Friday (January 30)

Table A

Table B

---

Table A, Game 1

Yu

Jaunary 30, Table A, Game 1

In E3-1, Yu is the dealer in 1st place, 8,000 ahead of 2nd place Hori.

Yu starts out the hand at 4-shanten with a floating red 5m and a lone dora red dragon. In the first five turns, Yu makes two sequences, a ryanmen and a pair, but both dora remain isolated. At the end of the first row, Yu draws a 4m, putting him at a ryanmen-ryanmen iishanten with pinfu guaranteed.

At the start of the second row, Yu creates a 345m sequence and calls riichi on a 14s ryanmen. On his very next turn, Yu draws the 1s and wins the hand. Yu wins with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tsumo/Pinfu/Aka 1 for 4,000+100 all, pushing him above 50,000.

---

Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p10542

In E3-2, Yu starts out with a very strong 3-shanten hand with a pair of the east dora. A single pon of that would give him 5 han off the bat. Within the first row, he gets himself to iishanten and is just a 7m away from a 678 sanshoku. While Yu waits, Hori gets to tenpai first and calls riichi on a green dragon/3p shanpon.

In the middle of the second row, Yu makes a triplet of wests and waits dama on a 7m kanchan, guaranteed a mangan if he wins. Yu keeps discarding even as the tiles get dangerous. In the middle of the third row, Yu draws a red 5p. Not wanting to discard the dora, Yu discards the 8p (breaking the sanshoku) and calls riichi on the 7m kanchan. Immediately after, Hori discards the 7m and deals into Yu. With an uradora hit, Yu wins the hand with Riichi/Ippatsu/Dora 2/Aka 1/Ura 1 for 18,000+600 plus a riichi stick, getting Yu to 69,700.

---

Far and Wide

January 30, Table A, Game 1, E3-3
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s80_p2882

In E3-3, Hori is in 4th place and is within 7,600 of 2nd place. After the haneman deal-in last hand, Hori wants to make a comeback.

Hori starts out the hand at 3-shanten with a seucred red 5m. With almost every single draw, Hori draws a pinzu that increases his chances at a wide wait. On turn 4, he gets the best wait that he can get and calls riichi on a 134679p wait.

Hori has an insane wait with 11 tiles across 6 types. With such a wide wait, the display couldn’t display all the tiles and they had to resort to a scrolling wait display. With such a wide wait, he has to win it, right?

Well, with draw after draw, discard after discard, Hori kept missing. With his opponents folding well, the frustration continues. Then, with the very last draw, Hori misses, even with 5 winning tiles left in the wall!

And with that the hand goes to a draw, much akin to Ooi’s similar loss of his own 6-sided wait.

---

Results

Game 221

---

Table B, Game 1

Nice Nagai

Jaunary 30, Table B, Game 1, E1-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p7554

In E1-0, Nagai is the starting dealer and starts off 4-shanten with a secured red 5p. In the first row, Nagai actually slows down his hand by breaking his 1s pair, hoping that his many floating middle tiles would connect.

To his right Taro is busy making calls. After calling the north and 1m, Taro gets to tenpai on a 36m ryanmen. However, he has no yaku. To get a yaku, he needs to make the easts into a triplet or shift to all triplets by pairing up the 4m or 5m.

Back to Nagai, the gamble pays off as he draws a red 5m to create a pair and makes a nice shape in souzu. After making a 7s triplet and a pair of 7m, he gets to tanyao iishanten and breaks the 1p pair. A turn later, he draws a third 7m, Nagai gets to tenpai and stays dama on a 258p three-sided wait. Right after, Taro discards the 8p dora and deals into Nagai. Nagai wins the hand with Tanyao/Dora 1/Aka 2 for 12,000.

---

Results

Game 222

---

Table A, Game 2

Takizawa

Jaunary 30, Table A, Game 2, E3-3
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p8547

In E3-3, Takizawa is the dealer in 2nd place, 10,600 behind 1st place Hori.

Takizawa starts out the hand at 2-shanten with a kanchan, penchan and a ryanmen needing to be filled. In the first row, Takizawa changes the penchan into a pair and a kanchan into a ryanmen. Though he is still at 2-shanten, the hand shapes have improved. On turn 8, Takizawa gets to iishanten.

Within the go-around, Hori gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 36s ryanmen. With haneman guaranteed, a 3s tsumo would get him to a baiman.

Holding a lone dora east and not wanting to discard it, Takizawa instead breaks his 9p pair. Towards the end of the seond row, Takizawa pairs up the east, giving him hope for an expensive winning hand. In the third row, he draws a third east and calls riichi on a 47p ryanmen. Two turns later, Hori discards the 7p and deals into Takizawa. Takizawa wins the hand with Riichi/Double East/Dora 3 for 18,000+300 plus a riichi stick, getting Takizawa to 52,600.

---

Shortcut to Haneman

January 30, Table A, Game 2, E3-5
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p10544

In E3-5, Nakabayashi is in 2nd place and is 12,300 behind 1st place Takizawa. With a riichi stick in the pot as well, the next winner will get 2,500 in bonuses.

Nakabayashi starts off the hand at 3-shanten with a red 5m. Within the first four turns, Nakabayashi ends up getting to four pairs, putting him 2-shanten for both a standard and pairs hand. On turn 5, Nakabayashi pairs up the red 5m for iishanten.

To his left, 4th place Hori is iishanten with pairs of both white dragon and green dragon. With a pon of the white dragon, Hori gets to tenpai and waits on a 69p ryanmen.

Towards the middle of the second row, Nakabayashi pairs up the 8m and calls riichi on an 8s tanki. When Hori draws a 6m, Hori chooses to fold instead of fight the riichi. Immediately after, Nakabayashi draws the 8s and wins the hand. Nakabayashi wins the hand with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tsumo/Chiitoi/Aka 1 for 3,000+500/6,000+500 plus a riichi stick, enough to move into 1st place.

---

Takizawa To Top

January 30, Table A, Game 2, S3-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p8548

In S3-0, Takizawa is the dealer in 2nd place, 6,700 behind 1st place Nakabayashi.

Takizawa starts off the hand at 2-shanten with all simples basically guaranteed. Within just three draws, Takizawa is at a perfect iishanten. On his next turn, he gives himself the potential for a 258s three-sided wait. Before the row is done, he draws the 5s and calls riichi on a 58m ryanmen. On Takizawa’s second-last draw, he gets the 8m and wins the hand. With his 6p pair being the uradora, Takizawa wins the hand with Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu/Tanyao/Ura 2 for 6,000 all.

---

Results

Game 223

---

Table B, Game 2

Aikawa Ahead

Jaunary 30, Table B, Game 2, S3-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p11541

In S3-0, Aikawa is in 1st place with a strong 18,200 lead over 2nd place Katsumata. But, with Katsumata as the dealer, Aikawa wants to end the dealership quickly.

Aikawa starts out the hand at 3-shanten with a pair of white dragons. In the first row, she makes a souzu sequence and draws a third white dragon at the end of the row for iishanten. On her next turn, she fills in a 4s kanchan and calls riichi on a 36m ryanmen.

A few turns later, Katsumata calls pon on the 1m and waits on an 8s kanchan.

Then, at the start of the third row, Katsumata discards the 6m and deals into Aikawa. With the uradora flip, the white dragon becomes the uradora and boosts her hand by three han. Aikawa wins the hand with Riichi/White Dragon/Ura 3 for 8,000, getting her to 60,500.

---

Results

Game 224

---

Intro | Standings