Highlights
Beautiful Silence
January 29, Game 1, E1-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p3037
In E1-0, Okada is the starting dealer and trying to help the team catch the 1st place U-Next Pirates.
Okada starts out the hand 3-shanten with some good shapes, but lacking in any guaranteed value. On turn 2, Okada advances to 2-shanten and is guaranteed to have a good wait. At the end of the row, Okada secures pinfu to get to iishanten. Across from Okada, Asami is also iishanten and guaranteed to have an ittsuu. On turn 8, Asami gets to tenpai and waits dama on a 3p penchan. However, since there are already three 3p visible, it is not the ideal wait. On turn 10, Asami switches to a 1p/red dragon shanpon and calls riichi.
With Okada the dealer and iishanten, she keeps pushing. She draws the 4p dora and pairs it up a turn later to upgrade her hand. In the third row, Okada draws the red 5p and 14s, guaranteed at least a mangan with either tile. Three turns later, Okada draws the takame 4s and wins the hand. Okada wins the hand with Tsumo/Pinfu/Tanyao/Dora 2/Aka 1 for 6,000 all plus a riichi stick.
Yume Ni Miteru No
January 29, Game 1
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p6042
In E3-0, Nakada is in 2nd place, 12,600 behind 2nd place Asami and 25,000 behind 1st place Okada. Being the only player left to not have a 1st place, she really wants to win this game.
Nakada starts out the hand 2-shanten with two ryanmens in hand with a secured red 5s. In the first row, Nakada makes a 2p triplet and gets to iishanten on turn 5, guaranteed to have a good wait. At the end of the row, Nakada gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 69p ryanmen. On her very next turn, she draw the 9p and wins the hand. Nakada wins the hand with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tsumo/Aka 1 for 2,000/4,000.
After quickly losing her dealership, Nakada continues her pursuit in S1-0. She is currently sitting 4,600 behind 2nd place Asami.
Nakada starts out the hand 3-shanten with two completed sequences and a ryanmen. Though her hand is decent, 1st place dealer Okada is also pursuing a win. With three quick calls, Okada gets to tenpai first on a 69p ryanmen.
By this point, Nakada is still only at 2-shanten. In the second row, Nakada gets to iishanten and is guaranteed a good wait. At the end of the second row, Nakada gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 36p ryanmen. With the riichi by Nakada, Okada is being more careful, switching to a red dragon/8p shanpon to dropping her tenpai. With less than half a dozen tiles left in the wall, Nakada draws the 6p and wins the hand. Nakada wins the hand with Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu/Iipeikou for 1,300/2,600, bringing her up to 2nd place.
In S2-0, Nakada is now just 7,800 behind 1st place Okada.
Nakada starts out the hand 2-shanten with a secured red 5s for value. In the first row, Nakada makes the 5s into a triplet and advances to iishanten. In the second row, Nakada makes a triplet of 9m and calls riichi on an east/6s shanpon. If she draws either of them, she will add sanankou.
Near the end of the second row, Asami also gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 3p penchan.
Hagiwara wants to fold, but it’s difficult to fold when you’re the dealer in last place. In the third row, Hagiwara draws and discards the east and deals into Nakada. Nakada wins the hand with Riichi/Dora 1/Aka 1 for 6,400 plus a riichi stick, bringing her just 400 away from 1st.
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p6043
After being the sole tenpai player in S3-0, Nakada is the dealer going into the last hand with a 3,600 lead over 2nd place. Winning a hand would be nice, but there is a path to stay 1st while being noten. So long as only two players are tenpai, Nakada can be noten and win the game.
Nakada starts out the hand 3-shanten with two dora 6s in hand. To her right, 2nd place Okada is 4-shanten but lacking value. By the end of the row, Nakada is iishanten with a red 5s added to her hand while Okada is 2-shanten. In the second row, Okada gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 47m ryanmen. Holding no value, she is relying on very specific circumstances. If she wins on the 7m, it will be enough because she reaches 40 fu. With a tsumo on the 4m, she will be 200 short unless she gets uradora. With a direct hit, she will also need uradora. Anything else requires two extra han.
