Highlights
Timing is Everything
December 5, Game 1, S1-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-14_s30_p716
In S1-0, Okada is in 1st place, but she is only ahead by 4,800. She starts out 3-shanten with a dora 1m and a red 5m. With 9 manzu in her hand, the idea of chinitsu wasn’t out of the picture. Looking around the table, we see Matsumoto at chiitoi 2-shanten and all four of them 3-shanten for a standard hand. Matsumoto’s hand develops quickly from the start, getting to iishanten for both a standard hand and chinitsu by turn 3. On turns 4, 5 and 6, Okada draws manzu tiles, putting her iishanten at the end of the row for chinitsu. At the start of the 2nd row, Matsumoto gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 3s penchan.
Right after, Okada draws another manzu. Though it doesn’t put her into tenpai, any other manzu she draws will put her tenpai. Two turns later, she draws a 9m. After taking a few moments to analyze the situation and determine her waits, she discards the 2m to get her tenpai on a 14m ryanmen wait, guaranteed to be at least a baiman, sanbaiman if she draws the 1m herself.
While Matsumoto and Okada wait at tenpai and Takizawa is folding, Uotani waits patiently at iishanten. On turn 10, Uotani pairs up the dora 1m and calls riichi on an 8s/1m shanpon.
With two players calling riichi, Okada decides to join the fray and calls riichi.
Within the ippatsu round, Matsumoto draws the 4m and deals into Okada.
Okada wins the hand with Riichi/Ippatsu/Pinfu/Chinitsu/Dora 1/Aka 1 for a 24,000 sanbaiman.
3s
December 5, Game 2, E1-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-14_s40_p713
In E1-0, Date is sitting in the north seat and starts out 3-shanten for chiitoi (4-shanten for a standard hand). Through the first row, she advanced her hand to guarantee tanyao and ends up with a kanchan-kanchan iishanten. At the start of the 2nd row, Date gets to tenpai and sits dama on a 6s kanchan. If she draws the 3s or 4s, she would have a chance at a 345 sanshoku. In the middle of the second row, Date draws the 4s and calls riichi on a 36s ryanmen, getting sanshoku on the 3s. While in riichi, Shibukawa also calls riichi, waiting on a 6s kanchan. At the end of the second row, Date draws the 3s, her favourite tile, and wins the hand. Date wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu/Tanyao/Sanshoku for 3,000/6,000.
12k
December 6, Game 1
In E4-0, Honda is the dealer and sitting 2,100 behind 1st place. He starts out the hand 3-shanten with a 5s which is both a regular dora and a red dora. Through the first row, he gets rid of lone honours and terminals and gets to a perfect iishanten on turn 5. In the middle of the second row, Honda gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 14m ryanmen.
During the ippatsu turn, Murakami draws the dora 5s to get to tenpai. He stays dama on a 36m ryanmen, maintaining a bit of safety. Two turns later, Murakami draws the 2s. curiously, Murakami decides to calls riichi and throws the dora 5s from his 2345s shape instead of the 2s.
After a few turns of misses, Murakami draws the 4m in the middle of the third row and deals into Honda. Honda wins the hand with Riichi/Pinfu/Dora 1/Aka 1 for 12,000 plus Murakami’s riichi stick.
In a post-game interview, Murakami was asked about the 5s dora discard. Murakami said that he wanted to balance safety and value, but agrees that it was a mistake.
In E4-1, Honda is now ahead by 10,900 and starts out chiitoi 3-shanten (4-shanten for a standard hand) with a red 5s. His hand naturally created and gained sequences, getting to 2-shanten by the end of the first row. While Honda waits at 2-shanten, there is action around the table. At the start of the second row, Aki calls kan while she is iishanten. Soon after, Murakami gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 36s ryanmen.
With the riichi on the table, Honda advances his hand slowly and carefully. It takes until the middle of the second row before Honda is able to get to tenpai. With the tenpai and two more draws for Honda, Honda takes the risk and throws the red 5s and calls riichi on a 258p sanmenchan. On the ippatsu, Honda misses. Each player now has one draw left. On Murakami’s final draw, he gets the 2p and deals into Honda. Honda wins the hand with Riichi/Pinfu/Dora 1/Aka 1 for 12,000+300 plus Murakami’s riichi stick, putting Honda above 50,000.
