Highlights
Furiten Riichi
October 17, Game 1, S3-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-14_s80_p706
In S3-0, Kobayashi is in 4th place and wanting to keep his 4th-place avoidance streak alive. He starts out the hand 3-shanten with two ryanmens. Completing his two ryanmens and drawing some connectors, Kobayashi manages to get to tenpai on an 8m kanchan on turn 5. With no dora or other yaku, Kobayashi stays dama to try to gain more han or a better wait. Two turns later, Kobayashi draws the 8m.
At this point, he takes a pause. Kobayashi is currently 200 behind 3rd place and winning the hand would give him Tsumo only for 300/500, putting him 1,200 ahead of 4th. However, that lead would be quite small and could easily be lost in his dealership in South 4. Because of this, Kobayashi instead chooses to call a furiten riichi and wait on a 369m sanmenchan. With the riichi he is guaranteed to win at least 700/1,300 if he wins. If he doesn’t win the hand and the hand goes to a draw, he would get 1,000 from everyone if nobody else is tenpai.
All Kobayashi can do is sit and wait. From the looks of the discards, his opponents seemed to be folding. In the middle of the 3rd row, Katsumata calls a pon, adding a bit of worry. However, immediately after, Kobayashi draws the 9m to win the hand. Kobayashi wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu for 700/1,300, putting him in 3rd and putting him 3,200 ahead of 4th, 2,000 behind 2nd.
Ippatsu
October 18, Game 1, E2-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-14_s70_p706
In E2-0, Honda is the dealer and is wanting to win his first game of the season. He starts out the hand 4-shanten with a complete group and two ryanmens. In the first row, he draws a red 5s, creates another ryanmen and gets to 2-shanten at the end of the row. In the 2nd row, he guarantees tanyao and gets to iishanten, keeping his hand flexible for iipeikou and sanshoku options. As Honda waits iishanten, Maruyama makes some calls and gets to tenpai first, waiting on a west/north shanpon. Soon after, Honda gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 47m ryanmen, guaranteeing a mangan minumum. On his very next draw, Honda finds the 4m and wins the hand. Honda wins with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tsumo/Pinfu/Tanyao/Aka 1/Ura 1 for 3,000/6,000, moving into 1st place.
South 4 Tension
October 18, Game 1
In S4-0, Maruyama is in 4th at 10,700, Shibukawa is the dealer at 3rd with 15,500 and Uotani is 2nd with 17,700. With 4th and 2nd separated by less than a mangan, everyone is on edge. At the start, both Shibukawa and Uotani start out 3-shanten with two completed groups, while Maruyama is 4-shanten for chiitoi with a floating dora 8s and a red 5s. As Shibukawa and Uotani try to pursue the best standard hand with the best waits possible, Maruyama is forced to deal with pairs. By the end of the row, Uotani and Shibukawa are iishanten while Maruyama is 2-shanten for chiitoi. In the 2nd row, Maruyama switches to a standard hand to speed up her hand is and is actually the first to get to tenpai, waiting on an 8s dora tanki for mangan.
In the middle of the 2nd row, Uotani is the second to tenpai, sitting with chiitoi and waiting on a 4s tanki.
With 5 tiles left in the wall, Shibukawa finally gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 2m/9s shanpon.
With the riichi from Shibukawa and drawing the dora 8s on the ippatsu turn, Uotani has to figure out how to proceed. Both the 4s and 8s are dangerous, meaning that keeping tenpai requires throwing something dangerous. However, if either 1 or 3 players are tenpai, Uotani would move into 3rd. However, because Shibukawa is guaranteed tenpai, it means that there would be at least one more hand if it goes to a draw. Because of this, Uotani decides to drop her tenpai.
In the end, the hand went to a draw with Shibukawa and Maruyama the only ones tenpai.
In S4-1, 4th place Maruyama is just 4,000 behind 2nd place Uotani and 3rd place Shibukawa is 200 behind Uotani. All three of them start the hand 3-shanten, with Shibukawa holding the most value and Uotani holding 3 pairs for chiitoi. Contrary to its usual speed, Uotani’s chiitoi is actually the first hand to get to tenpai, doing so on turn 5 with a 1s tanki. In the 2nd row, Uotani switches it to a south tanki. A few turns later, Shibukawa draws and discards the south, dealing into Uotani. Uotani wins the hand with Chiitoi/Dora 2 for 6,400+300 plus a riichi stick. With the win, Uotani secures 2nd and Shibukawa falls to 4th.