With the riichi by Okada, there is a side effect. With Okada losing 1,000, Nakada can simply declare noten if the hand goes to a draw and she will win no matter how many people are tenpai.
Sitting in last place is Hagiwara. Though he has absolutely no chance of making a comeback, getting any number of points is good. In the third row, Hagiwara calls pon on the south to get to tenpai on a 3p/5p shanpon, getting a mangan on ron or a haneman on tsumo.
In the middle of the second row, Hagiwara draws and discards the 7m, giving Okada the chance to win the hand
However, Okada does not win off it since it would not be enough! The hand keeps going, with Hagiwara folding for one turn and getting back to tenpai on the very last tile in the wall. Eventually, it all ends in a draw and Okada and Hagiwara the only ones tenpai, giving Nakada her very first M-League win.
Worth the Wait
January 29, Game 2, E4-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p3038
In E4-0, Shibukawa is in 2nd place and 17,000 behind 1st place Sonoda.
Shibukawa starts out the hand 2-shanten with two red fives in his hand. In his first three turns, he draws the dora 3s, creates a ryanmen and completes it to get to iishanten. On turn 6, he fills in a kanchan to connect the red 5m and get to tenpai. With pinfu guaranteed, he calls riichi on a 36p ryanmen, having at least a mangan and holding a good chance at haneman. With not much happening in the other players’ hands, Shibukawa’s only hope is to draw it himself. With less than a half dozen tiles left it the wall, it looked like it wasn’t going to happen. Then, on the second-last tile in the wall, Shibukawa draws the 6p and wins the hand. Shibukawa wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu/Dora 1/Aka 2 for 3,000/6,000, putting him within 2,000 of 1st place.
Shifting the Standings
January 29, Game 2, S4-0
In S4-0, Shibukawa is within mangan range of 1st place, Sonoda, but both 3rd place Setokuma and 4th place Sugawara are both desperate to get points for their respective teams outside of playoff position.
At the start, Shibukawa is 3-shanten with two secured dora 3p while Sugawara is 2-shanten for chiitoi with a floating red 5s. In the first row, Shibukawa is able to get to iishanten with a guaranteed good wait while Sugawara is still waiting for her fifth pair. In the second row, Sugawara gives up on the exhausted red 5s, but is able to get to iishanten on turn 9. Near the end of the row, Shibukawa gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 14p/2s wait. With all four 2p visible to him and three of the 1p in his hand, it means that there is one 1p still floating around that will be completely useless to anyone who draws it.
Immediately after, Sugawara draws her sixth pair and calls riichi on a 3p dora tanki. With two in Shibukawa’s hand and one in hers, that leaves only a single 3p in the wall. However, despite waiting on a single tile against Shibukawa’s 3-sided wait, mahjong will be mahjong. At the start of the third row, Shibukawa draws and drops that single 3p and deals into Sugawara. Hitting the uradora, Sugawara wins the hand with Riichi/Chiitoi/Dora 2/Ura 2 for 12,000 plus one riichi stick. Though it isn’t enough to get Sugawara out of 4th, it does bring Shibukawa down to 3rd place and Setokuma up to 2nd.
Hiroshi Hero
January 30, Game 1, S2-1
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p4537
In S2-1, Daigo is in 3rd, 1,900 behind 2nd place dealer Matsumoto and 10,300 behind 1st place Matsugase. With 1,300 going to the next winner, a mangan tsumo will be enough to get him into 1st place.
