Friday (March 21)

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Game 1

Honitsu Chiitoi

March 21, Game 1, E1-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p5114

In E1-0, Kurosawa is the starting dealer and hoping to get the team to their 7th straight day of winning the first game.

Kurosawa starts out the hand with pairs of white dragon, south and 7s, putting her 3-shanten for seven pairs. The first row gives her a pair of wests, but nothing else. However, with an additional honour pair, Kurosawa looks for a honitsu route.

At the start of the second row, she pairs up the 1s to get to seven pairs iishanten. When it comes to Sarukawa, he gets to tenpai first and calls riichi on a 58m ryanmen.

During the ippatsu round, Kurosawa draws a north. Though having all the winds would be nice, they don’t provide anything extra in a pairs hand, so she discards the east. On turn 10, she pairs up the north and stays dama on a 4s tanki.

Within the go-around, Sarukawa draws and discards the 4s and wins the hand. Kurosawa wins with Honitsu/Chiitoi for 12,000 plus a riichi stick.

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Dora 3

March 21, Game 1, E2-0

In E2-0, Kurosawa has lost her dealership, but looks to keep adding to her lead.

Kurosawa starts out the hand at 4-shanten with a pair of white dragons and two 6m dora. In the first row, she makes a slight shift to honitsu, adds a pair of red dragons and gets to 2-shanten. At the end of her first row, she pairs up the 4s. Though it doesn’t fit with the manzu honitsu nor the potential for a shousangen, it does advance her to chiitoi iishanten and she cuts her lone green dragon.

In the second row, she gets a third 6m dora, allowing her to go for a mangan if she goes the standard route. Near the end of the row, she does the rare move of calling pon on the white dragon and gets to iishanten.

Also at iishanten is Sarukawa, who has a chance to ruin Kurosawa’s chances with a cheap hand. At the end of the second row, he gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 7s/7p shanpon. If he wins by tsumo, he will add sanankou to his hand.

In the third row, Kurosawa draws a third red dragon and gets to tenpai on a 69m/4s wait. Two turns later, Sarukawa draws and discards the 4s and deals into Kurosawa. Kurosawa wins the hand with Red Dragon/White Dragon/Dora 3 for 8,000 plus a riichi stick.

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No Draw? Problem! No Yaku? Furiten? No Problem!

March 21, Game 1, E3-1

In E3-1, Sarukawa is the starting dealer in 4th place, 8,600 behind the 2nd place tie.

With his first thirteen tiles, Sarukawa already has a 678m sequence, a 678s sequence, a pair of souths and a pair of red dragons. The hand looks promising. However, as he makes his first discard, he realizes that he forgot to get his first draw!

Because Sarukawa has too few tiles in his hand, the referee gives him a dead hand. With a dead hand, he is not allowed to make any calls (including winning calls) and must declare himself noten if the hand goes to a draw.

Such a promising hand, lost forever.

With that, there are three competitors remaining in the hand. Sittin in that 2nd place tie is Kobayashi, 21,000 behind 1st place Kurosawa.

With Kobayashi’s first draw, he sits at 2-shanten with a secured red 5s. On turn 4, he fills in a 7p kanchan and gets to iishanten. Since his five blocks are solid, he gets rid of his lone east dora. On his next turn, he fills in a ryanmen. Not wanting to be stuck with a 7m penchan, he waits on a 9m tanki with no yaku.

On turn 6, he draws the east. It is the dora, but he is furiten. Still, it’s potentially valuable and he switches his wait. On his next turn, he rejects the west tanki to keep looking. A turn after that, he manages to draw the last east in the wall and wins the hand. Kobayashi wins with Tsumo/Dora 2/Aka 1 for 2,000/4,000, moving into sole 2nd place.

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Redemption

March 21, Game 1, E4-0

In E4-0, Sarukawa is in 4th place and 9,600 behind 3rd place Aki, wanting to redeem himself after the dead hand mishap the previous hand.

