Game #8
Akasaka
Drivens
U-Next Pirates
Kadokawa
Sakura Knights
EX Furinkazan
Going
May 10, Game 2, E1-1
In E1-1, Kobayashi is playing for the U-Next Pirates and trying to recover some of the points lost by Yu the previous game.
Kobayashi starts out with a 3-shanten hand with a floating white dragon and a two tiles away from a souzu ittsuu (5s and 6s). After pairing up the 9m on turn 2, Kobayashi draws the 6s on turn 4 to get to iishanten. On his next draw, he gets the 5s and calls riichi on a 58p ryanmen, guaranteed at leas a mangan. In the middle of the second row, he gets the 8p and wins the hand. Kobayashi wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu/Ittsuu for 2,000+100/4,000+100 and gets the early lead.
Chun
May 10, Game 2, E2-1
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p2576
In E2-1, Aki is in 4th place, 22,200 behind 1st place dealer Kobayashi and 3,900 behind the 2nd place tie. With the finals approaching the halfway point, Aki wants to make sure that the U-Next Pirates don’t run away with it.
Aki starts out with a decent 3-shanten hand with a floating red dragon. From the very start, she gets rid of an overlapping penchan to get a better wait or even utilize the red dragon. During the first go-around, Futoshi makes an instant closed kan of west to make the 2m the new dora. On turn 2, Aki manages to pair up the red dragon. Through the rest of her first row, she pairs up the 2p, makes a triplet of 9p and holds a 47m ryanmen, putting her iishanten. In the middle of the second row, Aki draws the 7m and calls riichi on a red dragon/2p shanpon.
Two turns later, Futoshi gets to tenpai and calls a chasing riichi on a 7m kanchan.
On Aki’s draw, without giving Futoshi another turn, she draws the red dragon and wins the hand. Aki wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Red Dragon/Dora 3/Ura 1 for 3,000+100/6,000+100 plus one riichi stick, mvoing her into 2nd.
Going
May 10, Game 2, E4-0
In E4-0, Kobayashi is in 1st place and holding a very slim 300 lead over 2nd place dealer Aki.
Starting out with a 3-shanten hand with two red fives and the ability to accept the dora 8p, Kobayashi’s hand has promising value. On turn 2, Kobayashi draws the dora 8p to get to 2-shanten. The rest of the first row is a bust, and the start of the second row gave him an extra 8p that he just throws out. On turn 9, he finally makes some progress and advances to iishanten, having a very good chance at tanyao. With a chii a turn later, Kobayashi gets to tenpai on a 36m ryanmen for mangan minimum. In the middle of the third row, Hori discards the 3m and deals into Kobayashi. Kobayashi wins the hand with Tanyao/Dora 1/Aka 2 for 8,000, pushing Hori into 4th place.
Chinitsu
May 10, Game 2, S1-1
In S1-1, Aki is in 2nd place and 8,300 behind 1st place Kobayashi. With the honba, a mangan ron would be tied for top, a mangan tsumo would be sole 1st.
Being 5-shanten from the start, it will be hard for Aki to get to tenpai. however, holding seven pinzu tiles and three honours, a flush hand is possible for value. In the first row, she ups the pinzu count to nine and confirms her flush pursuits by getting rid of her souzu penchan. In the second row, she calls pon on the 4p and gets rid of the floating 7m dora. Drawing a 7p a turn later, she gets to chinitsu iishanten. In the middle of the row, Futoshi to her right is the first to tenpai and waits on a 58p ryanmen.
Near the end of the row, Aki gets to tenpai and waits on a 5p/8p shanpon. With Aki being immediately before Futoshi in turn order, she would win on a headbump. However, Aki’s obvious chinitsu will scare away any player wanting to push them. Instead, the two of them will have to wait and see who will draw one of the last two 5p. With less than a dozen tiles left in the wall, Aki draws the 5p and wins he hand. Aki wins with just Chinitsu for 2,000+100/4,000 taking the lead.
Out Of 4th
May 10, Game 2, S2-0
In S2-0, Hori is in 4th place and 10,500 behind 3rd place Futoshi. With Shibukawa already getting a 4th, Hori doesn’t want to get one and erase all the hard work the team has done thus far.
With a triplet of 6s and a pair of 1p dora in Hori’s starting hand, he has good value. However, he is still 4-shanten and almost forced to just wait for his tiles. The first row is kind to him and by the end of the row, he is already iishanten with a ryanmen in hand. On turn 8, he fills in that ryanmen and calls riichi on an 8p kanchan.
Looking around the table, the likeliest culprit to stifle his comeback is dealer Kobayashi, sitting iishanten and just a few points away from 1st place. At the end of the second row, Kobayashi draws the 8p and calls a chasing riichi on a 69s ryanmen, guaranteed at least 7,700 if he wins.
Even though Hori has a slightly lower chance (2 tiles vs. 3 tiles), all that matters is who wins. In the middle of the third row, Hori gets the 8p and wins the hand. Hori wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Dora 2 for 2,000/4,000 plus one riichi stick, moving him up to 3rd place.
Standings Shift
May 10, Game 2, S3-0
In S3-0, Futoshi is in 4th place after just being passed by Hori. However, he is only just 500 behind.
