Game #14
Sega Sammy
Phoenix
Team Raiden
Akasaka
Drivens
U-Next Pirates
Ippatsu
May 15, Game 2, E1-0
In E1-0, Honda is trying to gain as many points as possible to give Team Raiden a chance to move up int he rankings on the final day.
Honda starts out the hand at 3-shanten with a connected 3p dora. The first row fills in two kanchans and pairs up the 3p to get him to iishanten.
To his right, Sonoda is trying for a quick tanyao hand and is iishanten as well. Filling in a 5p kanchan in the middle of the row, he gets to tenpai on a 7s kanchan.
A few turns later, Honda draws a third 3p to get to tenpai and calls riichi on a 2m kanchan, guaranteed at least a mangan. Immediately after, Sonoda draws and discards the 2m and deals into Honda. Honda wins the hand with Riichi/Ippatsu/Dora 3 for 8,000.
Honitsu
May 15, Game 2, E4-1
In E4-1, Honda is in 2nd place and 1,300 behind 1st place dealer Nakabayashi. With a riichi stick and a honba in the pot, any win is enough to move into 1st.
Honda starts out the hand with pairs of red dragon and east, leaning towards a manzu honitsu. Though he does have a 9s dora, he gets rid of it on turn 3 to confirm the honitsu. On turn 4, he calls pon on the red dragon for 2-shanten. After drawing the 8m two turns in a row, Honda gets to tenpai on a 3m kanchan. Within the go-around, Nakabayashi discards the 3m and deals into Honda. Honda wins the hand with Honitsu/Red Dragon/Aka 1 for 8,000+300 plus one riichi stick, moving up to 1st place.
Sticks
May 15, Game 2, S1-1
In S1-1, Nakabayashi is in 3rd place, 10,400 behind 2nd place dealer Kayamori and 19,300 behind 1st place Honda. The next winner will get 2,300 in bonuses.
Nakabayashi’s starting hand is already iishanten with his first draw, though a bit lacking in value. To ameliorate that, the breaks his 1p pair on turn 4, to shift to tanyao. At the end of the first row, he creates a 25s ryanmen to guarantee a good wait.
In the middle of the second row, he gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 25s ryanmen, wanting the 2s for iipeikou. In the middle of the third row, he draws the 5s and wins the hand. Though it’s the lesser wait, he still gets Riichi/Tsumo/Tanyao for 1,000+100/2,000+100 plus two riichi sticks, moving to within 2,000 of 2nd.
Ippatsu
May 15, Game 2, S2-2
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p5131
In S2-2, Honda is the dealer again with a sizeable. lead. Three riichi sticks and two honba are in the pot.
Honda starts out the hand at 3-shanten, but his shapes are mixed. But, with every turn, things seem to improve. His draws are efficient as he gets to iishanten on turn 3. After breaking a penchan block to accept a good wait, Honda gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 58p ryanmen. During the ippatsu round, Sonoda discards the 5p trying to accept iishanten and deals into Honda. With the 5p being the uradora, Honda wins the hand with Riichi/Ippatsu/Pinfu/Ura 1 for 12,000+600 plus three riichi sticks, taking Honda up to 54,000.
Sticks
May 15, Game 2, S4-1
In S4-1, Nakabayashi is the dealer in 2nd place, 3,000 ahead of Kayamori and 31,300 behind 1st place Honda. With two riichi sticks in the pot, any hand will move Kayamori into 1st. Nakabayashi wants to win this hand to both prevent that from happening and get the team closer to 1st place overall.
Nakabayashi starts out the hand at 3-shanten with a bunch of ryanmens, guaranteeing him a good wait. With a connected 6p dora, he also has a bit of value. In the first row, Nakabayashi shifts his hand towards tanyao and gets to a perfect iishanten by turn 3.
Even as potential call opportunities for tenpai come out, he chooses to wait as patiently as he can for a chance to call riichi and increase his hand’s value. As he does this, it gives his opponents a chance to catch up. In the second row, Honda is the first to tenpai, waiting on a 4m kanchan. A turn later, he switches to a 3m tanki. If he draws any of the 456s, he will have a chance at suuankou.
To his left, Kayamori is already iishanten with a pon of green dragons. With Honda’s discarded 5m, she calls pon and gets to tenpai on a 7s kanchan, guaranteed three han.
Seeing the action on the table, Nakabayashi decides to make a 678m chii and gets to tenpai on a 25s ryanmen. In the third row, Honda draws the 5s. Wanting to have the yakuman chance, Honda tries to call riichi by discarding the 2s and deals into Nakabayashi. Nakabayashi wins the hand with Tanyao/Dora 1 for 2,900+300 plus two riichi sticks, increasing Nakabayashi’s lead to 8,200.
Final Scores
Standings
Honda gets the best result possible for his team with a +74.1pts 1st place. The win puts the team back in the positives and within 268,7pts of 3rd place.
Nakabayashi was able to hold onto 2nd place in this game, adding a bit to their score to move them above the Akasaka Drivens and closer to 1st place, with a 87.1pts deficit going into the final day.
For the Akasaka Drivens, another 4th place puts them into 3rd overall for the first time these finals. However, they sit just 1.4pts behind 2nd place and 88.5pts from 1st place, still having a chance to win it all with two more games left to go.
And that’s all for today! One more game day left to go! Friday’s games will start two hours earlier at 17:00 JST, so be sure to set your alarms.
Which team will have the honour to lift the championship plate? As always, we’ll just have to wait and see!
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