Friday (February 6)

Table A

Table B

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Table A, Game 1

Kurosawa

February 6, Table A, Game 1, E4-1
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p10048

In E4-1, Kurosawa is the dealer in 1st place, but only has a 2,000 lead over 2nd place Daigo.

Kurosawa starts off the hand at 3-shanten with a 79s block, a 79m block, a 23p block, a 23s block and a pair of souths. With all these blocks, chanta is definitely possible as long as she draws the right side of the ryanmens. Kurosawa gets things going on her second turn, making the souths into a triplet. After getting her turn skipped a few times, she gets the 1s on her next turn for iishanten. Before the row is done, she gets the 1p as well for tenpai, calling riichi on an 8m kanchan.

Across from her, Shibata is already iishanten and has a west yakuhai secured. In the middle of the second row, Shibata draws the 5p for tenpai and waits on a 2s/8s shanpon.

His hope is short lived, though, as Kurosawa draws the 8m on her next draw to win the hand. Kurosawa wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Chanta for 4,000+100 all.

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Results

Game 233

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Table B, Game 1

Hisato Highlight

February 6, Table B, Game 1, S1-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p8550

In S1-0, Hisato is in 3rd place, 1,800 behind 2nd place Uchikawa and 7,600 behind 1st place Shibukawa.

Hisato starts off the hand 3-shanten, but doesn’t have much in terms of value. Within the first 5 draws, Hisato draws a red 5m and creates two ryanmens, getting him to iishanten with pinfu guaranteed. In the second row, he completes a 789m sequence and calls riichi on a 36m ryanmen.In the third row, Matsumoto discards the 6m trying to go for a pinzu honitsu and deals into Hisato. Getting an uradora, Hisato wins the hand with Riichi/Pinfu/Aka 1/Ura 1 for 8,000, moving into 1st place.

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Results

Game 234

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Table A, Game 2

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Results

Game 235

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Table B, Game 2

Takizawa Time

February 6, Table B, Game 2, S2-1
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p8551

In S2-1, Takizawa is the dealer in 2nd place, 11,600 behind 1st place Shiratori.

Takizawa starts out the hand at 3-shanten, leaning a bit towards the edges. Within the first three rows, Takizawa creates a 69s ryanmen and a 78999p shape, getting him to iishanten. If he can get the 9s and fill in the 3p penchan, he will get junchan. On turn 4, he fills in the 3p penchan and calls riichi on a 69s ryanmen. If wins on the 6s, it will only be a 2-han hand. But if he wins on the 9s, it will be a mangan, which would be upgraded to a haneman with just one more han. In the middle of the third row, Takizawa draws the perfect 9s and wins the hand. Takizawa wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu/Junchan for 6,000+100 all, easily moving into 1st place.

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The Wind Rises

February 6, Table B, Game 2, S3-3
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p8044

In S3-3, Hori is in 4th place, 6400 behind 3rd place Katsumata, 27,400 behind 2nd place dealer Shiratori and 40,200 behind 1st place Takizawa.

With Hori’s starting hand, he has a triplet of wests, a pair of souths, and a single east and west. It’s not lose but the dream of a wind-based yakuman is there.

On turn 4, Hori pairs up the norths. If he calls pon on the south and north, he gives himself the possibility of taking an east tanki. At the end of the first row, Hori calls a concealed kan on the west. In the middle of the second row, he calls pon on the south and gets to iishanten.

A turn later, Takizawa discards the north and Hori calls pon. He is now tenpai for a yakuman. He just needs an east.

To his left, however, Katsumata is not willing to go without a fight. In an incredibly risky move Katsumata chooses to call riichi and wait on a white dragon/4s shanpon.

And that gamble backfires immediately as he draws the east on his very next turn.

And with a ron, Hori has done it! Hori wins with Shousuushii for 32,000+900 plus a riichi stick, getting him back into the game and into 2nd place.

With Hori’s win, it is the first time in M-League history that someone has won a yakuman that is not one of the big three (suuankou, kokushi and daisangen)

In the interviews and post-game discussion, there seemed to be a lot of mind games going on. Because of Hori’s pon, players didn’t think that it could be a windy hand (because he would normally want to keep that information hidden). As a result, Takizawa freely discarded the north. As a result of that, Katsumata thought that Takizawa had the easts and was comfortable discarding the north as a result.

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Results

Game 236

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