Tuesday (March 25)

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Game 1

Uchikawa

March 25, Game 1, E1-1

In E1-1, Uchikawa is in 3rd place, 1,000 behind 2nd place Hagiwara and 4,900 behind 1st place Genta.

Before Uchikawa even got his first draw, we noticed Genta’s four 1m in his hand and Nakabayashi calling pon on the west with some other honour pairs waiting to be called. When we do see Uchikawa’s hand, he is is doing very well at 2-shanten with tanyao basically guaranteed.

The first row keeps getting busier and busier. Around the middle of the second row, Nakabayashi calls pon on the east and Genta calls a concealed kan on the 3p. At the end of the first row, Genta calls a concealed kan on the 1m. WIth the kandora flip, Nakabayashi’s easts become dora.

On Uchikawa’s turn, he draws the dora 7s to get to tenpai and calls riichi on a 7m.

Immediately after, Genta gets to tenpai and calls riichi on an 8m kanchan.

During Genta’s ippatsu round, Nakabayashi gets to tenpai on a 2s tanki, ready with a baiman. A few turns later, he switches to a 147s wait, with the 7s dora giving baiman.

However, in the third row, Nakabayashi draws a dangerous 4m. Though he does have a guaranteed haneman minimum, Genta the dealer and Uchikawa are both in riichi and they have access to the three uradora indicators. With so much danger, he discards the green dragon and breaks his tenpai.

Then, on Uchikawa’s turn, he draws the 7m and wins the hand. Uchikawa wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Tanyao/Dora 1/Ura 1 for 2,000+100/4,000+100 plus a riichi stick.

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Genta

March 25, Game 1, E2-0

In E2-0, Genta is in 2nd place and 9,500 behind 1st place Uchikawa.

Genta starts out the hand at 4-shanten with a bunch of sequence candidates. The first row provides him with two sequences and two ryanmens, getting him to iishanten and guaranteeing him pinfu.

On turn 8, Genta draws a dora 2m to create a 14m ryanmen, replacing a 58p ryanmen. A turn later, Genta gets to tenpai and calls riichi on the 14m ryanmen. On his ippatsu draw, Genta gets the 1m and wins the hand. Genta wins with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tsumo/Pinfu/Dora 1 for 2,000/4,000, moving into 1st.

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Uchikawa Up

March 25, Game 1

In E3-1, Uchikawa is the dealer with a slim 2,400 lead over 2nd place Genta.

With Uchikawa’s very first draw, he gets to iishanten, waiting to fill a 25m ryanmen and an 8p kanchan. The first row doesn’t provide him with anything to advance, not even an improvement on the kanchan.

At the start of the second row, Uchikawa shifts a 678s sequence to a 567s sequence after drawing the red 5s. On turn 8, he creates a 58p ryanmen, guaranteed a good wait. On turn 9, he draws a 5p and calls riichi on a 25m ryanmen. Within the go-around, Genta discards the 2m trying to call riichi and deals into Uchikawa. Uchikawa wins the hand with Riichi/Ippatsu/Aka 1 for 7,700+300.

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Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p3112

In E3-2, Uchikawa starts off with a 2-shanten hand with a secured red 5p. On turn 4, he creates a 47m ryanmen to go along with his 69s ryanmen, getting him to iishanten and guaranteeing him a good wait. At the end of the row, he draws a third 2s and doubles the number of tenpai tile types from 4 to 8.

At the start of the 2nd row, Uchikawa draws the red 5m to create a pair and calls riichi on a 69s ryanmen. At the end of the row, he draws the 9s and wins the hand. Uchikawa wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Aka 2 for 4,000+200 all.

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Akabayashi

March 25, Game 2, S2-1

In S2-1, Nakabayashi is in 4th place, 6,200 behind 3rd place Genta.

Nakabayashi starts out the hand at a standard 4-shanten and 3-shanten for a pairs hand. For value, he has a red 5m as part of a pair. The first few turns give him a 9m triplet and a 123p sequence, pushing him to a standard path. Sitting at 2-shanten, Nakabayashi draws a floating red 6p at the end of the row for extra potential value.

In the second row, Nakabayashi draws a 4p to connect the red 5p and gets to iishanten. After drawsing a red 5s and a 3s to create a 345s sequence, Nakabayashi gets to tenpai at the end of the second row and calls riichi on a 36p ryanmen, guarnateed at least a mangan.

During the ippatsu round, Uchikawa calls a chasing riichi and waits on a 147p three-sided wait.

In the middle of the third row, Uchikawa draws the 3p and wins the hand. Nakabayashi wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Aka 3 for 2,000+100/4,000+100 plus a riichi stick, moving him into 3rd place and within 1,200 behind 2nd place.

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Escaping 4th

March 25, Game 2, S4-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p4606

In S4-0, Genta is in 4th place, 13,400 behind 3rd place Hagiwara. To escape 4th place, he needs a mangan direct, a haneman tsumo or a baiman ron.

