April 7 (Tuesday)

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Game 1

Asami

April 7, Game 1, E3-0

In E3-0, Asami is the dealer in 2nd place, 7,300 behind 1st place Daigo.

Asami starts out the hand at 3-shanten with a 1s dora next to a 3s, as well as a floating red 5p. On turn 4, she draws a 4p and creates a ryanmen. Over the next two turns, she makes an 8s pair and gets to iishanten.

Two turns into the second row, Asami fills in the 2s kanchan and calls riichi on a 36p ryanmen. At the end of the row, Asami draws the 6p and wins the hand. Asami wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu/Dora 1/Aka 1 for 4,000 all.

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Daigo

April 7, Game 1, E3-1
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s80_p3210

In E3-1, Daigo is in 2nd place, 8,700 behind 1st place Asami.

Daigo starts out the hand at iishanten with a connected red 5p and a three-sided wait, looking for a pair. On turn 3, she pairs up the 1p and calls riichi on a 258p three-sided wait. Two turns later, Asami discards the 2p and deals into Daigo. With an uradora, Daigo wins with Riichi/Pinfu/Aka 1/Ura 1 for 8,000+300. With the direct hit, Daigo moves into 1st place.

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Asami

April 7, Game 1, E4-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s80_p3211

In E4-0, Asami is in 2nd place after dealing into Daigo, now 7,900 from the top.

Asami starts out the hand at 4-shanten, pairing up the east to go with his white dragon pair. On turn 2, he calls pon on the white dragon to secure a yaku. On turn 5, she pairs up the red dragon to get to 2-shanten. In addition, the single green dragon in her hand does give the remote possibility of a potential yakuman. At the start of the second row, Asami calls pon on the red dragon. Instead of taking the iishanten, however, she breaks her 24s block to try for a manzu honitsu at the very least.

As Asami takes the extra time to build, it’s an opportunity for her opponents to advance first.In the middle of the second row, Honda gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 25m ryanmen.

At this point, Asami has already called pon on the east for that third yakuhai. With an incredible green dragon previously discard by Nagai during a live daisangen chance, Asami’s daisangen hopes are already dead.

Two turns after Honda called riichi, Asami gets to tenpai on a 25m ryanmen, guaranteed a mangan if she wins. Holding the exact same wait as Honda and being right after him, she would lose to Honda with the headbump.

Holding two ryanmens and a secured red 5m, Nagai pushes a bit. In the middle of his third row, he gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 69m ryanmen.

On Asami’s next turn, she draws the 2m and wins the hand. Asami wins with Honitsu/East/Red Dragon/White Dragon for 2,000/4,000 plus two riichi sticks, moving into 1st place.

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Daigo

April 7, Game 1,S4-1
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s80_p3212

Daigo and Asami have been passing 1st place between each other. Going into the final hand, Asami is in 1st place with Daigo just 6,500 behind. With two riichi sticks and a honba, Daigo needs a 2/50 or 3/25 direct hit, a 3/30 tsumo or a 3/40 ron.

Daigo starts out the hand with a pair of double souths and a lone dora green dragon. If he can secure both of those blocks, he will have enough value for 1st place. Within the first go-around, Daigo calls pon on the south to get things going. Before the row is done, he is iishanten.

At the start of his second row, Daigo calls pon on the 5p and gets to tenpai on a green dragon tanki. Near the end of the row, Nagai discards the green dragon trying to take tenpai and deals into Daigo. Daigo wins the hand with Double South/Dora 2 for 8,000+300 plus two riichi sticks, winning the game.

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Results

Game 3

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Game 2

Mentanpin My Beloved

April 7, Game 2, E2-0

In E2-0, Aki is in 2nd place, 10,500 behind 1st place Taro.