9 Honba
October 18, Game 2
Sometimes a game goes on a long time. This one went a while.
In E1-0, Okada is the dealer and starts out 4-shanten with a pair of white dragons and a red 5m. Within the first few turns, Okada calls pon on the white dragon to secure a yaku. Before the end of the row, Okada is already tenpai on a 36m ryanmen. In the middle of the 2nd row, Kayamori draws and discards the 3m and deals into Okada. Okada wins the hand with White Dragon/Aka 1 for 2,900.
Video (E1-2): https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-14_s70_p707
Video (E2-4): https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-14_s60_p706
In E1-1, E1-2, E2-3 and E2-4, the hands went to an exhaustive draw. From these exhaustive draw, four riichi sticks were collected, waiting for the next winner to take.
In E2-5, there are four riichi sticks and five honba, giving the next winner 5,500 in bonus points. In this hand, Kayamori starts out with the best hand, being iishanten with three completed sequences. At the end of the 1st row, Kayamori is tenpai and stays dama on a 58p ryanmen. A few turns later, Hagiwara discards the 8p and deals into Kayamori. Kayamori wins the hand with Pinfu only for 1,500+1,500, plus the four riichi sticks. With the bonus sticks, the cheap one-han hand became four times more valuable.
In E2-6, Kayamori is still the dealer in 1st place and Murakami sits in 3rd. Kayamori starts out with another good hand, being 2-shanten with a pair of red dragons and a red 5m. Murakami also has a decent hand, being 3-shanten for honitsu and 4-shanten for chinitsu. On turn 2, Kayamori turns dragons into an ankou and on turn 3, she gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 58p ryanmen.
After drawing pinzu on both turns 2 and 3, Murakami was 2-shanten for chinitsu and decided to push. In the middle of the 2nd row, Murakami was iishanten and still closed. Murakami drew some pinzu the next few turns, but none of them got him to tenpai. Then, in the 3rd row, Murakami was able to make a chii to finally get to tenpai, waiting on a 25p ryanmen.
Each tile afterwards was a miss for both players and in the end, the hand went to an exhaustive draw with Kayamori and Murakami tenpai.
In E2-7, Kayamori starts out 3-shanten with a completed group, but otherwise nothing of note. At the start of the 3rd row, she draws an extremely useful 6s dora to give her a ryanmen-sanmenchan iishanten. A few turns later, she completes the ryanmen and calls riichi on a 369s sanmenchan. Within the ippatsu turn, Okada pushes her iishanten hand and throws the 3s, dealing into Kayamori. Kayamori wins with Riichi/Ippatsu/Pinfu/Dora 1 for 12,000+2,100 plus a riichi stick.
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-14_s60_p707
In E2-8, the game has already gone on for over an hour and Kayamori shows no sign of stopping. Her hand starts out 3-shanten with a dora 4p and a red 5p. After throwing a few honours and floaters in the first few turns, she gets her hand to iishanten at the end of the row. At the start of the 2nd row, Kayamori has a choice to get to tenpai on a 4m kanchan, but instead she goes back to iishanten for a chance for ittsuu or a better wait. Two turns later, Kayamori gets back to tenpai and stays dama on a yakuless 3p kanchan. After a call from Hagiwara to get him to tenpai on a 36m ryanmen, Kayamori decides to keep her dama. When she draws a west to make an ankou, she decides to call riichi on a 47p nobetan wait. With every draw, fans were looking to see if the honba would go to 9 or be reset to 0. On Kayamori’s second-last draw, she finds the 7p to win the hand. Kayamori wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Dora 1/Aka 1 for 4,000+800 all. With the win, her score was now above 60,000.
The honba madness ended in E2-9 when Murakami won with a simple Riichi only for 1,300+2,700.
The 9 honba of this game just missed the record of 10 honba that happened on November 4, 2019.
