3p/8s shanpon with a chance at sanankou.

In the 2nd row, Hori draws the red 5m to complete his 4th sequence, but is missing a pair. Despite the many tile options to get to tenpai, Hori instead chooses to get to call riichi and wait on a 2p tanki.

Both Hori and Yu went through the draw and discard motion, waiting for someone to call the win. Then, in the middle of the 2nd row, Hori drew his winning 2p. Hori wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Aka 1 for 2,000 all, putting him in 2nd place and 400 behind 1st.

Setokuma

October 14, Game 2

In E1-0, Setokuma is the dealer and starts out 3-shanten with a red 5m. In the first row, Katsumata makes two dragon calls to get to a very early 3p penchan. Meanwhile, Setokuma makes a pair of double easts and calls pon near the start of the 2nd row for tenpai on a 6p/8m shanpon. A few turns later, he switches to a 58p ryanmen. In the 3rd row, Katsumata decides to fold when he draws a dangerous west, giving Setokuma time to draw it himself. In the middle of the 3rd row, Setokuma draws the 8p and wins the hand. Setokuma wins with Double East/Aka 1 for 2,000 all.

After being tenpai in E1-1, Setokuma’s dealership continued in E1-2. he starts out with a huge starting hand, being 2-shanten with a pair of 6s dora, a pair of red dragons and a single red 5m. On turn 2, he draws a red dora to make it an ankou and advance to iishanten. When Uchikawa discarded the 7m on turn 3, Setokuma called chii to get to mangan tenpai on a 36m ryanmen. At the start of the 2nd row, Setokuma draws the 3m and wins the hand. Setokuma wins with Red Dragon/Dora 2/Aka 1 for 4,000+200 all (plus two riichi sticks).

In E1-3, Setokuma starts out 2-shanten with an isolated 2s dora and a red 5p as part of an ankou. In the first row, he pushed his hand towards tanyao and got to iishanten by the end of the row with a chance at sanshoku. In the 2nd row, he got rid of the sanshoku chance for a wider wait but a call near the end of the 2nd row put him tenpai on a 58m ryanmen. A turn later, Setokuma draws the 5m and wins the hand. Setokuma wins with Tanyao/Dora 1/Aka 1 for 2,000+300 all, putting him above 50,000 before East 1 is finished.

Win Again, And Again, And Again, And Again….

October 13, Game 2

In E3-0, Katsumata is in 4th place, 8,000 behind 3rd and 12,600 behind 2nd. He starts the hand out as the dealer, 3-shanten with a single 1p dora. To make room for tanyao, he gets rid of the dora, draws the red 5s and advances to iishanten by the end of the 1st row. In the 2nd row, Katsumata just drew and discarded, waiting for any tile to get to tenpai. In the 3rd row, Uchikawa was able to call riichi on a 7m kanchan before Katsumata got to tenpai. A few turns later, however, Katsumata is able to call to get to tenpai on a 36s ryanmen. Soon after, he draws the 3s to win the hand. Katsumata wins with Tanyao/Aka 1 for 1,000 all, plus Uchikawa’s riichi stick.

In E3-1, Katsumata is again 3-shanten with his starting hand, though there is a clear path to tanyao. The first row is slow, but Katsumata manages to fill a kanchan for 2-shanten. In the 2nd row, Katsumata draws a 1p to kill his tanyao but get him to iishanten. As he waits for tenpai, Uchikawa calls riichi on a 3p penchan. Soon after, Setokuma gets to a yakuless 4p dora tanki. At the end of the row, Katsumata finally gets to tenpai and waits on a 36m ryanmen. With the two riichi calls, Setokuma folds and the battle is now just between Uchikawa and Katsumata. In the middle of the 3rd row, Uchikawa draws and discards the 6m, dealing into Katsumata. Katsumata wins the hand with Riichi/Pinfu/Ura 1 for 5,800+300 (plus Uchikawa’s riichi stick) to move into 3rd place.

In E3-2, Katsumata is 3rd place and 10,500 behind 2nd. This time, he starts out 3-shanten with a pair of green dragons and a red 5p. In the first row, Setokuma calls pon on the green dragon to secure a yaku and advance his hand. When it seemed like Katsumata would have smooth sailing, Uchikawa makes a sudden riichi call on turn 4 on a 6m tanki. Even so, Katsumata had no safe tiles and pushed anyways. In the 2nd row, he makes a call to get to iishanten and then draw to tenpai on a 47p ryanmen in the 3rd row. A turn after getting to tenpai, Katsumata draws the 4p and wins the hand. Katsumata with Green Dragon/Aka 1 for 1,000+200 all, plus Uchikawa’s riichi stick for the third hand in a row.