Moving to S1-0, Aki is the dealer and sitting 9,400 behind 1st place and starts out 4-shanten with a dora 8p and pairs of red dragon and west. On turn 4, she pairs up the green dragon. With a lone white dragon in hand, a shousangen or daisangen isn’t out of the picture. At the end of the first row, Aki gets to iishanten, though the white dragon is still alone. In the middle of the 2nd row, Aki draws a 6p for tenpai and stays dama on a green dragon/red dragon shanpon. If she draws a 9p, she can replace the 6p and get chanta. The very next draw, Aki draws the 9p to get chanta, staying dama on her guaranteed mangan. At the end of the 2nd row, Honda tries to get to tenpai by throwing the red dragon, but he ends up dealing into Aki. Aki wins the hand with Chanta/Red Dragon/Dora 1 for 12,000.
In S1-1, Yu is in 3rd place, lagging 16,200 behind 2nd. He starts out 3-shanten with an isolated dora 9s and pairs of 5p and 9p. On turn 2, Yu creates a ryanmen to get o 2-shanten. On turn 3, he draws a red 5m to get to iishanten. At the end of the first row, Yu gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 14s shanpon. With each draw, his opponents get a bit closer but makes no strong push for tenpai, allowing Yu more time to win. In the middle of the third row, Yu draws the 4s to win the hand. With the 5p the uradora, Yu wins the hand with Riichi/Tsumo/Aka 1/Ura 3 for 3,000+100/6,000+100, closing the gap on second place..
Jumping to S4-0, Honda is the dealer and sitting 13,600 behind 1st place Aki. He starts out the hand 3-shanten with a pair of 8p dora, primed for mangan tsumo to take 1st. After completing some sequences, Honda gets to iishanten at the end of the first row. At around the same time, Aki gets to tenpai and sits dama on a yakuless 25m/1p wait.
At the start of the second row, Honda gets to tenpai and sits dama on a 2m kanchan. Near the end of the row, Honda draws the m and wins the hand. Honda wins with Tsumo/Iipeikou/Dora 2 for 4,000 all, moving into 1st place.
Noten
December 6, Game 1, S4-1
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-14_s70_p716
In S4-1, the fight for 1st place is on. Honda sits in 1st place with 44,900, while Aki sits in 2nd place with 42,500. With 2,400 separating the two of them, even tenpai and noten payments can change the standings.
At the start, we see Honda 2-shanten for chiitoi (3-shanten for a standard hand) and Aki sitting at chiitoi 2-shanten as well (though 4-shanten for a standard hand). With chiitoi being a slow hand, both of them push their hands to a standard hand. By the end of the first row, Honda is 2-shanten and Aki is iishanten. Though the battle is between the two of them, they aren’t the only people at the table. In the middle of the second row, Yu is the first to tenpai and sits dama on a yakuless 6m kanchan.
Going into the third row, Aki is iishanten and Honda is 2-shanten. In the middle of the third row, Aki goes back to 2-shanten so she doesn’t deal in to anyone. With the wall dwindling, Honda advances his hand by making a call for iishanten. With another call, Honda gets to tenpai on a 47p ryanmen.
With Honda’s last discard, he maintains his tenpai shape.
On Aki’s very last draw, she fails to get to tenpai and she throws the 1s.
When the hand goes to a draw, we expected Yu and Honda to be the ony ones to declare tenpai. But, When Honda starts it off, he pulls the tiles towards him and declares himself noten! With Honda declaring noten and Yu the only one tenpai, Yu receives the tenpai payments and the game ends with Honda in 1st place!
Souzu Honitsu
December 6, Game 2
In E2-0, Sonoda is tied for 2nd place and still holding his starting 25,000. He starts out the hand 2-shanten for chiitoi (3-shanten for a standard hand) with an ankou of red dragons and pairs of 2s, 4s and 9s. With all but one tile being a souzu or an honour, his hand is primed for honitsu. On turn 2, he pairs up his 8s to get to chiitoi iishanten. To speed up his hand, he calls pon on the 2s to aim for a standard hand. Around the end of the first row, he switches his 4s pair for a south pair. In the second row, Sonoda calls pon on the south to get to tenpai on an 8s/9s shanpon, ready with a haneman hand. In the third row, Sonoda draws a 9s to win the hand. Sonoda wins with Toitoi/Honitsu/Red Dragon/South. for 3,000/6,000, taking the lead.
In E3-0, Sonoda starts out 4-shanten. With only two tile that aren’t either a souzu or an honour, his hand is again primed for honitsu. On turns 2, 3 and 4, Sonoda draws either a souzu or honour, putting him iishanten. In the second row, Sonoda calls pon on the green dragon to get to tenpai on a north/2s shanpon. The very next turn, Sonoda draws the north to win the hand. Sonoda wins with Honitsu/Green Dragon for 2,600 all.