Dama
October 18, Game 2, E4-1
In E4-1, Okada is in 4th place with exactly 0 points and holds a 3-shanten hand with a chance at both a 123 sanshoku and junchan. In the first row, she fills in a kanchan and secures her shapes, but is still missing a pair and needing a 1p to guarantee sanshoku. In the 2nd row, she finds the 1p and starts to push her hand to add junchan. On turn 11, she draws a 9p to make a pair get get her iishanten. As she waits for the last piece to tenpai, Hagiwara gets to tenpai for a mangan himself and calls riichi on a 69s ryanmen.
Despite the riichi, Okada keeps pushing her hand, guaranteed to be a mangan if she can keep it closed. At the start of the 3rd, Okada finally gets to tenpai and stays dama on the 2m, a suji tile for Hagiwara. Soon after Okada gets to tenpai, Hagiwara draws and discards the 2m and deals into Okada. Okada wins the hand with Junchan/Sanshoku for 8,000+300 plus a riichi stick, moving her into 3rd place.
Dora 3
October 18, Game 2, S2-1
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-14_s60_p708
In S2-1, Kayamori is the dealer again and holding a 40,400 lead over 2nd place. Her hand starts out 2-shanten, but has no dora or yaku to aim for besides riichi. On turn 2, Kayamori filled in a kanchan to get to iishanten. Everything was going fine until she drew the west dora at the start of the 2nd row. To prevent anyone from taking it, she went back a shanten and held onto it.
A turn later, Hagiwara adds some pressure on the table by calling riichi on a red dragon tanki.
In the middle of the 2nd row, Kayamori draws a second west, putting her back to iishanten. Though she had some completely safe tiles, she pushed her hand a bit more, throwing half-sujis and one-chances. At the start of the 3rd row, Kayamori draws a third west, putting her into tenpai. She decides to call riichi, waiting on a 69s ryanmen. On the ippatsu draw, she gets the 6s and wins the hand. Kayamori wins with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tsumo/Dora 3 for 6,000+100 all (plus two riichi sticks) to put her score above 80,000.
By the end of the game, she was a 90,000, the 9th-highest score in M-League history.
Gyakuten
October 20, Game 1, S4-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-14_s40_p706
In S4-0, 2nd place Date is 9,800 behind 1st place Sonoda, putting her within a mangan tsumo of 1st place. Sonoda starts out 4-shanten with a pair of green dragons, while Date sits 3-shanten with a dora 4p and a red 5p. With a with one more han along with tsumo, Date has a definite chance to move into 1st. Early on, Sonoda called pon on the green dragon to try to end the game as quickly as possible. With good draws for both of them, they were both 2-shanten by the end of the row.
At the start of the 2nd row, both of them advanced to iishanten. A turn later, Sonoda makes a call to get to tenpai on a 58p ryanmen.
In the middle of the 2nd row, Date gets to tenpai herself, waiting on a 4s kanchan. If Date can hit Sonoda directly or draw it herself, she would move into 1st place.
While these two leaders wait for get their winning tile, Setokuma has to navigate the maze. Being the dealer, he has the opportunity to move into 1st place. However, he is only ahead 4th place by 4,400 meaning that dealing into date would put him into last. Holding 4s, there is a real chance of dealing in. However, even at iishanten, Setokuma avoids throwing it.
At the end of the 2nd row, Date draws the 4s and wins the hand. Date wins with Tsumo/Tanyao/Dora 1/Aka 1 for 2,000/4,000, putting Date on top.
Suzuki Yu
October 20, Game 2
In E1-0, Yu is still trying to win his first game of the season and starts out 3-shanten. Though he didn’t start out with value, he gathered some value along the way. On turn 2, he drew a red 5m. On turn 4, he drew a ryanmen to guarantee pinfu and on turn 5, he draws a 7p dora. At the start of the 2nd row, gets to iishanten and on turn 8, he gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 69m ryanmen. Two turns later, he draws the 9m and wins the hand Yu wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu/Dora 1/Aka 1/Ura 1 for 3,000/6,000.