Daigo starts out the hand by drawing the red 5p to get him 4-shanten. In the first row, he shifts his hand to tanyao (though not guaranteed), creates a pair of the 4m dora and builds multiple ryanmens. As he builds his own hand, the other players are calling his tiles, trying to go fast. With this as a sign to go fast too, Daigo makes a chii at the end of the first row to get to 2-shanten. With a pon a turn later, he gets to iishanten. With one more call, he puts himself tenpai on a 47p ryanmen in the middle of the second row. On his very next draw, Daigo picks up the 7p and wins the hand. Daigo wins the hand with Tanyao/Dora 2/Aka 1 for 2,000+100/4,000+100, putting him on top.
Bottom to Top
January 30, Game 2, S2-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s60_p2591
In S2-0, Aki is in 4th place, but is only 6,000 away from 1st place because the game has been fairly quiet. A simple mangan is enough for her to move from the bottom to the top.
Aki starts out the hand 4-shanten with all but two tiles either being manzu or honours. Early on, Aki decides to pursue a honitsu, breaking up a pinzu kanchan as quickly as it came. In the second row, Aki pairs up the red dragon and has successfully purged all pinzu and souzu. By the end of the second row, Aki is 2-shanten. At the start of the third row, Aki calls a chii to get to iishanten. A turn later, she gets to tenpai, throws the green dragon dora and waits on a 1m/red dragon shanpon. Right away, Tojo calls pon and discards the red dragon trying to take tenpai, dealing in. Aki wins the hand with Honitsu/Red Dragon/Aka 1 for 8,000, moving into 1st place.
Finding Fives
January 30, Game 2, S4-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p5538
In S4-0, Nakabayashi is in 3rd place, 6,000 behind 2nd place dealer Aki and 6,800 behind 1st place Hinata. In order to take the game, Nakabayashi needs a 3/50 or 4/25 direct hit or tsumo, or a mangan ron.
Nakabayashi starts out the hand with an annoying 4-shanten lacking any value whatsoever. With the 5m being the dora, his only real hope is to draw it and connect it to his floating 4m or 7m. The first row is successful in getting good shapes (being 2-shanten by the end of the row with two potential ryanmens), but has failed in getting value. To his right, 4th Tojo is living the same story, being iishanten but with not enough value to get out of 4th. Tojo gets to tenpai at the start of the second row, but she breaks a turn later to fish for value.
The other player posing an issue for Nakabayashi is Aki, who calls pon on the white dragon and gets to tenpai on a 7m/4p shanpon.
A few turns later, Nakabayashi gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 5m dora kanchan. In order to have a chance to win, he will have to draw it and find one more han. Though there are four left in the wall, he misses on the ippatsu, forcing him to pray for uradora. The riichi spooks Aki, causing her to shift around to different waits. With Tojo getting close to a good tenpai, she calls a concealed kan on the 8m, though isn’t able to get to tenpai. Then, near the end of the second row, Nakabayashi draws the 5m and wins the hand. Flipping the uradora, he reveals two 5m as uradora indicators and giving him two more hand with his 6m. Nakabayashi wins the hand with Riichi/Tsumo/Dora 1/Ura 2 for 2,000/4,000, winning the game.
Pei Tanki
February 1, Game 1, S1-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s60_p2595
In S1-0, Rumi is in 4th place, 11,800 behind 3rd place Yu.
Rumi starts out the hand 4-shanten and lacking in value. In the first row, she starts picking up pairs, quickly getting to iishanten on turn 5. After taking a few more turns to find the sixth, she gets it on turn 9 and calls riichi on a north tanki. On her right, Yu gets to iishanten immediately after the riichi and he throws the north, dealing into Rumi. Rumi wins the hand with Riichi/Ippatsu/Chiitoi for 6,400, enough to move into 3rd place.
Riichi Battle
February 1, Game 2, E4-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p2538
In E4-0, 4th place Katsumata, 3rd place Takamiya and 2nd place Mizuhara are all trying to catch up to 1st place Shibukawa. Every hand is an opportunity to make progress.