In Futoshi’s starting hand, he has all four of the 5m and sits 4-shanten. Since the 5m can connect to other surrounding tiles, he chooses not to call kan yet. After pairing up a 6p and filling in a 5s kanchan, he decides it is time to call kan and see if he can get to tenpai or find additional value. With the kandora, the secured 3p in his hand becomes dora. As Futoshi waits patiently to get to tenpai, Aki gets to tenpai at the start of the second row and calls riichi on a 69s ryanmen. Holding a pair of 8m dora, she has an opportunity to widen her lead as 1st place.
During the ippatsu round, Futoshi draws the perfect tile to create a 3-sided wait. Calling riichi, he waits on a 147s sanmenchan. During the ippatsu round, Aki draws and discards the 1s and deals into Futoshi. Futoshi wins the hand with Riichi/Ippatsu/Dora 1/Aka 1 for 8,000, pushing Aki into 2nd place.
Quick
May 10, Game 2, S4-0
In S4-0, Aki is the final dealer and looking to return to 1st place after being brought down by Futoshi.
With her first 14 tiles, she is already iishanten, looking for a south, 5m, 8m or 4s to get to tenpai. On her very next draw, she gets the 5m and calls riichi on a south/4s shanpon. With a south in both Hori and Futoshi’s hand, any pushes by them will mean a deal-in. With Futoshi holding good shapes and being within a mangan of 2nd place, Futoshi just pushes. On turn 5, he tosses the south to accept the red 5m and deals into Aki. Aki wins the hand with Riichi/South/Ura 1 for 7,700, moving back into 1st place.
Gone
May 4, Game 2, S4-1
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p2577
In S4-1, Aki is the dealer in 1st place, just 3,800 ahead of 2nd place Kobayashi. For Kobayashi to finish the game in 1st, he needs a 2/30 direct hit, a 2/40 tsumo or a 3/30 ron.
Both Aki and Kobayashi start out with good hands. Aki is 2-shanten with three completed groups while Kobayashi has three pairs and a triplet of 6s (putting him chiitoi 2-shanten). Though Kobayashi’s shapes are good, he still needs value. A chiitoi ron isn’t enough and neither is a simple toitoi. For most of his options, only tsumo or a direct hit would give him value. On turn 3, Kobayashi breaks the 6s triplet to make a 66778s. Since two of the 9m were already discarded, he decided that going for toitoi would be difficult if he can’t make his 9m pair into a triplet.
On turn 6, Kobayashi gets to tenpai. His value is lacking just a bit, but there is a chance with uradora. Winning on the 8s would give iipeikou, but he would still need uradora if he wins by ron. The same would apply for the red 5s. However, any tsumo would be enough. With the good wait, Kobayashi decides to take the risk and calls riichi. Three of each still remain in the wall.
With Kobayashi’s riichi, Aki could let this hand go to a draw and she would finish in 1st place. Though, since she is already iishanten with good waits, she might as well try and get to tenpai. Near the end of the second row, Aki has a chance to be tenpai. The wait is a decent 25p ryanmen (with three 2p visible), but she has no yaku. If she wants to win by ron, she will have to riichi. With the team in in 3rd place overall, she decides to go for more points and calls riichi.
Her bravery is rewarded as Kobayashi ends up drawing and dropping the 5p immediately after and deals into Aki. For hitting the Pirate, Aki is rewarded with hidden treasure as the uradora makes the three 4s in her hand into dora, upgrading her hand to a dealer haneman. Aki wins the hand with Riichi/Ippatsu/Aka 1/Ura 3 for 18,000 plus one riichi stick, putting Aki above 55,000 and pushing Kobayashi down to 14,700, just 1,000 away from 4th place.
Fight For 2nd
May 4, Game 2, S4-2
In S4-2, the scores between 2nd place Kobayashi, 3rd place Futoshi and 4th place Hori are very close. With just 1,000 separating 2nd and 4th, the next of the three to win will finish in 2nd. The one who deals in will finish in 4th.
Futoshi starts out with a 3-shanten hand that can be forced as tanyao, Kobayashi pairs up the green dragon to be 3-shanten. With Kobayashi’s south discard, Hori calls pon on the south as his first action, moving him to 3-shanten. On turn 2, Kobayashi pairs up the white dragon, though the other two are stuck in Aki’s hand. On turn 3, Kobayashi draws a third green dragon to get to 2-shanten and Hori draws the red 5m to shift his kanchan to a ryanmen. The next turn, both players make a call to get to iishanten. With one more call, Kobayashi is the first to tenpai and waits on a 2p kanchan.
Immediately after Hori draws himself to tenpai and waits on an 8p kanchan. On Futoshi’s draw, he draws the 8p. Having already discarded the 9p and holding a good iishanten, Futoshi discards the 8p and deals into Hori. Hori wins the hand with South/Aka 1 for 2,000+600, finishing the game in 2nd place.
Final Scores
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s60_p254
Twitter: https://twitter.com/m_league_jikkyo/status/1788930110520967203
Standings
The big risk by Aki was greatly rewarded with a big 1st place and pushing Kobayashi into 3rd place. With a more than 100.0pts swing in a single game, the EX Furinkazan now trail the U-Next Pirates by just 41.3pts. The unfortunate 4th place for Futoshi means that the team falls back down into the negatives.
And that’s all for today! In the blink of an eye, the finals are halfway finished! In just a week, our new champions will be crowned. Can the EX Furinkazan continue to close the gap? Can the Kadokawa Sakura Knights recover their recent losses? Can the Aksaka Drivens go into the positive and beyond? As always, we’ll just have to wait and see!
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