After Takamiya wins a mangan in E2-0, Yu becomes the dealer in E3-0. He again starts out the hand 3-shanten with no value in hand. Within the first row, Yu moves his hand to pinfu and gets to iishanten in the middle of the row. A few turns later, Takamiya gets to tenpai on a 69p ryanmen after calling pon on the green dragon. Being the dealer and not seeing any big problems, Yu keeps building his hand. Near the end of the 2nd row, Yu gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 14s ryanmen. At the start of the 3rd row, Takamiya draws and discards the 4s and deals into Yu. Yu wins the hand with Riichi/Pinfu/Ura 1 for 5,800, putting him above 40,000.
In E3-1, Yu starts out 4-shanten with a red 5p and a pair of easts. With an easy way to at least three han, Yu immediately called pon on the east when it was discarded on turn 5. At the end of the row, he was 2-shanten with a lot of options to get to iishanten. In the 2nd row, Yu arrived at a ryanmen-sanmenchan iishanten and at the end of the row, Yu called chii to get to tenpai on a 25s ryanmen. Soon after, Kurosawa tried to call riichi on a 3-sided wait by throwing the 5s and ended up dealing into Yu. Yu wins the hand with Double East/Aka 1 for 5,800+300.
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-14_s80_p708
Jumping to S1-0, Yu starts the hand with 4 pairs, inclduing a pair of 8s dora and a pair of easts. On turn 2, he creates an ankou of 8m, shifting his hand slightly towards a standard hand. With a ryanmen draw on turn 5, his hand becomes iishanten. As Yu waited, Takamiya got to tenpai first and called riichi on a 36m ryanmen. After some poor drawing in the early and middle 2nd row, Yu was finally able to get to tenpai on turn 11, throwing the dora and calling riichi on a 9s/east shanpon. With no safe tiles, Kurosawa broke up her east pair and dealt into Yu. Yu wins the hand with Riichi/Dora 1/Ura 1 for 5,200, putting his score above 50,000, giving him a strong grip on 1st place.
South 4
October 20, Game 2
In S4-0, Takamiya is the last dealer and 32,200 behind 1st place Yu. Though it is a big lead, it isn’t insurmountable. She starts out with a very promising starting hand, being 3-shanten for tanyao with a total of 4 dora (two dora 5p, one of which is also red, and a red 5s). On turn 4, she formed a ryanmen to get to 2-shanten. While Takamiya drew dud tiles in the 2nd row, 3rd place Taro was the first to get to tenpai, calling riichi on a 58p ryanmen.
With a lot of value in her hand, Takamiya kept pushing. On turn 11, she gets to iishanten. With a chii a turn later, she got to haneman tenpai on a 7m kanchan. In the 3rd row, Takamiya draws the 7m and wins the hand. Takamiya wins with Tanyao/Dora 2/Aka 3 for 6,000 all (plus Taro’s riichi stick) to put her less than a mangan away from 1st.
In S4-1, 2nd place Takamiya is 7,200 behind 1st place Yu, while 4th place Taro is 3,800 behind 3rd place Kurosawa. Trying to end the game quickly, the first action of the hand is a red dragon pon by Yu to get him to 3-shanten. As we look around the table, we see that Takamiya is 3-shanten with a white dragon dora, Kurosawa is 4-shanten with a dora and Taro is 2-shanten with a pair of white dragons. On turn 4, Taro gets himself to iishanten and before the end of the row, Taro gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 4m kanchan.
In Yu’s hand, there is a glaring isolated 4m that could potentially deal in. With Taro’s hand being guaranteed 5,200 minimum, Yu dealing in and an ura being flipped could be the difference between 1st and 2nd. In the first few turns, Yu is able to discard some relatively safe tile. North. Safe 2s. Next, he went to the terminal 1p. Then he had nothing. All of his tiles were untested middle tiles. With the 1m being previously discarded, the 4m is a tempting throw. However, Yu instead chooses to throw the 7m, keeping him alive.
Yu draws a west on his next draw, keep him safe. Then, on Taro’s next turn, he finds the 4m and wins the hand, saving himself and Yu. Taro wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Dora 2/Ura 1 for 2,000+100/4,000+100 to finish the game in 3rd place.
