Game #2
Shibuya
Abemas
Team Raiden
Konami Mahjong
Fight Club
EX Furinkazan
Starting Strong
May 8, Game 2, E1-0
In E1-0, Ooi is the starting dealer and trying to recover the points that Hinata lost the previous game.
Ooi starts off the hand 5-shanten for a standard hand (3-shanten for chiitoi), but he does have a pair of easts which also happen to be dora. In the first row, Ooi seemed to magically create good waits and sequences. By the end of the first row, he was already iishanten with a ryanmen in hand. In the middle of the second row, Ooi gets to tenpai and calls riichi on an 8m/east shanpon. If Ooi wins off the east, he would win with a dealer haneman. After a few turns, Hagiwara feels bold and calls riichi on a 4m kanchan wait. However, Hagiwara’s hope is short-lived. During Hagiwara’s ippatsu round, Ooi draws the 8m and wins the hand. Ooi wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Dora 2 for 4,000 all plus one riichi stick.
Shortcut to Haneman
May 8, Game 2, E1-1
In E1-1, Hagiwara in 4th place after calling riichi just before Ooi won by tsumo. Any hand would put him into 2nd place.
Hagiwara starts off the hand 3-shanten for both a standard and chiitoi with a paired red 5p, a paired 5s and a lone 8s. On turn 3, he pairs up the 8m and on turn 7, he pairs up the 2p to get to chiitoi iishanten. Since the 8s would be hard to win with and is still completely isolated, Hagiwara chooses to get rid of it now. After a few turns of drawing and discarding, Hagiwara pairs up the 3p near the end of the second row and calls riichi on a 7p tanki. With all the 6p visible, the 7p is a very strong late. Right after, Date draws and discards the 7p and deals into Hagiwara. Hagiwara wins the hand with Riichi/Ippatsu/Chiitoi/Aka 2 for 12,000+300, moving into 2nd place.
Double Riichi!
May 8, Game 2, E2-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-14_s50_p747
In E2-0, Hagiwara is now the dealer getting closer to 1st place, just 5,700 from the top spot.
As Hagiwara drew his first thirteen tiles and sorted them, we saw his eyebrows raise as he see that he is already iishanten and has a chance to be a double riichi. As he draws the 1p to create a pair, Hagiwara gets to tenpai and calls a double riichi on a 58p ryanmen, holding pinfu as well.
With Hagiwara only hoping, fans watch to see how everyone else reacts. Looking to Hagiwara’s left we see that Ooi is already 2-shanten with a few of isolated honor tiles. Once Ooi is rid of them on turn 3, he has a chance to be iishanten. He doesn’t take it then, but takes it on turn 4 with a wider wait. At the end of the first row, Ooi is now tenpai and calls riichi on the same wait as Hagiwara: a 58p ryanmen. Between the two players, only one can win. In the unlikely case that Date or Matsugase throws it, Ooi would win and Hagiwara would get headbumped. Near the end of the second row, Ooi is declared the winner of this duel as he draws the 5p and calls tsumo. Ooi wins the hand with Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu for 700/1,300 plus Hagiwara’s riichi stick.
Dora Ankou
May 8, Game 2, E4-1
In E4-1, Matsugase is the dealer in 3rd place, 11,900 behind 2nd place Hagiwara and 18,400 behind 1st place Ooi. With 1,300 in sticks available, Matsugase can move into 1st place with a haneman.
On his very first turn, Matsugase draws a lone 2s to go with his embedded red 5m for value, though it doesn’t advance his 3-shanten hand. He holds onto it, hoping to have it grow. On his very next draw, he draws a second one to get to 2-shanten. At the end of the row, he draws a third one to make an ankou and get to a ryanmen-sanmenchan iishanten, waiting on five different tiles for a mangan-minimum tenpai. At the start of the second row, Matsugase draws a 7m to fill in the sanmenchan and calls riichi on a 58p ryanmen, hoping to draw either himself for haneman. Two turns later, he does exactly that when he draws the 5p. Matsugase wins the hand with Riichi/Tsumo/Dora 3/Aka 1/Ura 1 for 6,000+100 all plus one riichi stick, sending Matsugase up to 1st place.