Sarukawa starts off already iishanten with his first draw, having two 3s dora and needing to fill in a 58s ryanmen and a 2s kanchan. Much of the first row is spent drawing and discarding, but he manages to complete a north triplet on turn 6 and widens his iishanten.

At the start of the second row, he completes a 678s sequence and calls riichi on a 1s/3s shanpon. Guaranteed at least a mangan, he can get a baiman if he draws the 3s himself.

In the middle of the second row, Aki discards the 1s trying to keep a wide iishanten and deals into Sarukawa. Sarukawa wins the hand with Riichi/North/Dora 2 for 8,000, moving up to 3rd.

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Mangan Tanyao

March 21, Game 1, S3-0

In S3-0, Kobayashi is in 2nd place and 15,100 behind 1st place Kurosawa.

Kobayashi starts off with a strong hand, holding two red fives and a pair of 2s dora. Being 2-shanten for seven pairs and 3-shanten for a standard hand and holding a very likely tanyao, the hand can be quick and expensive. In the first row, Kobayashi completes a 567s sequence and calls a 345p chii to get to a perfect iishanten before the end of it.

In the second row, Kobayashi calls a 456p chii and gets to tenpai on a 58m ryanmen with four left in the wall.

Sitting as the dealer is Sarukawa, wanting to win the hand to escape 3rd place and continue his pursuit for 1st. With not much reason to fold against Kobayashi, Sarukawa keeps going. In the middle of the second row, Sarukawa gets to tenpai and waits dama on a 3s penchan for 7,700 minimum. After waiting a few turns, he decides to call riichi at the start of the third row.

However, within the go-around, Kobayashi draws the 8m and wins the hand. Kobayashi wins with Tanyao/Dora 2/Aka 2 for 2,000/4,000 plus a riichi stick, shrinking the gap between him and 1st place Kurosawa to 3,900 going into the final hand.

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Results

Game 207

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Game 2

Beast

March 21, Game 2, E1-0

In E1-0, Nakada is playing for the Beast X, hoping to get a good result in the team’s final few games of the season.

Starting as the dealer, Nakada is 2-shanten with her first fourteen tiles, looking like a probable sequences hand. In her first three turns, she creates a 4s pair to replace her 1p pair and forms a 369p three-sided waid, greatly improving the prospects of the hand. Over the next three turns, she breaks her 4s pair and transforms it to a 25s ryanmen, incorporating the 3s dora into her hand. She ends the row still at 2-shanten, but is guaranteed at least a dora and a good wait.

On turn 7, she completes a 234s sequence to get to a perfect iishanten. Two turns later, she draws a red 5m to complete a 345m sequence and calls riichi on the wide 369p wait. At the end of the row, Katsumata discards the 9p and deals into Nakada. Nakada wins the hand with Riichi/Pinfu/Dora 1/Aka 1 for 12,000.

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Yakuman Tenpai!??

March 21, Game 2, E1-1
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p5115

In E1-1, Hagiwara is in a 2nd place tie with his starting score, trailing Nakada after her dealer mangan to start the game.

With Hagiwara’s starting hand, he has pairs of green dragon and white dragon, as well as a single red dragon, giving hope for a potential yakuman hand. A bit of that fervour fades when Nakada discards the red dragon on turn 3. On turn 4, Hagiwara chooses to skip a white dragon pon, making his yakuman dreams a bit further away. However, the skip ends up working in his favour has he pairs up the red dragon on his next draw, setting him up to call all the dragons and go for daisangen.

Indeed, Hagiwara is able to call pon on the green dragon and a 234s sequence to get to iishanten. All he needs is the red and the white.

However, sitting across from him is 4th place Katsumata, wanting to do anything to save his team frm elimination. In the middle of the second row, he fills in a 3s kanchan to get to tenpai and calls riichi on a 25m nobetan with no winning tiles left in the wall.

Within two go-arounds, Yu draws the final 2m and puts Katsumata in a very dangerous position. RIght after, Nakada discards the white dragon and Hagiwara calls pon, getting him tenpai on a 6p/red dragon shanpon.

