Thursday (March 20)

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Game 1

Ippatsu

March 20, Game 1, E2-1

In E2-1, Futoshi is tied for 3rd place and 3,000 behind the 1st place tie.

Futoshi starts out the hand at 3-shanten with a connected dora 5p and two ryanmens. In his first three turns, he fills in a 4s kanchan and shifts towards tanyao. On turn 5, he completes 456p sequence to get to iishanten. At th end of the row, Futoshi gets to tenpai and calls riichi on an 8p/8s shanpon.

Immediately after, Shibukawa discards the 8s and deals into Futoshi. Futoshi wins the hand with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tanyao/Dora 1 for 12,000+300.

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Ura Upgrade

March 20, Game 1, S1-0

In S1-0, Shiratori is in 2nd place and 7,800 behind 1st place Futoshi.

Shiratori starts out the hand at 3-shanten with a secured dora 7m. Quickly, Shiratori makes pairs of both the 2s and the 6s to get to iishanten. On turn 5, he breaks his 2s pair and makes a ryanmen, confirming pinfu.

On turn 8, Shiratori is the first to tenpai and calls riichi on a 14m ryanmen.

Within the go-around, Futoshi gets to tenpai as well and waits on a 58s nobetan, guaranteed a mangan if he wins.

Though both players have a two-sided wait, Shiratori has more winning tiles in the wall. Around the end of the second row, Futoshi draws and discards the 4m and deals into Shiratori. Getting an uradora, Shiratori wins with Riichi/Pinfu/Dora 1/Ura 1 for an 8,000 mangan, moving up to 1st place.

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Aka Aka Ura

March 20, Game 1, S2-0

In S2-0, Futoshi is in 2nd place and 8,200 behind 1st place after dealing into Shiratori the previous hand.

WIth Futoshi’s first draw, he gets to 2-shanten with two red fives. On his next turn, he fills in a 7p kanchan to get to iishanten, waiting on 13 different tiles to get to tenpai. On turn 3, he gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 147p three-sided wait.

It takes a while, but when Shiratori exhausts has his safe tiles, he breaks his 1p pair and deals int Futoshi. Getting an uradora, Futoshi wins the hand with Riichi/Aka 2/Ura 1 for 12,000.

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Shortcut to Haneman

March 20, Game 1, S2-1
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p3111

In S2-1, Shibukawa is in 4th place, 1,500 behind 3rd place Shiratori, 2,000 behind 2nd place Kayamori and 17,300 behind 1st place dealer Futoshi.

Looking around the table, Futoshi is leaning heavily towards a valuable pinzu honitsu, Shibukawa has four pairs and Shiratori is 2-shanten with a south triplet. In the first row, Futoshi calls a 2p pon, Shiratori forms ryanmens to basically guarantee a good wait and Shibukawa gets his fifth pair.

In the second row, Futoshi draws triplets of both east and white dragn and gets to tenpai on a 5p/1p shanpon. If he wins by ron, he will have a dealer haneman. If he gets a tsumo, he will have a big dealer baiman.

Immediately after, Shiratori gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 36p ryanmen.

Even when facing off against a honitsu by the dealer and a riichi from Shiratori, Shibukawa is still iishanten with a fairly safe hand. After avoiding the ippatsu round, Shibukawa draws a north pair and calls riichi on a green dragon tanki.

At the start of the third row, Shibukawa draws the green dragon and wins the hand. With his 7m pair becoming the new uradora, Shibukawa wins the hand with Riichi/Tsumo/Chiitoi/Ura 2 for a 3,000+100/6,000+100 haneman plus a riichi stick. With 1st place Futoshi getting hit with the dealer penalty, Shibukawa suddenly skyrockets to 1st place!

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Results

Game 205

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Game 2

Shiratori Start

March 20, Game 2, E1-0

In E1-0, Shiratori is playing again for the Shibuya Abemas, hoping to get a 1st to offset his 3rd place in the first game.

Shiratori starts out the hand at 4-shanten with two ryanments and a single dora south. The first row provides him with a second south dora, creates a 45m block and gets to a ryanmen-ryanmen iishanten on turn 5.

At the start of the second row, he draws another 5m, getting him to a perfect iishanten hand has a path to pon the south for tenpai. On turn 9, he draws a red 5m to make a triplet and calls riichi on a 58p ryanmen.

In the middle of the third row, Shiratori draws the 8p and wins the hand. Shiratori wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Dora 2/Aka 1 for 2,000/4,000.

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Takaki Time

March 20, Game 2

In E4-1, Takaki is in 4th place and 4,200 behind 3rd place Shibukawa.

Takaki starts out the hand at 3-shanten with a secured red 5s. Within the first three turns, he creates a 234p and a 456p sequence and gets to a perfect iishanten. At turn 5, he gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 69s ryanmen, wanting the 6s for tanyao.

In the middle of the second row, Taro discards the 9s and deals into Takaki. Though it isn’t the tile he wants, the uradora give him the han he needs for the mangan. Takaki wins the hand with Riichi/Pinfu/Aka 1/Ura 1 for 8,000+300, moving up to 3rd.

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In S1-0, Takaki is 1,700 behind 2nd place Shiratori and 7,200 behind 1st place Taro. Another mangan would get him to top spot.

Takaki starts out by drawing the red 5s to make a pair and get to 2-shanten. Even though he started with two terminal blocks, he spends the first row getting rid of them and shifts himself to tanyao. He still remains 2-shanten at the end of the row, but he is now in a position to call.

On turn 8, he fills in a 3p kanchan and gets to iishanten. Two turns after that, he gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 6m kanchan. At the end of the row, Takaki draws the 6m and wins the hand. Takaki wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Tanyao/Aka 1 for 2,000/4,000, pushing him up to 1st place.

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#13

March 20, Game 2, S4-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p4113

In S4-0, Shiratori is 6,200 behind 2nd place Takaki and 6,500 behind 1st place dealer Taro. If Shiratori wants to tie the M-League record and get his 13th win of the regular season, he needs a 3/50 or 4/25 direct hit off Taro, a 3/40 or 4/20 tsumo, or a mangan ron.

Shiratori starts out the hand at 2-shanten with a secured red 5m and a pair of souths. If he wants to make the souths into a triplet, he needs to find a pair elsewhere. On turn 4, he draws a third south to make it a yakuhai triplet. Filling in a 3p kanchan, Shiratori gets to iishanten.

Shiratori is not alone on the table, though. Having already called the green dragons, Taro gets to iishanten at the start of the second row. In the middle of the row, he gets to tenpai on a 2s kanchan.

Within the go-around, Shiratori makes a pair of 7p and calls riichi on a 3m kanchan. If he gets one additional han, he will have a mangan for 1st place.

During the ippatsu round, Taro switches his wait to a 3s/9s shanpon, going from now winning tiles to one in the wall.

At the end of the row, Shibukawa joins in with a 3s riichi, though no 3s remain in the wall.

Immediately after, Shiratori gets the 3s and wins the hand. Shiratori wins with Riichi/Tsumo/South/Aka 1 for 2,000/4,000 plus a riichi stick, finishing the game in top spot and getting his 13th win of the season.

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Results

Game 206

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