Big Baiman
December 6, Game 2, S4-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-14_s80_p722
In S4-0, Nakabayashi is in 4th place and 12,600 behind 3rd place Setokuma, 14,400 behind 2nd Sonoda and 16,600 behind 1st Katsumata. He would need either
- Direct mangan or more off Setokuma or Sonoda
- Direct haneman or more off Katsumata
- Haneman tsumo for 1st place
With the stage set, it was time for Nakabayshi to get going.
Nakabayashi starts out with a 3-shanten hand with a 1p dora. With his hand holding a 1234567p, he only needs 89p to get ittsuu
On turn 2, he makes a pair of the double yakuhai south, giving him more value options. On turn 3, Nakabayashi pairs up the 7s, allowing him to create an ankou of double souths while still maintaining a pair. On turn 4 he makes an ankou of souths. Instead of taking the 4s kanchan tenpai, he maintains iishanten in order to aim for a better wait and possible get ittsuu as well.
On turn 6, Nakabayashi draws the 8p and calls riichi on a 369p sanmenchan with the 9p giving ittsuu. Aiming for 1st place with his pair of dora and red 5m, Setokuma pushes the 9p from his hand and ends up dealing the the takame into Nakabayashi. Nakabayashi wins the hand with Riichi/Ippatsu/Ittsuu/Double South/Dora 1/Ura 1 for 16,000. With the baiman win, it was enough to catapult him from 4th to 2nd.
Houtei
December 8, Game 1, E1-0
In E1-0, Honda sits as the starting dealer with Shiratori, Kondo and Taro waiting for their dealer turns. From the start, all four of them are either 3-shanten or 4-shanten, with Honda being ahead in value with his 5p dora pair. Honda and Taro both end up drawing pairs in the first row, but neither of them have secured chiitoi. By the end of the row, everyone but Shiratori is 2-shanten. In the second row, Taro creates ankous and Honda shifts to a sequence hand. By the end of the second row, everyone but Shiratori is iishanten. Through the third row, it seemed like none of them would end up in tenpai. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5 tiles left, still no one was in tenpai. On Taro’s last draw, he finally gets to tenpai, waiting on a red dragon/6m shanpon.
With a call off Taro’s discard, Honda gets to tenpai on a 5p/white dragon shanpon.
On Kondo’s last draw, he gets to tenpai as well and waits on a 3p penchan.
Because of Shiratori’s call, Taro got one more draw, the last tile in the wall. When he draws the tile, he finds the 3p! He discards it trying to maintain tenpai and ends up dealing into Kondo.
Kondo wins the hand with Houtei/Dora 1 for 2,000.
Yakuman Tenpai!!?
December 8, Game 1, S2-2
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-15_s90_p421
In S2-2, Kondo is in 3rd place, 1,400 from 2nd and 300 from 4th. He starts out 2-shanten for chiitoi with pairs of 6s, green dragon, 5m and 6m. On turn 2, Kondo draws a 6s to create an ankou. Soon after, Kondo draws a pair of 1s, putting him iishanten for chiitoi. Even with the hand closer to chiitoi, he still keeps the ankou for the option to pivot to a toitoi. At the end of the first row, Kondo draws a 6m to make his second ankou, putting him iishanten for toitoi with the chance at suuankou. The very next turn, Kondo draws a 1s to make his ankou and to put him tenpai. Kondo calls riichi and waits on a green dragon/5m shanpon, hoping to draw either of them himself to get suuankou.
When we look around the table, we see a pair of green dragons stuck in Taro’s hand and a red 5m in Honda’s, meaning that there was only one tile left in the wall to give Kondo the win. However, one tile is all he needs. With every draw, we wanted to see Kondo win the yakuman. In the middle of the third row, the last 5m was drawn… by Taro. Yelling, Hiyoshi said that the 5m was shifted away from Kondo by Shiratori’s chii. With nobody else pushing, the hand naturally went to a draw with Kondo the only one tenpai.
Last Chance
December 8, Game 2
In E1-0, Sonoda starts the game as the dealer and wanting to give the team a 1st to cheer about after a week without one. He starts out the hand 3-shanten with a red 5s for value. Creating a ryanmen and filling a kanchan, Sonoda gets to iishanten on turn 5. In the middle of the second row, Sonoda gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 47m ryanmen. With five left in the wall, Sonoda has a very good chance of winning the hand. At the end of the second row, there were still five left. In the middle of the third row, it was brought down to 4, then down to 3. With one more draw for each player, his wining tiles were reduced to 2. On Sonoda’s last draw, the second-last tile in the wall, Sonoda found the 4m to win the hand. Sonoda wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu/Aka 1/Ura 1 for 4,000 all, taking the early lead.
