Thursday (October 30)

Table A

Table B

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Table A, Game 1

Kurosawa Calls

October 30, Table A, Game 1, E1-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p10018

In E1-0, Kurosawa starts out the hand at 4-shanten with pairs of the green dragon and west, both being yakuhai. In an unusual move for Kurosawa, she calls pon on the west on turn 2 to secure a yaku. Soon after, she calls pon on the green dragon. With the rest of her tiles being souzu, a mangan is within reach.

As Kurosawa waits with iishanten, Nagai gets to tenpai first on a south/north shanpon. It’s a high-risk, high-reward scenario. Nagai can only win on the north dora, but if he gets it, he will have a mangan.

In the middle of the second row, Kurosawa gets to tenpai on a 7s kanchan, guaranteed a mangan.

As Kurosawa and Nagai draw and discard, Akutsu the dealer advances his hand. With an 8m closed kan, Akutsu makes his 7p pair into the new dora. Filling in a ryanmen with the rinshan draw, Akutsu gets to tenpai and waits on a 5m/7p shanpon, wanting the 7p for a mangan.

Within the go-around, Kurosawa draws the 7s and wins the hand. Kurosawa wins with Honitsu/Green Dragon/West/Aka 1 for 2,000/4,000.

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Ura Ura

October 30, Table A, Game 1, S2-1
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p8013

In S2-1, Akutsu is in 4th place, 8,200 behind 3rd place Kurosawa and 10,500 behind 2nd place Nagai.

From the start, Akutsu has a 4m triplet, a 58m ryanmen and a 258p three-sided wait. With these good waits, he needs to find a pair to make it perfect. Within the first few turns, he draws a red 5m to add value and get him to iishanten. On turn 8, he pairs up the unlikely candidate, a very isolated 6s, and gets to tenpai. With the good wait, he calls riichi. Just two turns later, Akutsu draws the red 5p and wins the hand. With the uradora flip, his 6s pair becomes the new dora and upgrades his hand. Akutsu wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Tanyao/Aka 2/Ura 2 for 3,000+100/6,000+100, bringing him up to 2nd place and just 3,700 from 1st.

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Results

Game 73

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Table B, Game 1

Matsumoto

October 30, Table B, Game 1, E2-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p9018

In E2-0, Matsumoto is in 4th place, 2,000 behind the 2nd place tie and 12,000 behind 1st place Asami.

Matsumoto starts off the hand 2-shanten with a secured dora 6p and tanyao being very likely. WIthin teh first few turns, Matsumoto draws an additional 6p dora and pairs up the 6s. Before the row is done, Matsumoto gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 47p ryanmen, guaranteed at least a mangan and wanting the 7p for the extra han. In the middle of the second row, Asami discards the 7p trying to take tenpai and deals into Matsumoto. Matsumoto wins the hand with Riichi/Tanyao/Iipeikou/Dora 2 for 8,000. With the direct hit off 1st, Matsumoto moves into 1st.

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Sanzou

October 30, Table B, Game 1, S1-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p8523

In S1-0, Date is in 3rd place, 2,000 behind 2nd place Asami and 13,200 behind 1st place dealer Matsumoto.

Date starts off the hand with pairs of west, 1s, 2s and 9m, as well as a single white dragon dora. In the first row, she gives herself the option to have go for a standard hand and makes a 1s triplet. By the end of the row, she sits 2-shanten for both pairs and standard.

In the middle of the second row, Date decides to speed up her hand by calling pon on the yakuhai west. Instead of taking the iishanten, she breaks up her 9m pair to aim for honitsu. In the third row, she calls pon on the 2s and pairs up the white dragon to get to a late 36s ryanmen tenpai. On her second-last draw, she gets the 3s and wins the hand. Date wins with Honitsu/West/Dora 2 for 2,000/4,000, coming to within 1,200 of 1st place.

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Results

Game 74

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Table A, Game 2

Tojo Time

October 30, Table A, Game 2
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p11011

In E1-0, Tojo is the starting dealer and starts off 2-shanten, though she lacks value. Looking around the table, Setokuma is also at 2-shanten, but has a white dragon pair and two ryanmens to work with. On turn 2, Tojo advances a step, but still searches for improvements. To fish for it, she goes back a step and breaks her 1p pair. As she does that, she draws a red 5s to add value and returns to one-away.

On turn 5, Setokuma draws a third white dragon, advancing his hand and guaranteeing him a good wait. A turn later, he draws the red 5p and calls riichi on a 58m ryanmen.

