ゲームスタート！皆五段だよね。In this battle of 5-dans I am presented with a few opportunities to fight. Many of my mahjong compatriots at this level of play have higher win rates than I do - when I win it tends to be a huge hand but I don't win as often, which makes for a lot of 2nd and 3rds. 4ths when unlucky. I have been trying to open my play style to have less fold, more push and mawashi within reason, and I'm hoping this game represents that bearing fruit rather than just confirmation bias.
East 1:
Dealer opens out of the gate with double ton before I even get a turn. Another pon, then a kakan has me folding because I'm still 3-shanten with little to no value. The dealer deals into toimen for 2600 and the game pushes forward.
East 2:
This is the first moment for aggression! I am fighting the dealer on his ippatsu turn. What to cut?
I chose the dora. It's risky but the dora tanki wait is just horrid, and felt that 7700 good wait was worth fighting for! The dora thankfully passed. What would you do here?
Because there is no justice in mahjong, I missed an ippatsumo baiman because I didn't take the dora tanki. The very next turn I get my tsumo haneman (ura 1). Judging by the "half EV with a good wait is worth pushing" rule I believe this was still the right choice. If the dora deals in it's either 7700, 9600 or 12000 in most cases, where the expected value of my hand is > 7700 due to mangan/haneman chances with ura.
East 3:
I am instantly excited as I open a haku ankou with 3 dora in hand. How to win this?
I don't. Oya makes a pretty hasty riichi, but with this value I am trying to mawashi. I deal into a 2k riichi nomi with 9s from a 799s shape and shed a single tear for my haku and dora circling the drain.
East 3-1:
Another moment of aggression. I felt this situation called for a riichi on what is usually a textbook dama:
Tanpin iipeikou dora 1. 7700 on ron. However, toimen seems to have folded or is at least mawashi in response to shimo's riichi on the last turn. I don't believe this 58m is going to come out, and I don't want to fold due to the hand value. I decide it is better to tsumogiri riichi, because the tile is safe, and tsumo will get me a haneman. Kamicha chooses to keep their iipeikou with dora tanki tenpai, and tsumogiri deals 8m into me on ippatsu for a haneman.
East 4:
Hello deal, goodbye deal! A turn 3 riichi from shimocha leads to a turn 7 mangan tsumo. With a 28k lead over second place, discretion is the better part of valor here. I really didn't get anything worth pushing or close enough to tenpai to need to make any tricky decisions.
South 1:
A toimen double nan open and me not knowing where 5/7 dora are have me folding. Toimen gets a 1000/2000 tsumo. My lead is still 18000 so I am fine with advancing the game.
South 2:
I cut the penchan not really know what to do with the sluggish hand (chiitoi with dora?) and deal in to nan dora 1 from oya. Oops!
South 2-1:
Someone needs to put the breaks on toimen! I didn't feel my hand was fast or valuable. Toimen tsumos 2.1k all and my lead is beginning to shrink to levels where I can't be totally passive or fast.
South 2-2:
A chance to end toimen's deal comes and I take it:
Sanmenchan riichi, cutting 6m. 4th chases, and ippatsumos the 1300/2600 pinfu. My lead techinically got a little larger with that tsumo because 2nd place was responsible for the oya's payment.
South 3:
I take a pinfu wait cutting the genbutsu red 5p. I want to apply the biggest pressure to the dealer as possible and end his chance at a comeback.
This hand showed I need to pay more attention to tsumogiri. I would have been much more suspicious of shimo had I noticed they had tsumogiri'd 5 tiles in a row. I win this riichi battle for 3900 when toimen deals in, making my lead quite strong again.
All Last:
SCARY! I figure toimen has a chinitsu with the red 5p. On tsumo, this is enough to win because I'm oya, by closing an 18000 point gap when i have only a 17600 point lead. I'm trying to feed shimo tiles to end the game:
In then end, toimen does tsumo, but the head is pei. The hand is just a mangan and I keep first place! Perhaps hoping for a direct hit, or just playing for second place, but I wasn't going to drop a single pinzu beyond midgame because if I'm noten I would just win anyway.
Thanks for reading!
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