In E1-1, Sonoda starts out by filling in a penchan to get to 2-shanten with a pair of dora norths. On turn 2, he creates a penchan to get to iishanten. On turn 3, he gets rid of the penchan to try for a better shape. On turn 5, he gets back to iishanten by creating a ryanmen. The very next turn, he draws a north dora to create an ankou and calls riichi on a 25p ryanmen. Though the riichi was early, there are only three of his waits left in the wall. Before the end of the second row, the only winning tile left was the single 2p in the wall. As the wall got shorter, we expected the hand to go to a draw. However, on Sonoda’s last draw, he finds the last 2p to win the hand. Honda wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Dora 3 for 4,000+100 all, another dealer mangan on his last draw.
Houtei (Again?)
December 8, Game 2, S2-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-14_s10_p716
In S2-0, Sonoda is in 1st place and trying to get the game to finish as quickly as possible. Chasing him is Ooi, sitting in 2nd place and 21,300 behind. Both Ooi and Sonoda start out 3-shanten, but Ooi has more value and better shapes. Though Ooi lagged in the first row and Sonoda moved ahead to 2-shanten, Ooi was able to draws good tiles in the second row. Filling in a kanchan, he gets to 2-shanten with three ryanmens. Filling in the ryanmens, Ooi gets to tenpai at the end of the second row and calls riichi on a 14s ryanmen, guaranteed to be at least a mangan if he wins.
Sonoda is iishanten at this point, but lacking a yaku and unlikely to gain any value. Even so, he tries to work around it. He throws safe tiles and suji that maintain his shape. The wall gifts him tiles that are safe. While he tries to find a way to get to a safe tenpai, dealer Uotani makes a call for a 25m yakuless tenpai.
On Sonoda’s second-last draw, he gets to tenpai and waits on a yakuless 58m ryanmen.
On Ooi’s second-last draw, he gets the 2m, but Uotani can’t call ron without a yaku. With their last draws, both Sonoda and Uotani maintain their tenpais. On Ooi’s last draw, the last tile in the wall, Ooi draws the 8m!
With the 8m discard as the last tile in the wall, Sonoda calls ron. Sonoda wins with Houtei only for 1,300 plus Ooi’s riichi stick, moving the game along and disappoint both Uotani and Ooi.
Haitei
December 9, Game 1, E2-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-14_s40_p714
In E2-0, the scores are still close with 1st and 4th separated by only 6,000. Looking around the table at the start, both Takamiya and Mizuhara are 3-shanten with some sort of dora (Takamiya with a red 5s, Mizuhara with a lone south dora). Both players try to improve their bad shapes in the first row, forgoing some efficiency to get there. At the end of the first row, Takamiya is 2-shanten with lots of ryanmen choices and Mizuhara is 2-shanten with lots of choices to create ryanmens. In the middle of the 2nd row, Mizuhara is the first to tenpai and calls riichi on a 3p kanchan.
At this point, Takamiya is iishanten with some efficiency lost to keep some safety. Despite the riichi on the table, Takamiya is willing to tolerate some danger to advance her hand. At the start of the third row, Takamiya gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 3s penchan wait.
The hand is late and Takamiya is running out of time to win. We see Takamiya’s wait has one left in the wall while Mizuhara’s is completely gone. With the discarded 6s from Mizuhara, the 3s does have a small chance to be discarded, but unlikely. As the wall got smaller, we noticed that Takamiya is in line to get the haitei. When Takamiya draws the haitei, she finds the 3s and wins the hand. Takamiya wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Iipeikou/Haitei/Aka 1/Ura 2 for 3,000/6,000.
Dora
December 9, Game 1, S1-0
In S1-0, Mizuhara is in 4th place and lagging behind, 4,400 from 3rd and 13,600 from 1st. She starts out the hand with an annoying 5-shanten, even with one completed group. On turn 2, she draws a red 5m, creating a 345m and a 555m group. Mizuhara continues to draw good shapes in the first row and she manages to get to 2-shanten with two ryanmens by the end of the first row. On turns 6 and 7, she draws the dora 2m to create a pair and put her iishanten. On turn 9, she draws yet another dora 2m, widening her tile acceptance from 3 to 7 different tiles. The very next turn, she gets to tenpai and stays dama on a 36s ryanmen. With 5 han guaranteed, a tsumo would give her a haneman. At the start of the third row, she draws the 3s and wins the had. Mizuhara wins with Tsumo/Tanyao/Dora 3/Aka 1 for 3,000/6,000, catapulting her from 4th to 1st.