Haitei
May 8, Game 2, E4-2
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-14_s50_p748
In E4-2, Ooi is in 2nd place after Matsugase passed him with a dealer haneman. Sitting 7,000 behind, a mangan tsumo would be enough to return to the top.
Ooi starts off the hand. 3-shanten with not much in terms of value. In the first row, he created both pairs and sequences at the exact same time, getting to chiitoi iishanten and a standard hand 2-shanten by turn 3. On turn 5, 4th place Date puts some pressure on the table as she calls riichi on a 2m kanchan.
During the ippatsu round, Ooi manages to get to a standard iishanten as well. With Few safe tiles and a lot of thinking, he chooses to just advance. As he draws a dangerous 2p, he starts to go back by throwing his 2s pair. As he folds, the wall tells him to keep going, getting him back to iishanten in the third row. In the middle of the third row with three more draws for himself, Ooi gets to tenpai and and calls riichi on a 69s ryanmen. The ippatsu draw misses. The next draw misses. Now Ooi has one more draw, which also happens to be the haitei. As Ooi takes the tile from the wall, he looks at it and puts it down next to him, revealing the 6s and winning the hand. Ooi wins the hand with Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu/Haitei/Iipekou for 2,000+200/4,000+200 to move back into 1st place.
Dora Ankou Again
May 8, Game 2, S2-0
In S2-0, Date is in 4th place and sitting there with -11,400, 36,500 behind 3rd place. It will be hard to move out of 4th, but now is the best time to start trying.
Date is dealt a lucky hand at the start, already starting with three 1m dora, two ryanmens and sitting at 3-shanten. After a few turns of finessing, Date is 2-shanten on turn 5 with a guaranteed good wait when she gets to tenpai. On turn 6, she gets to iishanten and on turn 8, she gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 69m ryanmen. As Date waits, Hagiwara the dealer tries to advance his own hand by calling a closed kan on the west, but isn’t able to get to tenpai. At the start of the third row, Date draws the 9m and wins the hand. Date wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Dora 3 for 2,000/4,000, shrinking her deficit.
Takame
May 8, Game 2, S3-2
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-14_s70_p754
In S3-2, Hagiwara is in 3rd place and lagging behind Matsugase and Ooi. To get even close to the two of them, he needs either a haneman or a baiman tsumo.
Hagiwara starts out the hand 3-shanten with a few ryanmen candidates and a secured 6s dora. In the first row, he is able to make a pair of 8s to advance to 2-shanten with tanyao basically guaranteed. Later, he makes the 8s an ankou to technically get to iishanten. On turn 8, he draws a red 5m to get to tenpai on a 6p tanki, waiting on 13 different tiles to improve his wait. Two turns later, he gets to tenpai and waits dama on a 36m nobetan for at least 3 han. If Hagiwara draws the 4p, he has the chance to get sanshoku as well. On his very next draw, he gets the 4p and calls riichi on a 36m nobetan, hoping to find the 3m for the 456 sanshoku and the haneman. On the ippatsu draw, he finds the fourth 8s and he calls a closed kan, giving him another chance at dora. The rinshan and kandora miss, leaving him to keep hoping. After many turns of waiting, Hagiwara finally finds the takame 3m on his very last draw to win the hand. Hagiwara misses the uradora for baiman, but he still wins the hand with a strong Riichi/Tsumo/Tanyao/Sanshoku/Dora 1/Aka 1 for 3,000+200/6,000+200 plus one riichi stick to put him within a mangan of 1st place.
Final Scores
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-15_s10_p220
Twitter: https://twitter.com/m_league_jikkyo/status/1655569550610423810
Standings
With the Abemas win and the Konami loss, the two teams switch places. Comparing each teams current points with their starting points, there isn’t too much movement. The EX Furinkazan were the winners of the day with a respectable +28.1pts gain, while Team Raiden was the biggest dropper with a small -26.5pts loss.
At that’s all for the first day of the finals! We still have seven more days left to go! What do the next two weeks have in store for us? As always, we’ll just have to wait and see!
M-League Watch 