Game #5
Beast X
Konami Mahjong
Fight Club
EX Furinkazan
Team
Raiden
Hisato
May 7, Game 1, E2-0
In E2-0, Hisato is the dealer in 3rd place, 15,400 behind 2nd place Shimoishi and 16,000 behind 1st place Aki.
Hisato starts out the hand at 3-shanten with a 234s sequence and a 678s sequence. Within the first four turns, he creates a 6p pair and a 25m ryanmen to get to iishanten. On turn 5, he draws the 5s to create a 2345678s shape. With his hand, he has a good chance to make a three-sided wait. In the meantime, he discards the 9m to leave him with simple tiles.
In the second row, Hisato draws a 4s to create a 369s three-sided wait. A turn later, he draws the 2m dora to create a 234m sequence and calls riichi on the souzu shape.
Two turns later, Hagiwara chases with a 25s ryanmen.
Within the go-around, Hisato draws the 6s and wins the hand. Hisato wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu/Tanyao/Dora 1 for 4,000 all plus a riichi stick, enough to move into 1st place.
Shimoishi
May 7, Game 1, E2-1
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p11068
In E2-1, Shimoishi is in 3rd place after Hisato’s dealer mangan tsumo, but is just 1,600 from moving into that top spot.
Shimoishi starts off with a very strong 3-shanten with three potential ryanmen shapes and a connected dora 3p. In the first row, he fills in one of the ryanmens and draws another 3p to create a 2334p shape. At the start of the second row, he creates a 6m kanchan and breaks the 7s from the 667s shape to secure his pair.
In the middle of the second row, he draws the red 5s to complete a 345s sequence. Not satisfied with a 6m kanchan and a chance to improve to pinfu and a 345 sanshoku with his 2334p shape, he stays iishanten and cuts the 7m.
A turn later, he creates a 4m kanchan tenpai. With a 345m iipeikou now possible, he cuts the 3p and calls riichi on the 4m kanchan. Two turns later, he draws the 4m and wins the hand. Shimoishi wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Tanyao/Iipeikou/Dora 1/Aka 1 for 3,000+100/6,000+100, taking the lead.
Hisato
May 7, Game 1, E3-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p8575
In E3-0, Hisato is in 3rd place after Shimoishi won a haneman tsumo and took Hisato’s spot in 1st place. Sitting 16,800 behind, Hisato wants to make as much ground as he can.
Hisato starts out with a pretty good hand at 2-shanten with a ryanmen, but he is lacking any value whatsoever. In the first row, he adds the posibility of going for a souzu straight, but that would mean giving up on his 25p ryanmen.
At the start of the second row, Hisato makes an 899s shape. Seeing 9s as his pair and an immediate iishanten, he gives up on the straight and discards the 8s. It stings him a bit to draw the 7s a few turns later, but he has committed.
Two turns into the third row, Hisato completes a 234p sequence and calls riichi on a 2s/9s shanpon with no other value.
To his left, Shimoishi wants to defend his position. Being already iishanten with good shapes, he pushes. He throws the safe 1s during the ippatsu turn, then an extra 4s on his next. With an east pon, he gets to tenpai on a 25s ryanmen.
On the very last turn, Hisato draws the 2s and wins the hand! What’s more, the 2s triplet in his hand becomes the uradora to boost him up by three more han. What started out a riichi only hand became a Riichi/Tsumo/Haitei/Ura 3 haneman for 3,000/6,000, putting him just 1,800 from 1st place.
Shimoishi
May 7, Game 1, E4-0
In E4-0, Shimoishi’s lead is shrinking after an unexpected haneman from Hisato. More space is needed.
Shimoishi starts out at 3-shanten three potential ryanmen shapes and a strong lean towards tanyao. On turn 4, he converts a kanchan to a kanchan to a ryanmen, guaranteeing his now 2-shanten hand to be a good wait tanyao. At the end of the first row, he draws the 8p dora to get to tenpai and calls riichi on a 25p ryanmen. At the start of the third row (with five winning tiles left in the wall), Shimoishi draws the 2p and wins the hand. Shimoishi wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu/Tanyao/Dora 1 for 2,000/4,000.
Final Scores
Standings
It was a tight race between Shimoishi and Hisato, but it was Shimoishi who came out on top in the end. With his efforts, the Beast X move back up to 3rd place and come within 47.0pts of the 2nd place EX Furinkazan. With Hisato’s gain, they expand their lead over the EX Furinkazan, almost having double their current score. And Hagiwara was unable to recover after dealing into a mangan in E1-1, dropping his team down to 4th.
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