The red dragon will give him a yakuman. One remains in the wall.

In a bold push, Nakada calls riichi with her otherwise yakuless Dora 3/Aka 1 hand and waits on a 3p kanchan.

For Nakada, it’s do or die.

On Katsumata’s turn, he draws and discards the 6p and deals into Hagiwara. Hagiwara wins the hand with Shousangen/Green Dragon/White Dragon for 8,000+300 plus two riichi sticks. It’s not a yakuman, but it puts him just 700 away from 1st place.

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Up

March 21, Game 2, E3-0

In E3-0, Yu is the dealer in 3rd place, 6,400 behind 2nd place Hagiwara and 7,100 behind 1st place Nakada. A 3/40 or 4/20 hand is enough to pass both of them.

Yu starts out the hand at 3-shanten, though his west pair is preventing him from going much faster. The first row provides him with a few sequence candidates and a loosely-connected 4p dora, but his hand is full of middle waits.

The second row, however, does a much better job. On turn 7, he fills in a 3s kanchan for iishanten. On turn 8, he creates a 36m ryanmen. On turn 9, he fills in a 5p kanchan to get to tenpai and calls riichi on a 36m ryanmen. With the wests not being a yakuhai, his hand also has pinfu.

In the third row, Katsumata creates a 4m kanchan tenpai, but has no winning tiles left in the wall. Two turns later, Yu draws the last 6m and wins the hand. Yu wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu/Dora 1 for 2,600 all, enough to move up to 1st.

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Above 50k

March 21, Game 2, E3-3

In E3-3, Yu is the dealer and slowly climbing, currently at 42,500 with an 11,800 lead over 2nd place Hagiwara. A riichi stick and three honba are in the pot.

Yu starts out the hand at 3-shanten with two ryanmens and two kanchans. His shapes are set for a potential pinfu, he just has to fill in those kanchans. The main kanchan that he needs to fill is the 3s dora kanchan, which will provide value to his hand.

On turn 2, he fills in the 2p kanchan. On turn 3, he draws the 3s dora to get to a ryanmen-ryanmen iishanten. It takes quite a few draws, but Yu eventually completes the third sequence in the middle of the second row and calls riichi on a 14m ryanmen. Before the row is done, Nakada discards the 4m and deals into Yu. Hitting the uradora, Yu wins the hand with Riichi/Pinfu/Dora 1/Ura 1 for 12,000+900 plus a riichi stick, taking Yu up to 56,400.

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Hagiwara Houtei

March 21, Game 2, E4-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p5116

In E4-0, Hagiwara starts his dealership, giving him a chance to catch up to 1st place Yu who is 24,700 away.

With Hagiwara’s first draw, he is 2-shanten with a secured 3s as part of a 345s sequence. The first row doesn’t provide him with much except for an additional 3s dora.

On turn 9, Hagiwara draws a 4s, connecting to the additional 3s, giving him a chance at a 345s iipeikou and getting him to iishanten. On his very next turn, he fills in a 4m kanchan and calls riichi on a 25s ryanmen. If he wins off the 5s, it will give him iipeikou. Even better if it’s the red 5s.

Sitting deep in the negatives is 4th place Katsumata. WIth his team in 8th place and only two more games after this for the team, he needs to push almost every hand. At the end of the second row, he gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 14s ryanmen.

Unfortunately, none remain in the wall.

This leaves just Hagiwara with two winning tiles left in the wall. Two turns into the third row, Yu draws a 5s, leaving just the red 5s in the wall. But where could it be?

At the end of the hand, we had our answer. With the very last tile in the wall, Katsumata draws and discards the red 5 and painfully deals into Hagiwara. Hagiwara wins the hand with Riichi/Pinfu/Iipeikou/Dora 2/Aka 1 for 18,000 plus a riichi stick, moving Hagiwara to just 5,700 of 1st place and Katsumata down to -24,200.

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Results

Game 208

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