Hori
October 21, Game 1
In E2-0, Hori is the dealer, sitting in the same seat that Kayamori was sitting in when she got the honba count to 9. He starts the hand off with an annoying 5-shanten with only a red 5s for value. In the 1st row, Hori creates a ryanmen, fills in a kanchan and gets himself to a decent 2-shanten by turn 5. In the 2nd row, he shifts his hand to tanyao and at the start of the 3rd row, he gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 4s/5s shanpon. Near the end of the hand, while Aki draws to tenpai, Aki discards the 5s and deals into Hori. Hori wins the hand with Riichi/Tanyao/Aka 1 for 7,700, moving into 1st place.
After taking the hand to a draw in E2-1, Hori’s dealership continues in E2-2. He starts off with a strong hand, being 2-shanten with an ankou of south, a floating 9s dora and one tile away from a 789m iipeikou. On turn 5, Hori drew the 8m to complete his 789m iipeikou and advance to iishanten. On turn 8, Hori got to tenpai and called on a 25p ryanmen, breaking up his south ankou to go for pinfu. In the 3rd row, Shiratori tries to call riichi on a 3-sided wait, but his riichi tile 2p ended up dealing into Hori. Hori wins the hand with Riichi/Pinfu/Iipeikou for 5,800+600 plus a riichi stick to go above 40,000.
In E2-3, Hori starts out 4-shanten with a red 5p for value. In the 1st row, he creates some ryanmens and fills in his lone penchan to get him to a perfect iishanten at the end of the row. On turn 7, Hori gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 147p sanmenchan. In the middle of the 2nd row, Shiratori has no safe tiles, so he throws the one-chance 1p and deals in. Hori wins with Riichi/Pinfu/Aka 1 for 5,800+900.
Skipping to E3-0, Hori is trying to stop 2nd place dealer Tojo and move the game along. He starts out with a 2-shanten hand with a pair of red dragons and a 7p dora. However, he has two kanchans, making his hand slower than expected. In comparison, Tojo is 3-shanten with three ryanmens. By the end of the 1st row, both of them hold a ryanmen-ryanmen iishanten. The 2nd row provides no useful tiles but, in the 3rd row, Tojo is the first to get to tenpai waiting dama on a 14p ryanmen. After opening his hand to pon the 7p dora and speed up his hand, Hori is tenpai soon after on a red dragon/6p shanpon (with the red dragon giving him a yaku). On the second-last tile in the live wall, Hori finds the red dragon and wins the hand. Hori wins with Red Dragon/Dora 3 for 7,700, putting him above 55,000.
Moving into the south round, Hori next big move comes in S1-2. Hori starts out 4-shanten with all three red dora, with the 5p also being the regular dora. On turn 4, Hori shifts his hand to guarantee either tanyao and pinfu and by the end of the row, he is 2-shanten. In the 2nd row, Hori faces resistance from the dealer Aki calling riichi, but Hori pushes onward. One call puts Hori iishanten. Another call the very next turn puts him tenpai on a 258s sanmenchan. Two turns later, Aki draws and discards the 2s, dealing into Hori. Hori wins the hand with Tanyao/Dora 1/Aka 3 for 8,000 plus one riichi stick to put him over 65,000.
Haitei
October 21, Game 2, E3-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-14_s60_p710
In E3-0, 1st and 4th are separated by 4,600 and Ooi and Kondo are right in between them. Ooi nd Kondo both start out with a dora 5p, but Ooi is 2-shanten while Kondo is 3-shanten. Ooi first few draws were quite useful and on turn 4, Ooi was already tenpai, leading him to call riichi on a 6s kanchan.
At this point, Kondo is just 2-shanten, but holding some poor shapes. At the end of the 1st row, Kondo draws the red 5p, giving him pause. With just that tile, he was now iishanten for a guaranteed mangan. Even though he had some bad shapes, he had enough value to push. Tile after tile, Kondo kept pushing. Near the middle of the 3rd row, Kondo completes a 345p iipeikou and sits dama on a 7m kanchan. As the wall got shorter and shorter, the hand looked like it would go to a draw. Then, on the very last draw, Kondo finds the 7m in his hand and declares tsumo. Kondo wins the hand with Tsumo/Haitei/Tanyao/Iipeikou/Dora 2/Aka 1 for 3,00/6,000 plus a riichi stick to move into 1st place.
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