Game #8
Konami Mahjong
Fight Club
EX Furinkazan
Team Raiden
Shibuya
Abemas
Date Driven
May 12, Game 2, E1-1
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-14_s40_p757
In E1-1, Date is the dealer and was one of two players tenpai in the previous hand. Her riichi stick has been set aside and is waiting to be claimed by the next winner.
Date starts out the hand 2-shanten with a pair of easts and three 6p. In the first row, Date replaces her penchan with a 58s ryanmen, calls pon on the double east and gets to iishanten. At the end of the row, Date draws the red 5s and gets to tenpai on a 69p/8m wait for mangan. A few turns later, she draws the red 5p double dora and waits on a 47p ryanmen.
In the third row, Aki gets to tenpai on an expensive hand hand and waits dama on a 58m ryanmen. After Aki gets to tenpai, Date adds another 5p dora to her hand for haneman minimum. Right after, Aki draws and discards the 7p a few turns later and deals into Date.
Date wins the hand with Double East/Dora 2/Aka 2 for 18,000+300 plus one riichi stick, taking a big early lead.
Slight Recovery
May 12, Game 2, E1-2
In E1-2, Aki is in 4th place after dealing into Date’s big dealer haneman. With the team in 4th place, Aki needs to start the climb now.
Aki starts out the hand 4-shantne with a completed sequence and a pair of green dragons. When Date discarded the green dragon on turn 1, she decided not to call pon. Her choice not to call pon pays off as she draws other groups, including a pair of souths, another sequence and a ryanmen. On turn 5, Aki draws a third south to get to tenpai and calls riichi on a 58m ryanmen. In the middle of the second row, Aki draws the 8m and wins the hand, With the uradora flip making the 8m a dora, Aki wins the hand with Riichi/Tsumo/South/Dora 1 for 2,000+200/4,000+200.
Expensive Pinfu
May 12, Game 2, E4-3
In E4-3, all the players are trying for a win. With four riichi sticks and three honba on the table, even a cheap hand will be expensive.
1st place Date starts out the hand 4-shanten with three ryanmens. One by one, Date fills in those ryanmens and creates new ones to set her hand up for pinfu. By the end of the first row, she is 2-shanten. At the start of the second row, she gets to iishanten and secures pinfu. At the end of the second row, she draws the red 5m to get to tenpai on a 58s ryanmen. Not wanting to have another exhaustive, she stays dama to keep her winning chances high. Immediately after, Aki draws and discards the 8s and deals into Date. Date wins the hand with Pinfu/Aka 1 for 2,000+900 plus 4,000 in riichi sticks, further increasing her lead.
Ura Ura
May 12, Game 2, S1-0
In S1-0, Honda is in 3rd place, 5,000 behind 2nd place Matsumoto.
Honda starts out the hand 2-shanten with a red 5p and a pair of souths. On turn 2, he gets to iishanten with a ryanmen and a penchan. A turn after that, he improves it to a ryanmen-ryanmen iishanten. On turn 4, Honda gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 47p ryanmen. At the end of the second row, Aki discards the 7p and deals into Honda. With the south become the uradora, Honda wins the hand with Riichi/Aka 1/Ura 2 for 8,000 to move into 2nd place.
Honda Heights
May 12, Game 2, S3-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-14_s70_p760
In S3-0, Honda is 2nd place and 12,200 behind 1st place Date. with a mangan tsumo or higher, Honda will move into 1st place.
Honda starts out the hand 3-shanten for both chiitoi and a standard hand. For his pairs, he has the 5p dora (including the red 5p) and the connected 6s and 7s pairs. For sequences, he has a single 123p sequence. In the first row, he draws a pair of 9m and a single 8s to create a possible 678 iipeikou. On turn 8, Honda draws a third 5p to get to tenpai and calls riichi on a 58s ryanmen. If he gets either the 8s or the red 5s, he will have at least a haneman. At the end of the second row, Honda successfully draws the 5s to win the hand. As Honda flips the uradora, his hand gets upgraded again to a dealer baiman. Honda wins the hand with Riichi/Tsumo/Dora 3/Aka 2/Ura 1 for 8,000 all, bringing him to 1st place with 55,800.
Matsumoto Moving
May 12, Game 2, S4-2
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-14_s50_p750
In S4-2, Matsumoto is the dealer in 3rd place and 18,200 behind 2nd place Date. If Matsumoto can move ahead (and claim the 2,600 in bonuses), he can stop the Konami Mahjong Fight Club from getting closer.
Matsumoto starts out the hand 2-shanten with a dora 1m and a red 5m. Unfortunately, his shapes are fairly poor and only 5 different tiles will advance his hand. On turn 2, he increases his acceptance to 6 tiles and on turn 3, he makes the 7s pair an ankou to get to iishanten. At the end of the row, he fills in a kanchan and calls riichi on a 3m penchan. Counting tiles, here are only two 3m left in the wall. During the ippatsu round, this is reduced down to just one. However, Matsumoto only needs one. In the middle of the third row, Matsumoto finds the last 3m and wins the hand. Matsumoto wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Dora 1/Aka 1 for 4,000+200 all plus two riichi sticks. With this mangan win and all the bonuses, Matsumoto moves into 2nd place by 600.
Dama Pinfu
May 12, Game 2, S4-2
In S4-2, Honda is in 1st place. Matsumoto has shown in the previous hand that he can make a combeack, so Honda has to end the had now.
Honda starts out the hand 2-shanten with two ryanmens and two completed sequences. On turn 2, he fills in one of the ryanmens and gets to iishanten. waiting on a 147s to complete a sequence or a 2389s to complete a pair. On turn 6, he draws the 8s to get to tenpai on a 14s ryanmen. To keep his winning chances high, he stays dama to not scare anyone off. In the middle of the second row, Aki draws an discards the 1s and deals in. Honda wins the hand with Pinfu/Aka 1 for 2,000+900, securing the win.
Final Scores
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-15_s10_p226
Twitter: https://twitter.com/m_league_jikkyo/status/1657018715802591232
Standings
Returning to his regular season form, Honda registers yet another 1st place, a significant 1st place at that. They cut their gap from 2nd place down from 95.9pts to 15.2pts Again with a 2nd place, the Shibuya Abemas made sure their opponents’ gain was tempered and actually increased their gain over 2nd place.
At the end of the day, Team Raiden was the biggest gainer with +56.8pts. Both the Konami Mahjong Fight Club and Shibuya Abemas gained as well, stopping Team Raiden from getting an overwhelming comeback. Unfortunately, with two 4ths, the EX Furinkazan dropped down from 2nd to 4th and is now in the negatives.
8 games down, 8 more to go. By this time next week, the champions will be crowned. Can the top teams hang on or will we see an exciting comeback? Which players will be entrusted to get the team through? Who will raise the plate? As always, we’ll just have to wait and see!
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