Game #10
Akasaka
Drivens
Kadokawa
Sakura Knights
U-Next Pirates
EX Furinkazan
Dealership
May 13, Game 2, E3-0
In E3-0, Yu is the dealer in 2nd place, 4,800 behind 1st place Hori. He won the previous hand with a direct hit on Hori, but he needs more.
Yu starts out 3-shanten with a triplet of 6s and pairs of 4p and 6p. In his first few turns, he makes a 36m ryanmen, a pair of 8s and picks up an 8p dora. By turn 6, he has an iishanten hand that is guaranteed to have tanyao. On turn 8, Yu gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 36m ryanmen. After missing and missing, it seems like the winning tile would never come, even though there are still three 6m left. Then, on Yu’s second-last draw, he gets the 6m and wins the hand. Yu wins the hand with Riichi/Tsumo/Tanyao/Dora 1 for 4,000 all, sliding into 1st place.
Benefits of Opening
May 13, Game 2, E3-1
In E3-1, Futoshi is in 4th place, just 2,000 behind 3rd place Rumi and 9,400 behind 2nd place Hori.
With Futoshi’s starting hand, he is 3-shanten for both a standard hand and chiitoi. Also in his hand is a pair of 9m dora, giving him some good value. On his second turn, he pairs up the west to give him a potential yakuhai. Calling pon on it immediately after, he secures it and gets to 2-shanten. As Yu discards the 9m to get him to iishanten, Futoshi calls pon to get himself to iishanten. While Futoshi waits, Rumi is wanting to get herself out of a bad position as well. In the second row, Rumi is the first to tenpai and calls riichi on a 69p ryanmen.
With Rumi’s discarded 2s, Futoshi calls chii and gets to tenpai on a 9p/6m shanpon. In the case of a headbump, Rumi would be the winner. On his very next draw, he gets the 9p and wins the hand. Futoshi wins the hand with Green Dragon/Dora 3 for 2,000+100/4,000+100 plus one riichi stick.
Boldness Against Yakuman
May 13, Game 2, E4-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p5575
In E4-0, both 2nd place Futoshi and 3rd place Hori want to catch up to 1st place Yu, sitting 7,200 and 9,200 behind him, respectively.
With the starting hands, the one that pops out the most is Hori’s, holding pairs of green dragon and red dragon, as well as a single white dragon. If Hori can make it into a daisangen, he would flip the standings in an instant. The person doing colour commentary is Asakura Koushin, the person who won a daisangen in the finals back in the 2019-20 season.
In the first row, Hori is able to call pon on the green dragon and build his supporting shapes. Near the end of the row, he pairs up the white dragon. With his dragons ripe for calling, the daisangen dream is real. At the start of the second row, Yu draws and discards the white dragon, letting Hori call pon and get to iishanten. All he needs is to make a red dragon triplet and he will be ready for a yakuman.
However, he does have competition on both sides. Both Futoshi and Yu are iishanten. On Futoshi’s draw, he makes a 1s triplet and gets to tenpai. He has no yaku and holds a good 36m ryanmen wait. It would normally be a textbook riichi, but there is a yakuman chance on the table. However, even with this yakuman chance, the Akasaka Drivens are in 4th place in the standings. The team needs points if they want a shot at the championship. 2nd or 3rd in the standings is nice, but the real goal is the plate and the 50 million yen. With all this in mind, Futoshi takes the big risk, throws the 6p and calls riichi on a 36m ryanmen, waiting with just riichi.
With the discarded 6p, Hori calls chii to get him to tenpai on a 36m ryanmen. It’s not a yakuman, but he does have shousangen and the ability to upgrade later on.
On Yu’s turn, he pairs up the 7m dora and has a chance to be tenpai on a 25s ryanmen. Two clues may indicate that it is safe to push the hand.
- Futoshi calling riichi with the two visible dragon calls may indicate that he has enough information to know that he won’t deal into a yakuman. This could be a pair or triplet of red dragons in his hand, or Futoshi could be waiting on a red dragon tanki, making it impossible for Futoshi to deal into a yakuman. (This one ends up being false)
- The chii by Hori reveals three sets. If Hori were to already have a triplet in his hand, he would be waiting on a bad wait tanki. If he has a shanpon with a red dragon pair, it would be similarly bad.
With the good wait and the clues given, Yu pushes the hand and calls a chasing riichi on a 25s ryanmen.
During the ippatsu round, Rumi calls a chii to get to iishanten and discards the 2s, a tile safe against Futoshi’s riichi, and deals into Yu. With the uradora flip, the 7m is now double dora and his hand is now a mangan. Yu wins the hand with Riichi/Dora 2/Ura 2 for 8,000 plus one riichi stick, ending the potential for yakuman this hand.
