Friday (October 25)

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Game 1

Yu Upgrade

October 25, Game 1, E1-2
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p5586

In E1-2, Yu is in a three-way time for 2nd place while Hisato (who is 14,800 ahead) is dominating the table with his dealership.

Yu starts out with a strong 2-shanten hand with two secured red fives and an easy path to tanyao. The first row fills in a kanchan for Yu and leaves him with a ryanmen and a pair to complete. If he can complete the pair, he will have mangan minimum.

To his left, Hori is calling to go for a quick open ittsuu. With a 789s already completed, he calls a 123s sequence and a 456s sequence to get to tenpai and waits on a west/9m shanpon.

In the middle of the second row, Yu fills in the ryanmen to get to tenpai and waits dama on a 2p tanki. With the tanki being an annoying wait, Yu gotta get an upgrade.

A turn later, Yu gets an upgrade and waits on a 36p ryanmen, guaranteed a mangan. He stays dama and gives himself the potential at a 345 sanshoku if he draws the 3m and 3p, or a 456 sanshoku.

At the end of the second row, Yu gets a 3m and is now within reach of a 345 sanshoku. All he needs is a 3p and he will get a haneman. On his very next draw, he gets the 3p and wins the hand. Yu wins with Tsumo/Pinfu/Tanyao/Sanshoku/Aka 2 for 3000+200/6,000+200, moving into 1st place.

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Hori Haneman

October 25, Game 1, E4-3
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p3084

In E4-3, Hori is in 4th place, 2,000 behind 3rd place Ooi and 15,800 behind 2nd place Hisato. The last hand went to a draw, so now there are two riichi sticks and three honba in the pot.

Hori starts out with a 2-shanten hand with the makings of a pinfu. Because of the closed nature of pinfu, Hori has to sit and wait. While he does, Ooi the dealer tries to rush the hand. After calling pon on the 9p and the red dragon, and calling a 789m chii, Ooi gets himself to iishanten.

Back with Hori, he has shifted to tanyao, picked up a red 5s and gotten to iishanten. If he draws the 5m, he can get get to tenpai and get pinfu again.

Sure enough, in the second row, Hori gets the 5m and calls riichi on a 47s ryanmen.

With Hori’s riichi, nobody is able to match him. Not even, Ooi, who is still stuck just drawing and discarding. On the second-last tile in the wall, Hori gets the 7s and wins the hand. Hori wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu/Tanyao/Aka 1/Ura 1 for 3,000+300/6,000+300 plus two riichi, moving him int 2nd place and just 3,600 from 1st.

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Flush

October 25, Game 1, S1-1

In S1-1, Yu is still in 1st place, but his lead has shrunk all the way down to just 600. Two riichi sticks and a honba are in the pot.

With Yu’s firs 14 tiles, he has pairs of 2s, 6s, 7s and 9s. With a single 3s in the mix as well, the hand is heavily pushing him towards a flush. In the first row, he able to call pon on the 9s, 7s and 2s to get to iishanten.

In the second row, Yu draws an 8s and a third 6s to get to tenpai on a 78s wait. If he gets the 8s, he will have a haneman.

Later in the second row, Yu draws a fourth 2s, but declines the kan. On his very next draw, he gets the 7s and wins the hand. Yu wins with Chinitsu for 2,000+100/4,000+100 plus one riichi stick.

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2 Han, 70 Fu

October 25, Game 1, S4-0

In S4-0, Ooi is the dealer and sitting 13,800 behind 3rd place Hisato. With a dealership and a bit of luck, Ooi can go where he wants to go.

Ooi starts out with a decent 2-shanten hand with a triplet of souths already secured. Early on, Ooi is able to build a 4s tripet and get to iishanten. At the end of the first row, Ooi fills in a 3m kanchan and calls riichi on a 7s penchan. A few turns later Ooi draws a fourth south. Though the rinshan and kandora miss, his hand’s han value greatly increases.

To his right, Hisato is has both good shapes and good value. After briefly going back a step to avoid ippatsu, he manages to build his way back. In the middle of the second row, Hisato gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a red dragon/5p shanpon.

To Hisato’s right, Hori has a pair of red dragons, green dragon a red 5m and two 7p. During the ippatsu round, he discards the safe 8s, leaving him with an isolated 7s. In the third row, he manages to get to iishanten, but the 7s is a ticking time bomb. Calling pon on the 7p in the middle of the third row, Hori discards the 7s trying to accept tenpai and deals into Ooi.

With Riichi/South, Ooi has 2 han.

For fu, he has

• Winning: 20 fu
• Closed ron: 10 fu
• Concealed quad of souths: 32 fu
• Concealed triplet of 4s: 4 fu
• Edge wait: 2 fu

for 68 fu, rounding up to 70 fu. With a 2/70 ron, Ooi wins 6,800 plus one riichi stick, making a bit of progress.

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Results

Game 47

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Game 2

Shibukawa Spike

October 25, Game 2, S1-2
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p3085

In S1-2, Shibukawa is the dealer in 2nd place, 3,600 behind 1st place Matsumoto. 1,600 in bonuses await the next winner.

Shibukawa starts off with a 4-shanten hand with a floating dora 8s. In the first row, Shibukawa pairs up the norths and starts to build sequences. As the sequences start to come together, the potential for a 345 sanshoku starts to emerge. After filling in a 4m kanchan at the end of the row, Shibukawa gets to iishanten and needs a 3p for the sanshoku.

In the second row, Matsumoto is the first player to make noise. With a pon on the green dragon, he is the first to tenpai and waits on a 5s kanchan. Soon after, he upgrades it to a 58s ryanmen.

Luckily for Shibukawa, he discarded the 8s before Matsumoto upgraded his wait. On Shibukawa’s next draw, he gets the ideal 3p and calls riichi on a 69m ryanmen, guaranteed at least a dealer mangan if he wins.

During the ippatsu round, Takizawa chases with a 58m ryanmen.

However, Takizawa’s riichi is merely a donation to Shibukawa. On Shibukawa’s ippatsu draw, he gets the 6m and wins the hand. Shibukawa wins with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tsumo/Pinfu/Sanshoku for 6,000+200 all plus two riichi sticks to move him to 46,400.

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Time To Go

October 25, Game 2, S1-3
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p5587

In S1-3, Kobayashi is in 3rd place, 6,000 behind 2nd place Matsumoto and 29,200 behind 1st place dealer Shibukawa.

Kobayashi’s starting hand is less than ideal, sitting 5-shanten for both the standard and pairs route. With mainly terminal and honour discards in the first row, Kobayashi gets himself only a tiny bit closer to 4-shanten.

In the second row, Kobayashi’s shapes start to improve, but he can’t quite match the speed of the others. Near the middle of the row, Shibukawa (who has a pair of 3m dora) is the first to tenpai and waits on a 7s penchan.

Near the end of the row Takizawa is the next to tenpai and waits with a 5p kanchan, ready with a full flush.

By this point, Kobayashi has already made some evasive maneuvers to avoid discarding pinzu. Forming a 234p sequence from scratch, he manages to get himself to iishanten. A turn later, he gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 25m ryanmen.

On Kobayashi’s ippatsu draw, he gets the 2m and wins the hand. Hitting the uradora, Kobayashi wins with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tsumo/Pinfu/Dora 1/Ura 1 for 3,000+300/6,000+300, a suprise big win to get him within a mangan tsumo of 1st place.

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Results

Game 48

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Intro | Standings