Immediately after, Tojo chases with a 58p ryanmen.

Both players have four winning tiles in the wall and only one of them can win. As the second row becomes the third row, there still remains three tiles for each player. Then, on Tojo’s second-last draw, she gets the 8p and wins the hand. Hitting the uradora, Tojo wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu/Aka 1/Ura 1 for 4,000 all.

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Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p11012

Jumping to E3-0, Tojo has a 3-shanten starting hand and has a 9p dora connected to an 8p. On turn 3, she fills in the 7p penchan to secure the dora. Soon after, she creates a ryanmen to get to a good wait guaranteed iishanten. On turn 8, she creates a sequence and calls riichi on a 69m ryanmen. Shibukawa get sto tenpai on a very weak yakuless 4m kanchan, but it ends up not mattering. On Tojo’s very next turn, she draws the 6m and wins the hand. Tojo wins with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tsumo/Pinfu/Dora 1/Ura 1 for 3,000/6,000, pushing her above 50,000.

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Results

Game 75

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Table B, Game 2

Double Riichi

October 30, Table B, Game 2, S1-1
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p8524

In S1-1, Takamiya is in 3rd place, 1,000 behind 2nd place Ooi and 8,900 behind 1st place dealer Daigo. With a riichi stick in the pot, a mangan is enough to move into 1st.

With Takamiya’s first 13 tiles, she is already iishanten and needs a 4m, 7m or 8p for tenpai. With her very first draw, she gets the 7m and calls a double riichi on an 8p kanchan. Two remain in the wall.

By turn 2, Takamiya’s wait is down to just one, allowing other players a lot of time to develop. In the spotlight is 4th place Sonoda with a triplet of 7s dora. On turn 3, Sonoda gets to iishanten. Doing the careful dance of trying to win the hand and avoiding a deal-in, Sonoda shifts himself to tanyao. With a call at the end of second row, Sonoda gets to tenpai on a 25m ryanmen.

By the third row, it’s a 1 vs. 1 battle. In the middle of the row, Takamiya draws that final 8p and wins the hand. With the 3s pair being the uradora, Takamiya wins with Double Riichi/Tsumo/Aka 1/Ura 2 for 3,000+100/6,000+100 plus a riichi stick, moving into 1st place.

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Challenge

October 30, Table B, Game 2, S2-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p9511

In S2-0, Daigo is in 2nd place and 10,500 behind 1st place Takamiya.

Daigo starts out the hand at 4-shanten and a dora 7p for value. Daigo fills in a kanchan and creates a lot of good waits in the first row. In fact, he breaks a bad shape iishanten to aim for the better shapes. Even as he draws the backfire (which would have been tenpai), he is unshaken. On turn 7, he gets to a ryanmen-ryanmen iishanten with pinfu guaranteed. Two turns later, he gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 14m ryanmen, wanting the 4m for max value.

Around the end of the second row, 4th place Sonoda discards the 1m trying to keep his iishanten and deals into Daigo. Hitting the uradora, Daigo wins the hand with Riichi/Pinfu/Dora 1/Ura 1 for 8,000, coming within 2,500 of 1st place Takamiya.

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Ura San

October 30, Table B, Game 2, S3-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p8525

In S3-0, Takamiya is holding onto 1st place, but has only a 2,500 lead.

Takamiya’ startin hand is 3-shanten with good shape candidates, but there is no easy route to a yaku besides riichi. Within the first four turns, Takamiya gets to iishanten, but the good value is still lacking.

Looking around the table, Sonoda the dealer in 4th place looks like he wants to climb out. Havin called pon on the red dragon in the first row, Sonoda draws a 9m triplet and gets to tenpai on a 58s ryanmen. It’s cheap, but it would allow him to continue his dealership.

With Sonoda’s 4p dora discard, Ooi calls a 456p chii (which includes the red 5p) and gets to quite a wide iishanten.

Over the next few turns, Takamiya gets to a wide iishanten as well. In the middle of the second row, she draws a triplet of 7m to get to tenpai and calls riichi on a 69m ryanmen.

Within the ippatsu round, Ooi calls a 234s chii and gets to tenpai on a 36s ryanmen, guaranteed a manga if he wins.

The chii ends up shifting the wall perfectly and gives Takamiya her winning 6s on her very next turn. With the flip, the 7m triplet becomes the new dora and upgrades Takamiya’s hand into a mangan. Takamiya wins the hand with Riichi/Tsumo/Ura 3 for 2,000/4,000, taking a 12,500 lead going into the final hand.

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Results

Game 76

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