Takame
May 13, Game 2, S1-0
In S1-0, Futoshi is in 2nd place, still chasing 1st place Yu who is 17,200 ahead of him. This time, Futoshi is the dealer.
With Futoshi’s starting hand, he is already iishanten with a 5m triplet (including the red 5m), a 234p sequence and a 789p sequence. He has a chance at a 3s penchan on turn 2, but he passes it up, wanting to utilize the red 5s and potentially connect it with a 4s dora. On turn 5, he draws a 6p, giving him the future potential of a pinzu ittsuu. On turn 7, he draws the 5p and calls riichi on a 147p three-sided wait. Winning on the 1p is the only way he will get ittsuu. In the middle of the second row, Rumi discards the 1p trying to pursue both junchan and sanshoku and deals into Futoshi. Futoshi wins the hand with Riichi/Ittsuu/Aka 1 for 12,000, moving closer to Yu and pushing Rumi into the negatives.
Headbump
May 13, Game 2, S1-1
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p5576
In S1-1, Yu is in 1st place, just 5,200 ahead of dealer Futoshi. Both players are aggressively going for 1st.
Futoshi starts out with a chiitoi 2-shanten hand (3-shanten for a standard hand) with a pair of easts and a loosely connected red 5p. Yu, on the other hand, is 5-shanten for chiitoi, 6-shanten for a standard hand. Between them is Hori at 3-shanten with a pair of red dragons and a bunch of pinzu. The first row gets Futoshi to a standard 2-shanten, Hori closer to a pinzu honitsu and Yu to 3-shanten with a pair of west doras. In the second row, Futoshi calls pon on the east and is the first to tenpai, waiting on a 25s ryanmen.
Two turns later, Hori’s honitsu is now tenpai and he calls riichi on a 369p wait for mangan minimum. If he wins on either the 3p or the 6p, he will add iipeikou to his hand.
During the ippatsu round, Yu also gets to tenpai. Holding a triplet of west yakuhai in his hand and a red 5m, he is guaranteed to have at least a mangan if he pursues it. He takes it and waits dama on a 58s ryanmen.
With both Futoshi and Yu waiting on the 5s, there is a chance at headbump. If Hori discards it, Yu will win. If Rumi discards it, Futoshi will win. On Hori’s ippatsu draw, he draws the red 5s.
At the same time, both Futoshi and Yu call ron. However, only Yu has the rights to win. Yu wins the hand with West/Dora 3/Aka 2 for 12,000 plus one riichi stick, foiling Futoshi’s hopes of an immediate comeback.
Atozuke
May 13, Game 2, S4-1
In S4-1, Yu is in 1st place and 4,500 ahead of the relentless Futoshi. Time to end the game once and for all.
Yu initial hand is a disappointing start, 4-shanten with no path to a yaku. After getting rid of his non-yakuhai tiles honours and terminals, his hand is in better shape, but is still not at a callable state. He could pursue a 345 or 456 sanshoku, but he is still four tiles away from it. After converting his 1235p shape into a 112345p shape, Yu is suddenly 2-shanten with the ability to go for a 345 sanshoku. All he needs is a 3s and 3m. On turn 8, he draws the 3s, taking him to iishanten. A turn later, he calls pon on the 1p and waits on a 36m ryanmen, only allowed to win on the 3m.
To an outsider, a terminal pon is extremely odd considering all the yakuhai are gone. The hand could be a chinitsu, but any perfect flush is difficult. Near the end of the second row, Hori draw the 3m. After taking some time to decide between the 3m and 6m, Hori discards the 3m and deals into Yu. Yu wins the hand with just Sanshoku for 1,000+300 plus the leftover riichi stick, completing the U-Next Pirates daily double.
Final Scores
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s60_p256
Twitter: https://twitter.com/m_league_jikkyo/status/1790013159941824714
Standings
With another 1st place for Suzuki Yu and the U-Next Pirates, along with the 3rd by Hori and 4th by Rumi, the lead has gotten even bigger, now 296.7pts ahead of the EX Furinkazan. The Akasaka Drivens should not be forgotten. With Futoshi’s big 2nd place today (the largest 2nd place ever in an M-League Finals game) takes the team to just 47.5pts away from the 3rd place Kadokawa Sakura Knights.
And that’s all for today. The U-Next Pirates have made quite the impression and their lead has drastically increased. But, the finals are not over. In the 2020-21 season, the EX Furinkazan won over 211.3pts in just two days to go from 3rd to winning the whole thing. Can the EX Furinkazan do it again? Can the Kadokawa Sakura Knights make their mark? How far will the Akasaka Drivens go? As always, we’ll just have to wait and see!
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