Thursday (October 24)

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Game 1

Ippatsu

October 24, Game 1, S1-1

In S1-1, Aki is in 2nd place and 7,100 behind 1st place Kurosawa.

Aki starts out with a cool 2-shanten hand with a secured dora 8m and four 1s. On turn 3, she chooses to call a concealed kan to try and speed up her hand. The rinshan builds her a 35p block and gets her to iishanten. On her very next draw, she gets to tenpai and calls riichi on the 4p kanchan.

On her ippatsu turn, she manages to get one of the two 4p left in the wall and wins the hand. Aki wins with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tsumo/Dora 1 for 2,000+100/4,000+100 plus one riichi stick, taking the lead.

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Red Wins

October 24, Game 1, S2-0

In S2-0, Aki is in 1st place, but only 4,300 ahead of 2nd place dealer Kurosawa.

Aki starts out with a 4-shanten hand with two penchans, not the best hand to try to end a dealership. In the first row, Aki exclusively discards terminals and honours, including the isolated 1s dora. By the end of the row, she is 2-shanten and has the option to switch the 3p penchan for a 2p pair.

In the second row, she starts to break her other hanchan and makes the 2p pair into a triplet. By her 12th turn, 11 of her discards are either terminals or honours. However, tanyao is now much more likely in her 2-shanten hand.

As Aki continues to patiently wait, Sarukawa calls pon on the south and gets to tenpai on a 25s ryanmen.

Right after, Kurosawa gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 58p ryanmen.

During the ippatsu round, Aki gets to iishanten and pushes. For Sarukawa, he folds initially, but then gets back to tenpai on a furiten 8p tanki wait.

On Aki’s next turn, she is finally tenpai and stays dama on a 58p ryanmen. If Genta or Sarukawa discards the 5p, Kurosawa would headbump Aki. The same thing would happen if Genta discards the 8p (with Sarukawa unable to call ron since he is in furiten).

On Aki’s very next draw, she gets the red 5p and wins the hand. Aki wins with Tsumo/Tanyao/Aka 1 for 1,000/2,000 plus one riichi stick.

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Results

Game 45

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Game 2

Daigo Dealer Double East

October 24, Game 2, E3-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p4574

In E3-0, Daigo is the dealer in 3rd place, 9,000 behind 2nd place Honda and 11,600 behind 1st place Matsugase.

In Daigo’s starting hand, he has a pair of double easts, a connected dora 5p and a secured red 5s. Sitting at 3-shanten, he just needs a few good calls to quickly get to tenpai. After securing the 5p dora on turn 2, he calls pon on the easts on turn 3 and gets to iishanten. With a 123m chii before the end of the row, he gets to tenpai and waits on a 36p ryanmen.

In the middle of the second row, Daigo draws the 3p and wins the hand. Daigo wins with Double East/Dora 1/Aka 1 for 4,000 all, moving from 3rd to 1st.

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Haitei High

October 24, Game 2, E3-1

In E3-1, Daigo is still the dealer and hopes to widen his 4,400 lead over 2nd place Matsugase.

Daigo starts out with a promising starting hand at 3-shanten and a red 5p double dora already secured. Building sequences and ryanmens, Daigo gets himself to a spiffy iishanten. If he wants to open his hand, he will need to build around the floating 4m and get rid of his 13p block.

In the middle of the second row, Daigo draws another 4m and shifts to tanyao. With a pon of the 4m at the end of the row, Daigo get to tenpai and waits on a 25s ryanmen.

A few turns later, Daisuke (who has two dora 5p and the red 5s) makes a call to get to an 8m tanki, ready for mangan.

In the third row, Matsugase is the third to tenpai and waits on a 47p ryanmen (though none are left in the wall).

With a 2s draw, Daisuke switches his wait to a 25s ryanmen, the same as Daigo. Though, if either Honda or Matsugase discard the wait, Daigo will headbump Daisuke.

Rounding it out, Honda gets to a yakuless furiten tenpai with only a handful of tiles left in the wall, waiting on a 7m kanchan.