Aki starts out the hand at 2-shanten with a secured 6m dora. With her very first discard, Taro calls pon on the white dragon, getting Aki her next turn just a bit faster. On her next turn, she fills in a 3s kanchan for iishanten. A turn later, she fills in a 7s kanchan. She has a chance for iishanten, but chooses to stay iishanten to fish for a better wait than a 2p kanchan and possibly some more value. With her next draw, she gets that improvement and calls riichi on a 25p ryanmen.

Within the go-around, Taro calls a 123p chii and gets to tenpai on a 69p/west wait. A win on the 9p or west will give him a mangan.

In the middle of the second row, Aki draws the 2p and wins the hand. Aki wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu/Tanyao/Dora 1 for 2,000/4,000.

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Shortcut to Mangan

April 7, Game 2, E4-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s80_p3215

In E4-0, Kayamori is in 4th place and is 1,100 behind 3rd place Kurosawa.

Kayamori starts out the hand 3-shanten for a standard hand, but is lacking in value. In the first row, she actually goes to 5-shanten for a standard hand (4-shanten for seven pairs) holding a lot of stray yakuhai, thinking she has no chance of winning and is better off defending.

Her senses of being slow are correct as Taro gets to tenpai at the start of the second row on a 25p ryanmen.

Two turns later, Aki calls pon on the 3m and gets to tenpai on a white dragon/6s shanpon, only allowed the white dragon.

Two turns later, Kurosawa gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 36s ryanmen.

With the riichi on the table, both Taro and Aki end up folding. For Kayamori, she is able to stay relatively safe with her stray honours. At the same time, though, she ends up drawing pairs. By the end of the second row, she is iishanten for chiitoi.

At the start of the second row, she gets her sixth pair and calls riichi on a green dragon tanki. On her very next turn, she draws the green dragon and wins the hand. Kayamori wins with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tsumo/Chiitoi for 2,000/4,000 plus a riichi stick, moving into 3rd place.

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Menhon

April 7, Game 2, S1-1
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p7564

In S1-1, Aki is in 2nd place and 1,800 behind 1st place dealer Taro.

Aki starts out the hand at 3-shanten holding nine manzu tiles, including a secured 4m dora and red 5m. Some sort of flush seems to be in her future. By turn 5, she ups that count to 11 manzu tiles. In the middle of the second row, she pairs up the red dragon to be iishanten.

To her right, Kurosawa gets to iishanten with two ryanmens, guaranteeing her a good wait. A turn later, she gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 58m ryanmen.

On Aki’s next turn, she gets to tenpai on a 25m/red dragon wait. A few turns later, Taro discards the red dragon trying to keep is iishanten pinzu chinitsu and deals into Aki. Aki wins with Honitsu/Red Dragon/Dora 1/Aka 1 for 12,000+300 plus a riichi stick.

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Direct Hit

April 7, Game 2, S3-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p10058

In S3-0, Kurosawa is in 4th place, 17,600 behind 3rd place behind 3rd place Taro and 17,800 behind 2nd place Kayamori. A mangan direct hit would get her to one of them, while a haneman direct hit would put her above the one that deals in.

Kurosawa starts out the hand at 4-shanten with 3p dora next to a red 5p. Kurosawa doesn’t get too far in the first row, only getting to 3-shanten, but she does add another 3p dora to her hand. At the start of the second row, Kurosawa advances to 2-shanten.

With her hand being so slow, it allows her opponents to beat her to the chase. On Taro’s turn, he gets to tenpai on a 4m kanchan, staying dama. A turn later, Taro improves the wait and calls riichi on a 47m ryanmen.

Having an safe extra 1m pair, she is able to stay safe for two turns. After being able to discard safely for five turns in a row, Kurosawa pushes the 1s suji to get to iishanten. On her next draw, she gets to tenpai and chases Taro with a 3p/2m shanpon. Immediately after, Taro discards the 3p dora and wins the hand. Kurosawa wins with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tanyao/Dora 3 for 12,000 plus a riichi stick, moving into 3rd place.

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Results

Game 4

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