Game #3
Team Raiden
Shibuya
Abemas
EX Furinkazan
Konami Mahjong
Fight Club
Setokuma’s Strong Start
May 9, Game 1
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-14_s70_p755
In E1-1, Setokuma starts out the hand 3-shanten with an ankou of 9s and a pair of wests. With no easy way to open the hand, Setokuma just has to stay efficient and hope for the right draws. In the first row, he creates a ryanmen, makes some sequence candidates and fills in a kanchan. By turn 4, Setokuma is iishanten. At around the same time, Hisato calls a closed kan on the 1s and ends up giving Setokuma one more dora. After creating a pair of 4m and filling in his ryanmen, Setokuma gets to tenpai in the middle of the second row and calls riichi on a 4/west shanpon. Matsumoto would chance Setokuma later with a 5p kanchan, but his wait had little chance of being completed. On Setokuma’s second-last draw, he gets the 4m and wins the hand. With a flip of the uradora, Setokuma’s 4m ankou and his 6s all become dora, upgrading his hand to a dealer mangan. Setokuma wins the hand with Riichi/Tsumo/Dora 1/Ura 4 for 6,000+100 all, widening his lead.
Riichi! Riichi! Rii-Ron!
May 9, E1-2
In E1-2, Matsumoto is in 3rd place and 1,000 behind 2nd place Hisato.
Matsumoto starts off the hand 4-shanten with two ryanmens and the ability to accept the 5p dora. On turn 5, Matsumoto drew the dora 5p to fill in a ryanmen, but he was still 3-shanten. In the second row, Matsumoto fills in a kanchan and a penchan to get to iishanten. While Matsumoto waits for tenpai, Hisato gets to tenpai first and calls riichi on a red dragon tanki.
During the ippatsu round, Matsumoto gets to tenpai and calls a chasing riichi on a 23s wait.
Immediately after that, Matsugase throws the the 3s trying to call riichi and ends up dealing into Matsumoto.
Matsumoto wins the hand with Riichi/Ippatsu/Dora 1/Ura 1 for 8,000+600 plus one riichi stick to move into 2nd place.
Out of 4th
May 9, Game 1, E3-2
In E3-2, Matsugase is the dealer in 4th place, 11,400 behind 3rd place Hisato and 15,000 behind 2nd place Matsumoto. With a mangan tsumo, Matsugase will move into 2nd. Matsugase starts out the hand 4-shanten with a secured red 5m. In the first row, Matsugase makes a pair of souths, creates a 456s sequence and a 58p ryanmen. By the end of the row, he is iishanten. In the second row, Matsugase replaces the souths with an 8s pair to go for tanyao. In the middle of the row, he fills in the pinzu ryanmen to get to tenpai and calls riichi on a 2s/8s shanpon. Hisato would chase Matsugase in the third row, but his riichi ended up just being a donation as Matsugase draws the 8s during the ippatsu round. Matsugase wins the hand with Riichi/Tsumo/Tanyao/Aka 1 for 4,000+200 all plus two riichi sticks, moving into 2nd place.
Breaking 50k
May 9, Game 1, E3-3
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-14_s70_p756
In E3-3, Setokuma has a strong lead and is trying to get more points so the team can rise in the standings.
Setokuma starts off the hand 2-shanten with a pair of green dragon doras and two ryanmens. Though Setokuma has some of the best value, Matsugase across the table is closest to tenpai at iishanten with his initial 14. With the right draws, Matsugase is able to get to tenpai at the end of the first row and calls riichi on a 369s wait for mangan minimum.
At this point, Setokuma is already iishanten. With good value and only one safe tile in hand, he keeps pushing. During the ippatsu round, Matsumoto gets to tenpai and waits on a 7s/2m shanpon.
A few turns after that, Setokuma gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a green dragon/1p shanpon. On the ippatsu turn, Setokuma finds the 1p and wins the hand. Flipping one uradora, Setokuma wins with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tsumo/Dora 2/Ura 1 for 3,000+300/6,000+300 plus one riichi stick, raising Setokuma’s score up to 58,300.
By Chance
May 9, Game 1, E4-0
In E4-0, Matsumoto is in 2nd place, 4,600 ahead of 4th, 200 ahead of 3rd and 42,800 behind 1st. He wants to make space between him and the bottom and close the gap between him and the top.
Matsumoto starts off the hand 2-shanten for chiitoi with pairs of east, south, 9p and 7m. In the first row, Matsumoto pairs up the 1p to get to iishanten. On turn 7, Matsumoto draws a third 7m to give him the option of going for toitoi as well. As Matsumoto tries to decide what to go for, Setokuma draws the red 5m double dora to get to tenpai and calls riichi on a 69p ryanmen.
On the ippatsu turn, Matsumoto draws a third 9p, putting him iishanten for toitoi and a potential suuankou. As Matsumoto waits to draw or call for tenpai, Matsugase calls chii to get to tenpai on a 369p wait (with only the 36p giving a yaku).
Soon after, Setokuma discards the south and Matsumoto calls pon to get to tenpai on an east/1p shanpon, ready to get sanankou if he draws either of them. Unfortunately, Matsumoto draws a live 5p and chooses to drop his 1p pair, breaking his tenpai.
Then two turns later, he draws another 5p to get back to tenpai and waits on a 5p/east shanpon. On Matsumoto’s last draw, he finds the east and wins the hand. Matsumoto wins with Toitoi/Sanankou for 2,000/4,000 plus one riichi stick.
Chasing Riichi Always Wins
May 9, Game 1, S1-0
In S1-0, Matsumoto is in 2nd place and 30,800 behind 1st place Setokuma. With some direct hits, he can quickly shrink that gap.
Matsumoto starts out the hand 4-shanten with only one ryanmen for a good shape. In the first row, Matsumoto creates a ryanmen and cleans up his shapes, but he is still stuck at 3-shanten at the end of the row. Within the first three discards of the second row, Matsumoto fills in ryanmens and gets to iishanten with a wide potential for a good wait. As he waits for tenpai, Setokuma gets to tenpai first and calls riichi on a 25p ryanmen.
Just two turns later, Matsumoto gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 25s ryanmen. Within the ippatsu round, Setokuma discards the 2s and deals into Matsumoto. Matsumoto wins the hand with Riichi/Ippatsu/Pinfu/Tanyao/Ura 1 for 8,000 plus a riichi stick, a dirrect hit off 1st place.
Final Scores
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-15_s10_p221
Twitter: https://twitter.com/m_league_jikkyo/status/1655906871482658816
Standings
With the big win by Setokuma, Team Raiden goes from 4th place to within striking range of the top spot. As for the Konami Mahjong Fight Club, they fall dangerously close to the negatives and Hisato might be sleeping in the doghouse tonight.
M-League Watch 