Game #9
U-Next Pirates
EX Furinkazan
Akasaka
Drivens
Kadokawa
Sakura Knights
Starting Dealer
May 13, Game 1, E1-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p5574
In E1-0, Mizuhara is playing for the U-Next Pirates and is the starting dealer.
Mizuhara starts out with a strong 2-shanten hand, holding a triplet of 2m and a triplet of 5s (including the red 5s). Creating a pair of 4s on turn 3, Mizuhara is iishanten and left with a 6m kanchan and a 8p kanchan. On turn 5, she draws the 6m and calls riichi on a 7p kanchan. On her very next draw, she gets the 7p and wins the hand. Mizuhara wins with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tsumo/Aka 1 for 4,000 all.
Shaa Jigoku Tanki
May 13, Game 1, E2-0
In E2-0, Mizuhara continues to hold the lead, sitting 6,700 ahead of 2nd place Sonoda.
Mizuhara starts out with a messy chiitoi 3-shanten hand (5-shanten for a standard hand), but she does have a lone 9p that could eventually be a pair. In the first row, Mizuhara discards her middle tiles to go for chiitoi. Only able to draw a pair of green dragons by turn 6, her chiitoi pursuit is going slower than average. On turn 7, she pairs up the 9m taking her to iishanten. As she looks for her sixth pair, 2nd place Sonoda makes some calls of his own, trying to win the hand and lift the team up. After two calls, Sonoda gets to tenpai and waits on a 47m ryanmen.
On Mizuhara’s draw, she gets the 9p dora. With her sixth pair set, she stays dama and waits on the west. On Uchikawa’s turn, he draws the west. With two already out on the table, the only way that the west would deal in is with a tanki or thirteen orphans. Flashbacks of that one suuankou tanki go through fans’ heads. With the west wait being unlikely, Uchikawa takes no time to discard it and deals into Mizuhara. Mizuhara wins the hand with Chiitoi/Dora 2 for 6,400, taking her above 40,000.
Ura Ura
May 13, Game 1, S1-0
In S1-0, Uchikawa is in 3rd place, 7,600 behind 2nd place Sonoda. He made it out of 4th two hands ago and it’s time for the next step.
Uchikawa starts out 3-shanten with a pair of green dragons. Very quickly, Uchikawa creates some good shapes, but the green dragons remain a pair. On turn 4, Uchikawa gets to iishanten. A turn later, he gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 369p wait. If he wins on the 3p, he would add iipeikou.
To his left is Sonoda, already with a terminal chii and a south pon. During the ippatsu round, he finds a pair of wests, throws the 2p dora and waits on a 7m penchan.
At the start of the second row, Uchikawa draws the 6p and wins the hand. Flipping the uradora, Uchikawa’s two 4p become dora and upgrades his hand to a mangan. Uchikawa wins the hand with Riichi/Tsumo/Ura 2 for 2,000/4,000, moving into 2nd place.
Dangers of Opening
May 13, Game 1, S4-0
In S4-0, Aki is in 4th place, Sonoda is in 3rd place and Uchikawa is the dealer in 2nd place. The space between Aki and Sonoda is 11,800, while the space between Sonoda and Uchikawa is just 2,400. For Sonoda to finish with a positive score, he needs a 1/40 direct hit, a 2/30 tsumo or a 2/40 ron.
From the start, Uchikawa is 2-shanten for chiitoi (3-shanten for a standard hand) with a pair of red dragons, Aki is 3-shanten and Sonoda is 4-shanten. In the first row, Uchikawa is desperate for a fast hand and calls pon on both the 9m and south. With a pon on the 5p at the end of the first row, Uchikawa is first to tenpai and waits on a 14s ryanmen.
By this point, Aki is 2-shanten and Sonoda is 3-shanten. After pairing up the 4m and then a 7s dora kanchan, Aki is the next to tenpai and and calls riichi on a 69p ryanmen. In order for her to go up in rank, she needs to draw it herself and find two more han, a difficult ask with a pinfu hand.
With the riichi by Aki, Sonoda starts to fold by getting rid of his green dragon triplet. During the ippatsu round, Uchikawa draws the fourth 9m. After a bit of thinking, he chooses to call an added kan. On his rinshan draw, he tragically draws the dora 7s. With the dora being too dangerous, especially since the 6s was the riichi tile, Uchikawa breaks tenpai by discarding his 3m pair. Even as both Sonoda and Uchikawa partly fold, they both maintain iishanten. In Uchikawa’s third row, he gets back to tenpai, discards the south and waits on a 7s tanki.
With a pon of the south, Sonoda gets to tenpai as well and waits on a 69s ryanmen. Holding a red 5m and the 7s dora, he already has enough value if he wins.
On Uchikawa’s draw, he gets the 6s. With Sonoda so close, folding and letting it go to a draw will put him in 3rd. If Aki wins with a haneman tsumo or greater. he would fall into last. With the 6s being safe against Aki and never wanting to discard the 7s dora, Uchikawa discards the 6s and deals into Sonoda.
Sonoda wins the hand with South/Dora 1/Aka 1 for 3,900 plus one riichi stick, finishing in 2nd place.
Final Scores
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s60_p255
Twitter: https://twitter.com/m_league_jikkyo/status/1789984843390243281
Standings
With Mizuhara getting 1st, Uchikawa getting 3rd and Aki getting 4th, the U-Next Pirates’ lead is maximized and grows even larger. They now have a 155.5pts lead over the 2nd place EX Furinkazan. With Sonoda sneaking into 2nd, the Akasaka Drivens are now getting a bit loser, just 109.1pts away from the 3rd place Kadokawa Sakura Knights.
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