At the start, Takamiya is at 3-shanten with a secured red five and two ryanmens, Mizuhara’s hand has 10 pinzu tiles and a pair of dora 8p and Katsumata is 4-shanten with eight manzu tiles. In the first row, Mizuhara ends up drawing shapes outside of pinzu, but it does put her iishanten for tanyao. At the start of the second row, Takamiya also gets to iishanten while Katsumata is still struggling to advance. The first player to get to tenpai is Takamiya, who calls riichi on turn 8 with a 14m ryanmen.
To her left, Shibukawa has good progress as well. By turn 10, he is tenpai with a 69m ryanmen, only allowed to call ron on the 6m.
At the end of the second row, Mizuhara makes the 8p dora pair into a triplet to get to tenpai and calls riichi on a 25m ryanmen, guaranteed at least a mangan.
During the ippatsu round, Katsumata fills in his last ryanmen to get to tenpai. Having held the four 1m in his hand for a while, Katsumata calls a concealed kan and tries to win with the rinshan. Both the rinshan and the kandora miss, but Katsumata is still able to call riichi and wait on a 2m/east shanpon. On his very next draw, he gets the east and wins the hand. Katsumata wins with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tsumo/East/Dora 1 for 2,000/4,000 plus two riichi sticks, bringing him up to 2nd place.
Takaharu Top
February 2, Game 1, E1-0
In E1-0, Ooi is the starting dealer and starts out the hand 2-shanten with three completed sequences. With three floating tiles in his hand, he easily creates a ryanmen on turn 2 to get to iishanten. After a lot of waiting, Ooi gets to tenpai in the middle of the second row and calls riichi on a 36m ryanmen. As Ooi waits, Daisuke gets to tenpai on a 36m/6s shanpon. However, he ends up folding in the third row as he draws a dangerous 7m. On the second-last tile in the wall, Ooi draws the 3m and calls wins the hand. Ooi wins the hand with Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu/Iipeikou/Dora 1 for 4,000 all.
Monkey Magic
February 2, Game 2
In S1-0, Sarukawa is in 4th place, 1,300 behind 3rd place Taro, 8,700 behind 2nd place Ooi and 19,600 behind 1st place Honda. After Daisuke got 4th place the previous game and the team wanting a playoff spot, Sarukawa wants to win this game.
Sarukawa starts out the hand 2-shanten with a double south triplet. On turn 2, he fills in a kanchan and advances to iishanten, waiting on six different tiles for tenpai. On turn 3, he has a chance to take a 6p kanchan, but chooses instead to discard the 5p and look for a better wait. Two turns later, Sarukawa gets to an 8p kanchan tenpai and callls riichi. In the middle of the second row, Sarukawa draws the 8p and wins the hand. Sarukawa wins the hand with Riichi/Tsumo/Double South for 2,000/4,000, moving into 2nd place.
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p6044
In S2-0, Sarukawa is now the dealer and 7,600 behind 1st place Honda.
Sarukawa starts out the hand already iishanten and a 6m away from a 678 sanshoku and tanyao. On turn 3, he draws the 6m and stays dama on a 7p kanchan, guaranteed at least a mangan if he wins.
Though it is a nice wait with nice value, he lack control over the rest of the board. On turn 7, Sarukawa chooses to forgo the sanshoku guarantee and iipeikou and goes for a 58s/58p four-sided, calling riichi to scare the table. With the 8p already exhausted, only the 8s will give him sanshoku. Near the end of the row, Sarukawa draws the red 5s and wins the hand. Sarukawa wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Tanyao/Aka 1 for 4,000 all, sending him up to 1st place.
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p6045
In S2-1, Sarukawa starts out the hand 3-shanten with a connected red 5m and a floating dora 1s. In the first row, Sarukawa drew a lot of souzu, connecting the 1s and moving his hand towards ittsuu. On turn 6, Sarukawa gets to tenpai and stays dama on a 3s penchan, guarateed ittsuu and a mangan if he wins. Immediately after, Taro discards the 3s and, to the surprise of the whole table, deals into Sarukawa. Sarukawa wins the hand with Ittsuu/Dora 1/Aka 1 for 12,000+300.
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