As the wall winds down, it looks like nobody will get paid (since everyone is in tenpai). Then, on the very last tile in the wall, Daigo draws the 2s and wins the hand! Daigo wins with Haitei/Tanyao/Dora 1/Aka 1 for 4,000+100 all.

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Big Bonus

October 24, Game 2, E4-6

In E4-6, people are waiting for a win after the past four hands all went to a draw. As a consequence of these draws, there are now three riichi sticks and six honba in the pot. The next player to win will be guaranteed a bonus of 4,800.

Sitting in 3rd place Matsugase, 400 away from 2nd place Honda and 26,800 behind 1st place Daigo.

Matsugase starting hand is quite good at 2-shanten, holding a 25p ryanmen and a flexible 3456m shape. In the first row, Matsugase makes a 58s ryanmen to guarantee pinfu however he gets to tenpai. A turn later, he builds off the manzu shape and replaces the 25p ryanmen for a 147m three-sided wait. Two turns after that, Matsugase draws the 7m and calls riichi on a 58s ryanmen.

On Matsugase’s ippatsu draw, he gets the 8s and wins the hand. Matsugase wins with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tsumo/Pinfu for 1,300+600/2,600+600 plus three riichi sticks, boosting his score by exactly 10,000.

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Daigo Non-Dealer Double South

October 24, Game 2, S2-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p4575

In S2-0, Daigo has a 20,100 lead over 2nd place Matsugase and just wants to move the game along.

Daigo’s starting hand is 4-shanten with a red 5m and looks like tanyao, but nothing is quite secured yet. Early on, Daisuke is making calls left and right, calling pon on both the west and the green dragon. For Daigo, he knows that he will have to speed up, but he doesn’t quite have the shapes. Near the middle of the first row, he pairs up the double souths, but one is already discarded. Still, it gives him flexibility. By the end of the first row, he is 2-shanten with the double south pair and two red fives.

In the second row, Daisuke continues his path of aggression. With a third call, he gets to iishanten. Soon after he gets to tenpai on a 1m tanki, later switching to a furiten south tanki waiting with honitsu.

By this points, Daigo is still at iishanten and the south still remains a pair. In the middle of his second row, he calls a 456m chii and waits with an 8m/south shanpon, only allowed to win off the south.

Late in the third row, Daisuke draws the dora 5p. Not wanting to discard the live dora, Daisuke discards the south and ends up dealing into Daigo. Daigo wins the hand with Double South/Aka 2 for 8,000, bringing Daigo above 50,000.

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In The Name Of Fairness

October 24, Game 2, S4-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s70_p2179

In S4-0, Daisuke is the dealer in 4th place, 5,900 behind 3rd place Honda.

Daisuke hand looks quite good with a secured red 5s and is 2-shanten for both seven pairs and a standard hand. Despite the good starting hand, he is unable to make any progress in the first row. Adding more pressure to him, Honda gets to tenpai on turn 8 and calls riichi on a 14p ryanmen.

Since Daisuke doesn’t have a choice, he carefully pushes. During the ippatsu round, he gets to iishanten and is guaranteed a good wait when he gets there. In the middle of the third row (after drawing a triplet of 4p), Daisuke gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 69s ryanmen. With the 6s, he will add tanyao to the hand as well.

As the hand looks like it’s going to a draw, Honda draws and discards the 6s…

…but Daisuke does not call ron. Hiyoshi and Ishibashi in the commentary booth were both bewildered by the situation, confused why Daisuke didn’t call ron and claim his 7,700 minimum hit off his biggest rival.

The hand ended up going to a draw with Honda and Daisuke tenpai.

In the post-game interview, he revealed the reasoning. Two turns before he called riichi, he had accidentally knocked down the 6s from the wall (which would have been one of his future draws if not for a chii by Daigo). Since it would seem unfair for him to call riichi and win on a tile he knew was coming, he decided it was only fair to decline the ron from Honda.

A similar scenario happened on May 18, 2023 when Setokuma accidentally revealed a tile from his wall and then declined a tsumo because of it.

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Results

Game 46

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