Game #2
EX Furinkazan
Kadokawa
Sakura Knights
Akasaka
Drivens
U-Next Pirates
Takame
May 6, Game 2, S1-0
In S1-0, Taro is in 4th place, 11,700 behind 3rd place Shibukawa and 17,400 behind 2nd place Rumi. Having lost 5 of his last 6 games, he and his team desperately need a win. The first step is to get points.
Taro’s starting hand is 3-shanten with a secured red 5m. The first row provides him with a souzu sequence and a ryanmen in manzu, putting him iishanten with a guaranteed good wait. On turn 7, he draws a 6p to give himself a chance to replace the 9p and add tanyao. Two draws later, Taro gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 14m ryanmen, needing the latter for tanyao. Near the end of the second row, he draws that 4m and wins the hand. Taro wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Tanyao/Aka 1 for 2,000/4,000. With the win, he is now just 5,400 from 2nd place and 10,500 from 1st place.
Koba Going
May 6, Game 2
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p5571
In S3-0, Kobayashi is in 1st place and just 1,600 ahead of 2nd place Rumi. With the EX Furinkazan being the U-Next Pirates’ current rivals, a big space between the two is crucial to gain an advantage.
Kobayashi starts out the hand by drawing the dora 1p, bringing him to 3-shanten. On turn 3, Kobayashi gets rid of the 1p dora to shift to tanyao. After securing a 58m ryanmen, making a 5s pair and filling in a 7p kanchan, Kobayashi gets to tenpai at the end of the first row and calls riichi on a 58m ryanmen. If he wins on the latter, he will also add a 678 sanshoku. During the ipaptsu round, Taro discards the 5m trying to accept iishanten and deals into Kobayashi. Kobayashi wins the hand with Riichi/Ippatsu/Pinfu/Tanyao for 8,000.
In S4-0, Kobayashi is the last dealer and starts out 4-shanten with two ryanmens. In the first row, fills in a ryanmen and makes another one to get to 2-shanten. If he can secure a pair, he will have a decent chance at pinfu. However, the 9p dora in his hand is something he doesn’t want to discard. In the second row, he breaks a ryanmen to make it into a pair, get to iishanten and be able to create an 8p kanchan. Filling in his last ryanmen, Kobayashi gets to tenpai on turn 10 and waits dama on a yakuless 8p kanchan. At the start of the third row, he draws a 6p and has a chance to switch to a 58p ryanmen. With a 9p dora tenpai being unlikely for his opponents and the chance for a 567 sanshoku, Kobayashi takes the risk and makes the switch. On his very next draw, he gets the 5p to complete the sanshoku and win the hand. Kobayashi wins with Tsumo/Pinfu/Sanshoku for 2,600 all.
Yakuman Tenpai!?!
May 6, Game 2, S4-1
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p3068
In S4-1, Shibukawa is in 3rd place, 8,700 behind 2nd place Rumi and 28,700 behind 1st place Kobayashi. Though a mangan tsumo or a haneman ron for 2nd place is nice, the dream of winning a yakuman and taking 1st place is even better.
From the start, Shibukawa is 5-shanten from a standard hand and chiitoi. With 8 different terminals and honours (including a pair of 1p), he is actually closer to kokushi at 4-shanten. Though his first two discards seem to move him towards a souzu honitsu, his green dragon draw on turn 3, pushes him towards thirteen orphans. On turn 5, he confirms his yakuman pursuit by cutting his 5s pair. On turn 8, he draws a west to put him 2-shanten, needing a 9m, 9p and south. At the end of the second row, he gets the 9p, putting him iishanten. Though three souths have been discarded, two 9m are are stuck in Kobayashi hand and one 9m is already discarded, there is still one of each left in the wall. All he needs is the one. Near the middle of the third row, Shibukawa draws the last south, putting him kokushi tenpai, waiting on the 9m. With no yakuman won so far this season, getting one in the finals to get a comeback would be big.
However, across the table, Kobayashi is simply looking to win the hand and extend his dealership. He had already called once and locked himself into waiting for the white dragon. In the middle of the third row, he draws the last white dragon to get himself to tenpai on a 47m ryanmen. Soon after, Taro discards the 7m and deals into Kobayashi. Kobayashi wins the hand with White Dragon/Aka 1 for 2,000+300 plus one riichi stick, continuing his dealership and keeping fans waiting for a yakuman to be won.
Furiten Attempt
May 6, Game 2, S4-5
In S4-5 (1 riichi stick in the pot), Taro is in 4th place, 12,400 behind 3rd place Shibukawa and 17,600 behind 2nd place Rumi. For 3rd place, Taro would need a 3/40 direct hit, a mangan tsumo or a haneman ron. If he sets his sights higher, he could get to 2nd place with a haneman direct hit on Rumi, a haneman tsumo or a baiman ron.
Taro starts out with a 3-shanten hand, but lacks any value whatsoever. Needing to look for value, he gets rid of his lone honours, hoping to draw red doras or form pinfu shapes. On turn 4, after creating a 345s sequence, Taro gets to iishanten, but is still searching for value. On turn 5, he draws 6s to makes a 34567s shape. A 3-sided wait would be good any other time, but it’s not enough when you need value. At the start of the second row, he draws a 5s and gets to tenpai on a 4m. With no yaku or value, he waits dama.
On his next turn, he draws a 4s to shift to a 456s sequence. This also lets him draw either the 3s or 6s and get an iipeikou. On his next draw, he gets the 4m.
Though his hand is complete, he doesn’t have enough value with just tsumo. To try to fish for value, he throws the 5m, wanting the dora 2m, the red 5m or either of the iipeikou upgrades.
On his very next draw, he gets the 3s to complete the iipeikou upgrade. He calls riichi and waits on a furiten 25m ryanmen. With only Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu/Iipeikou guaranteed, he would need two more han. To have decent assurances, at least one of them has to be either the 2m dora or the red 5m. The other can be ippatsu or uradora.
Though all eyes are on Taro and whether he is able to complete his hand, 3rd place Shibukawa is looking at 2nd place as well. Sitting at 2-shanten with a pair of doras, he has a chance. During the ipaptsu round, he draws a third 2m to get himself to iishanten. After a bit of dodging and waiting, Shibukawa finally gets to tenpai with three tiles left in the wall. With Taro helpless and Shibukawa holding no yaku, he chooses to call riichi on a 2p/4m shanpon.
On Taro’s last draw, he gets the 1m. With Kobayashi and Rumi able to safely discard, the hand ends in a draw with only the two riichi players tenpai. With the dealer noten, the game ends and 1st place Kobayashi gets to collect the leftover riichi sticks.
Final Scores
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s60_p248
Twitter: https://twitter.com/m_league_jikkyo/status/1787478614201831700
Standings
With Kobayashi’s win, the U-Next Pirates return back to 1st place, holding a bigger lead than what they started with. With Taro getting 4th (his 6th in his last 7 games), the Akasaka Drivens fall further into the negatives.
And that’s all for the first day of the finals! The U-Next Pirates have added to their lead, but the finals are still young. There are seven more game days to go and all the teams still have a chance to win it all. What awaits us in these next two weeks? As always, we’ll just have to wait and see!
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