In E3-3, Katsumata is 2-shanten with a dora 2p, but holds two penchans and a kanchan. The first row was mostly useless, giving him only terminals and honours to discard. In the first few turns of the 2nd row, he draws a red 5p to create a ryanmen, completes it and gets to iishanten. For the fourth hand in a row, Uchikawa is the first to get to tenpai and calls riichi on a 58m ryanmen in the middle of the 2nd row. Right after his riichi, Katsumata gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 3m penchan. In the 3rd row, Nakabayashi throws the 3m as one of the safest tiles in his hand and ends up dealing into Katsumata. Katsumata wins the hand with Riichi/Aka 1 for 3,900+900, as well as Uchikawa’s riichi stick for the fourth hand in a row. With the win, Katsumata moves into 2nd.

Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-14_s20_p707

In E3-4, Katsumata has a worse 4-shanten hand, but holds a red 5p yet again and an isolated east dora. The 1st row goes well for Katsumata for a change, filling in two kanchans and getting him iishanten. For the 5th hand in a row, Uchikawa is the first to tenpai, this time with an open mangan chance waiting on a north/red dragon shanpon. And, for the 5th hand in a row, Katsumata gets to tenpai after him and calls riichi on a 47m ryanmen. As is fate, Katsumata would end up drawing the 4m two turns later to win the hand. Katsumata wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu/Aka 1 for 2,600+400 all.

With just a dealer turn and lots of pushing, Katsumata was able to go from 4,600 in 4th place to 35,100 in 1st place.

Uchikawa

October 13, Game 2

In E3-5, Uchikawa is in 4th at -2,700 after losing 4 riichi sticks and 5 tenpais during Katsumata’s dealership. Wanting to get his revenge, he starts his hand off 3-shanten with a pair of white dragon and two red fives. He creates some ryanmens in the 1st row, but still sits 3-shanten by the end of it. In the 2nd row, Uchikawa calls pon on the white dragon, creates an ankou and gets to tenpai on a 47s ryanmen by turn 11. Soon after, Katsumata gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 36p ryanmen. Flashbacks of the previous five hands linger in Uchikawa’s head. However, this time was different. In the middle of the 3rd row, Katsumata drew and discarded the 4s, dealing into Uchikawa. Uchikawa wins the hand with White Dragon/Aka 2 for 3,900+1,500 plus Katsumata’s riichi stick. It wasn’t much, but it did put Uchikawa back into the positives.

After losing another riichi stick in E4-0, Uchikawa was able to gain small points in both S1-0 and S2-1 by calling riichi and being the only one tenpai at the exhaustive draw.

In S3-2, Uchikawa is 4,900 behind 3rd place and 20,000 behind 2nd. With 2,600 points up for grabs, any win would be a considerable gain. He starts the hand off 3-shanten with a dora 5s and a ryanmen in hand. By turn 3, he was already iishanten, though the 5s dora is still isolated. As Uchikawa waits iishanten, Katsumata challenges Uchikawa yet again, this time with a row 1 riichi on an 8s kanchan. While Uchikawa did a bit of evasive maneuvering, he managed to connect the dora and eventually get to tenpai on a 36s ryanmen, calling riichi in the middle of the 2nd row. In the middle of the 3rd row, Katsumata draws and discards the 3s, dealing into Uchikawa. Uchikawa wins the hand with Riichi/Pinfu/Dora 1/Aka 1 for 8,000+600, plus three riichi sticks, enough to put him into 2nd place.

Uchikawa would continue on to win another hand and hold on to finish the game in 2nd place.

Ooi

October 14, Game 1

In E3-3, Ooi is in 4th place, but is only 8,600 behind 1st place and 2,900 points are up for grabs. He starts the hand off 2-shanten with two red fives and clear for tanyao. Ooi gets to iishanten on turn 3 and then tenpai on turn 4, staying dama on a 4m kanchan. On turn 5, Taro draws and discards the 4m, dealing into Ooi. Ooi wins with Tanyao/Aka 2 for 5,200+900 plus two riichi sticks to put him 500 behind 1st.

In E4-0, Ooi is the dealer and starts out with a painful 5-shanten with a lone north dora. In the first row, Ooi is able to connect some tiles, pair up the east and pon it to be 2-shanten at the end of the row. Before the row ends, though, Kondo gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 4s tanki. Ooi initially folded against the riichi, but he still managed to tenpai on a 7m kanchan in the middle of the 2nd row. In the 3rd row, he improves the wait to a 47 ryanmen and, a few turns later, Kondo draws and discards the 7m. Ooi wins with hand with Double East/Aka 1 for 5,800 plus a riichi stick. With the win, Ooi moves into the lead.

Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-14_s50_p703

In E4-1, Ooi holds a pair of dora red dragons and a red 5p. In the first row, he moves the hand from 4-shanten to iishanten, including a shift to honitsu. At the start of the 2nd row, Ooi gets to tenpai on a red dragon/west shanpon. Soon after Ooi gets to tenpai, Taro calls riichi on a 14s ryanmen. In the middle of the 2nd row, with good progress and value in his hand, Kondo discards his useless west and ends up dealing into Ooi. Ooi wins the hand with Honitsu/Dora 2/Aka 1 for 12,000+300 plus a riichi stick.

Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-15_s90_p125

In E4-2, Ooi starts out with a great 2-shanten with a pair of green dragons and two red fives. By turn 2, Ooi already has a ryanmen-ryanmen iishanten. At the end of the 1st row, Ooi gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 147s sanmenchan. It takes quite a few turns but, near the start of the 3rd row, Ooi is finally able to draw the 1s. Ooi wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Aka 2 for 4,200 all. In four hands, Ooi is able to go from 4th place to 1st with 61,000.

Shiratori

October 14, Game 2

In E1-1, Shiratori is the dealer and slightly ahead after he called riichi and brought the previous hand to an exhaustive draw. He starts the hand 3-shanten with a whole ankou of 8p dora and a pair of red dragons. When the red dragon shows up, Shiratori calls pon to confirm his yaku. At the end of the row, Shiratori makes another call to get to iishanten. With one more call, Shiratori gets to tenpai and waits on a 1p tanki. After that, Sonoda gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 3p kanchan and Shiratori switches his wait to a north tanki. A few turns later, Kayamori draws and discards the north and deals into Shiratori. Shiratori wins with Red Dragon/Dora 3 for 12,000+300 plus three riichi sticks, putting him over 40,000.

Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-14_s50_p704

After a small gain in E1-2, Shiratori starts E1-3 with another ankou of dora, a pair of white dragons and a red 5m. On turn 4, Shiratori makes an ankou of white dragons to get to a closed ryanmen-ryanmen iishanten. With a call, Shiratori gets to tenpai and waits on a 69m ryanmen. After Shiratori gets to tenpai, Kayamori does so as well, calling riichi on a 58s ryanmen. In the middle of the 2nd row, Kayamori draws the 9m and is forced to discard it, dealing into Shiratori for the third hand in a row. Shiratori wins with White Dragon/Dora 3/Aka 1 for 12,000+900, plus a riichi stick.

Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-14_s50_p705

Jumping to E4-3, Shiratori is 35,700 ahead of 2nd place, but there’s no such thing as too many points. He starts off 3-shanten with a dora 7s, though he only has kanchans and a penchan. He fills in two kanchans in the first row, but is still stuck with a kanchan and a penchan for his iishanten. In the 2nd row, Shiratori breaks his penchan, creates a ryanmen and moves his hand to tanyao. At the start of 3rd row, Shiratori fills in his last kanchan and gets to tenpai, staying dama on a 36s ryanmen. A turn later, Shiratori draws the 3s. Shiratori wins with Tsumo/Pinfu/Tanyao/Dora 1/Aka 1 for 2,000+300/4,000+300 plus two riichi stick. With the win, Shiratori moves above 60,000 and has almost 50,000 between him and 2nd place.

Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-14_s50_p706

In S1-0, Shiratori is the dealer and starts out 3-shanten with a likely tanyao hand. At the end of the 1st, Shiratori is iishanten for chiitoi. At the start of the 2nd row, Shiratori quickens his hand by calling pon on the 7s for toitoi iishanten. Near the end of the row, Shiratori draws a second ankou to get to a 3s/5m ankou. As Shiratori waits, Sonoda and Kayamori both get to tenpai, with Kayamori calling riichi on a 9p/5s shanpon. As if under a curse, Kayamori ends up drawing and discarding the 3s on the very last tile in the wall. Calling ron, Shiratori wins the hand with Toitoi/Tanyao/Houtei for 12,000 plus one riichi stick. The win put Shiratori above 75,000 and Kayamori below 0.

Kayamori

October 14, Game 2, S4-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-14_s60_p705

In S4-0, Kayamori is -7,300 and is looking to get out of the negatives with her dealer turn. She starts out with a 3-shanten chiitoi hand (4-shanten for a standard hand) with no dora at all. In the first row, fans though Kayamori had no chance when Sonoda called twice to get to a 69p ryanmen and Date got to an early dama on a 2s tanki (which she later changes to a 3s penchan).

At this point, Kayamori was only 2-shanten, but did have a pair of white dragon doras. In the middle of the 2nd row, Kayamori draws a red 5m to make her 5th pair. A turn later, she draws her 6th pair and calls riichi on an 8p tanki.

Despite the riichi, Shiratori advances his hand by calling pon to get to tenpai on a 1m/white dragon shanpon. A few turns after the riichi, Sonoda draws the red 5p. With the 578p shape, Sonoda had to decide whether to throw the red 5p to keep the good wait or to throw the 8p to avoid throwing dora. Since Sonoda didn’t want to throw the red 5p, he threw the 8p and ended up dealing into Kayamori.

Flipping two uradora, Kayamori wins the hand with Riichi/Chiitoi/Dora 2/Aka 1/Ura 2 for 24,000 to move out of the negatives and into 3rd place.

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