Hatsu Tanki
December 9, Game 2, E1-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-14_s20_p720
In E1-0, Matsugase is sitting in the west seat and facing off against some of the strongest players in the league. He starts out 3-shanten and missing a 3s and a 4s for an ittsuu. On turn 2, he draws a 4s, missing only the 3s for the imbedded ittsuu. On turn 4, he completes a block in manzu to put him iishanten. The very next turn, he draws a 3s and calls riichi on a green dragon tanki, rejecting the wider 47m nobetan option. Soon after, Kobayashi makes a call to advance to iishanten and throws the green dragon, dealing into Matsugse. Matsugase wins the hand with Riichi/Ittsuu/Ura 1 for 8,000.
Mangan-Mangan
December 9, Game 2
In S1-2, Kobayashi is in 3rd place, 13,700 behind 2nd place. At the start, we see Kobayashi 3-shanten with a bunch of kanchans and Matsugase 3-shanten with another good chance at ittsuu. Both Matsugase and Kobayashi advance to 2-shanten on turn 2, but then Kobayashi hand stalls. As Kobayashi waits for good tiles to come, Matsugase draw the ones he needs. On turn 4, he fills in a penchan and the calls his 7m penchan the very next turn to get to tenpai on a 2m kanchan.
On turn 5, Kobayashi draws a 7p dora, the second one in his hand. At the start of the second row, Kobayashi draws another 7p dora and guarantees himself a tanyao. Because one of the 7p is part of a sequence, Kobayashi has the ability to call pon on the 7p to get to tenpai should it come out. Right after, Matsugase discards the 7p and Kobayashi calls pon, putting him tenpai on a 25m ryanmen.
In the middle of the second row, Kobayashi discards the green dragon. Hisato, who is iishanten at this point, calls pon and tries to get to tenpai by discarding the 2m. However, when he discards the 2m, two voices call out ron and Kobayashi reveals his hand.
Because Kobayashi is next in turn order, Kobayashi has precendence in winning, headbumping Matsugase. Kobayashi wins the hand with Tanyao/Dora 4 for 8,000+600.
In S2-0, Kobayashi is now the dealer and sitting 5,100 behind 2nd, 13,700 behind 1st. He starts out the hand with a decent 2-shanten with a 3m dora just drawn. On turn 2, Kobayashi makes an ankou of 2s to get to iishanten, waiting on 11 different tiles to get to tenpai. On turn 4, Kobayashi gets to a technical tenpai, but on a very bad 7m tanki with two in his hand. On turn 5, Kobayashi changes his wait to a 134s tenpai and calls riichi, wanting to get either the 1s or 4s for pinfu. On the ippatsu turn, Matsugase throws the 1s, the safest tile in his hand, and ends up dealing into Kobayashi. Kobayashi wins the hand with Riichi/Ippatsu/Pinfu/Dora 1/Ura 1 for 12,000, moving into 2nd place and sitting just 1,700 from 1st.
All Last
December 9, Game 2, S4-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-14_s80_p723
In S4-0, Kobayashi is sitting in 2nd place, 5,400 behind 1st place dealer Hori. If he want to take top spot, Kobayashi needs to get a 3/50 hand indirect, a 3/30 tsumo or a 2/50 (or 3/25) direct hit.
Kobayashi starts out 3-shanten with two red fives, enough for the 3/30 tsumo barrier, but not exactly a secure position to be in.
In the first row, Kobayashi shifts his hand to go for tanyao. Though Kobayashi is still 3-shanten by the end of the row, his hand is rid of most of his honours and terminals. At the start of the second row, Kobayashi draws a dora 3p, advancing to 2-shanten and hitting the 4 han mark. With 4 han, Kobayashi can win any way he wants and take 1st place. A turn later, Kobayashi gets to iishanten. With a pon of the 3s in the middle of the second row, Kobayashi gets to tenpai and waits on a 4p kanchan.
Seeing Kobayashi’s hand advance, Hori starts folding. If Hori can avoid dealing in and bring the hand to a draw, Hori will be able to keep his 1st place. As we look around the table, we see Hisato holding two 4p and on already discarded, meaning that there is only one 4p left in the wall. At the end of the second row, Hisato draws the last 4p.
Right after, Kobayashi draws a 6p. The 6p saves Kobayashi’s hand from being dead, allowing him to switch to a 47p wait. Though it means throwing the dora 3p, he still maintains the 4 han with the 4p because it will give him a 456 sanshoku. He also now gains the ability to win off the 7p, with tsumo being enough to move into 1st place.
Two draws later, Kobayashi draws the 7p to win the hand and complete the comeback. Kobayashi wins with Tanyao/Aka 2 for 1,000/2,000 to move ahead of Hori by 700 and mark the team’s first back-to-back 1sts this season.
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