Genta starts out the hand at 4-shanten with a secured 5p dora. There are paths to both pinfu and tanyao, but there’s a bit of work to do to get there. In the first row, he gets to iishanten, but with neither pinfu nor tanyao! Instead, he aims for a 789 sanshoku. He started with just a 9m, 7s and 78p, then drew all the right tiles to be waiting on a 7m and a 9s.

On turn 8, Genta gets the 9s and calls riichi on a 7m penchan. If he gets a direct hit off Hagiwara, he will take 3rd. If he gets it by tsumo, he still needs one more han.

Three turns later, Genta draws the 7m. All he needs is an uradora. With the flip…

…his 6m pair becomes the new dora! Genta wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Sanshoku/Dora 1/Ura 2 for 3,000/6,000, finishing the game in 3rd place.

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Results

Game 211

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Game 2

Okada Surprise

March 25, Game 2, E1-1

In E1-1, Okada is currently 3,000 behind 1st place, looking to get her first win of the season. A riichi stick and a honba sit in the pot.

Okada starts out the hand at 3-shanten and leaning towards tanyao. In the first few turns, she makes some sequence candidates and draws a red 5p, but the red 5p sits alone. On turn 5, she creates a three-sided wait and discards the red 5p. On turn 6, she gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 369m three-sided wait.

On turn 11, Okada draws the 8s and wins the hand. Okada wins the hand with Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu/Tanyao/Dora 1 for 2,000+100/4,000+100 plus a riichi stick, moving up to 1st.

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Dealer Daigo

March 25, Game 2, S2-1
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p4607

In S2-1, Daigo is the dealer in 3rd place, 3,300 behind 2nd place Nakabayashi.

Daigo starts out the hand at 2-shanten with a secured dora 6m. With two terminal blocks and no other clear yaku, Daigo will just have to wait for a riichi hand. In the first row, Daigo breaks on of the terminal blocks, Okada calls pon on the west and Hagiwara calls pon on the north. Around the end of the row, Daigo creates a 123p sequence for iishanten.

Soon after, Okada calls a 345s sequence and gets to tenpai on a 7s penchan.

The next to get to tenpai is Hagiwara, who calls a 345m chii in the middle of the second row and waits on a 47p ryanmen.

Immediately after, Daigo gets to tenpai and waits on a 7s kanchan.

If Hagiwara discards the 7s, Daigo will win. If Nakabayashi discards the 7s, Okada will win.

Then, on Hagiwara’s next draw, he drops and discards the 7s.

Both Daigo and Okada call ron, but only Daigo can win (to Okada’s disappointment). With his 4m pair becoming the uradora, Daigo wins with Riichi/Ippatsu/Dora 1/Ura 2 for 8,000+300.

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Finish

March 25, Game 2, S4-4
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p3113

In S4-4, the scores are very close. Okada is in 1st place as the dealer with a very fragile 1,100 lead over 2nd place Daigo and 7,100 ahead of 3rd place Nakabayashi. With 2,200 in bonuses going to the next winner, Okada can lose this lead with any win by Daigo, a 3/40 win by Nakabayashi, or even a 3/40 tsumo by Hagiwara (because of the dealer penalty).

On the other end, Hagiwara is hopelessly in 4th place, but wants to end Team Raiden’s season as strong as possible.

Okada starts out at 3-shanten with a pair of red dragons, Hagiwara is at 4-shanten with a loosely-connected dora 6p, Daigo is 4-shanten and leaning sequences, and Nakabayashi is 3-shanten. In the first row, Okada is the first to make a move calling pon on the 1m even before getting the 1m. Around the end of the first row, Okada remains ahead at iishanten.

In the second row, Okada calls pon on the 2p and gets to tenpai on a 6s/red dragon shanpon, with only the red dragon giving a win.

Two turns later, Hagiwara gets to tenpai and calls riichi by throwing the red 5s and waiting on an 8s kanchan, the Ishibashi trap. With Riichi/Dora 1/Aka 1 guaranteed, a tsumo win or a direct hit would be devastating for Okada.

Three 8s remain in the wall.

During the ippatsu round, Okada draws the dora 6p. Not wanting to deal in with the dora, Okada breaks the relatively-safe 6s pair. However, when Daigo discards the red dragon, she calls pon and gets to a 6p wait.

On Daigo’s turn, he fills in a 5s kanchan with the very last 5s and waits dama on a 69p ryanmen.

Any win is enough.

Four winning tiles remain in the wall.

Not wanting to be left out, Nakabayashi gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 25p ryanmen. With Riichi/Pinfu/Tanyao in his hand, he needs to get any additional han to win. If he gets the 2p, he will has sanshoku to get there. Otherwise, he will need tsumo or uradora.

Unfortunately, none of the 2p or 5p remain in the wall.

Then, on Daigo’s turn, he draws the 8s. Wanting to keep his tenpai, he discards it.

With a ron, Hagiwara wins the hand with Riichi/Dora 1/Aka 1 for 5,200+1,200 plus two riichi sticks.

Normally, this would have put Daigo into 3rd place. But, Nakabayashi’s lost riichi stick ends up keeping Daigo just 600 above, enough to hold 2nd place.

And at the top, after many torturous months, Okada finally gets her first win of the season!

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Results

Game 212

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