It's been some time since my last post! We left off with the Montreal Riichi Open in 2022.
Since then there has been a number of activities and events: RNO 2022 (76 players), PML 2022 (all autotables with 40 players), Cincy 2022, RRO 2023 and PML Invitational 2023 on the same weekend competing for players, and then Montreal 2023 (40+ players) and finally RNO 2023 with a whopping 120 participants.
With bad to middling luck at all these events until RNO 2023, I began to reflect on my play, especially between the PML Invitational and Montreal 2023 and concluded that I wasn't playing enough aggressive interference. I wasn't aiming for enough 1-2 han hands to really keep the game rolling and it was costing me dealerships, allowing the table more time to build, and getting me a lot of meager 2nds and 3rds. As much as I didn't want to admit it, I was still playing a tournament too much like ladder where I wanted to avoid 4th more than I wanted to win.
I went into Montreal 2023 with the new mindset and it was a bit of a pain to execute. Ultimately I ended up right smack in the middle and missed the Saki Award (player closest to 0.0 for the uninitiated) by 2 fu. In my final game, had Melvin won with a 9p instead of a 7p, it would have achieved a gyakuten by 100 points and instead of +12.2, I would have been +2.2. If he tsumos I'm even closer to 0. Another strange game was a 3rd with 2800 points, a lower score than than the only 4th I took in the tournament. Many big dealer tsumos then a kokushi tsumo on my deal (I once again eat the oyakaburi for the only yakuman) left me scrambling but I did avoid a 4th. Big congratulations to Amy Gu of NYC for winning the Montreal Open 2023. Claire was not available to attend and defend the championship but Amy brought the cup home for NYC all the same. Great work, Amy!
In the lead up to RNO, Max (aka LPY) and I volunteered to give a lecture for RNNYC members about building value both when hands are good but cheap, and just downright awful. Additionally, Amy gave a lecture about the tournament mindset and tips and tricks to help players succeed. Both can be found at the Riichi Nomi NYC Youtube page, linked below:
https://www.youtube.com/@RiichiNomi
The big news for me and my mahjong career is that I WON RNO 2023!!! I am just over the moon that I was able to finally take home a 2-day open victory after quite a streak where my 'tournament bad luck' was becoming a meme. Incidentally, I don't consider myself blameless in my bad luck in previous events. Even though I thought I was doing all the right things, I was still playing too passively to really rack up a good score. I realized that even if I don't have good luck every time I roll the dice, with the right value judgements you can still come out with at least a rentai if you fight often, but pick your battles. There were many games where I went into south in 3rd or 4th and was able to claw back 2nd or even gyakuten to first. The other way I changed my play was keeping fullest efficiency and/or folding, and doing so deliberately. I would mawashi only in situations where I knew I wouldn't run headlong into a trapped dora bomb or when I had a lot of value that needed to be pushed, and only keep a safe tile around when it was getting late enough that someone might be dama.
The luck was also there, however. Four key hands:
1) All last, timer running and in 3rd. Dealer needs only a nomi to win, and riichis with 4m dora. I play completely safe tiles simply by virtue of drawing dead honors. The rest of the table is taking their time seeing how to play safely, and time gets called. A unique feature of RNO was the fact that it was 75 minutes WITHOUT a +1 hand. So when time got called, I started pushing. I didn't want to deal in before that and have another hand and give 4th a chance to catch me, but I also assumed oya didn't even have a mangan (and even with mangan, I would be 3rd still). -5.8 would suck but this was day 1 and risks needed to be taken. I luckily drew a second 7m which saved me from dealing into trapped 7m penchan. Shonpai south push, then I draw perfectly into a kanchan, riichi my 36m pinfu and oya deals in ippatsu and I take the whole game. I wasn't prepared for how the timer and lack of +1 hand would impact push/fold but I adapted to it on the fly and it paid off.
2) Probably my strongest table of the event, I'm seated with Shan, Loic and Max. Loic has all but run away with the game. Here's a pic of the all last score sheet:
The complication here is that there are 4 honba and Max has hung onto the dealership until time was called, costing me my last oya but giving me a unique out: 500/1000 tsumo wouldn't normally cut it, but since he's still oya, 900/1400 manages to grab 2nd by 100 points. Problem: I've aggressively called for tanyao and ended up not drawing tiles that connect a dora, so I'm sitting with 77m23455667p for a 147p wait atozuke for a nomi. Not enough. In the last row, Loic drops the red 5p and it's my ticket to 2nd place, so I pon. Between a 6p7m shabo with 3 tiles, and a 58p ryanmen with just 1 (Shan has dropped the other 5p, and Loic called pon on the 8p) which do we choose? I surmised that as the red 5m is nowhere to be seen and the red 5p just came out, all the tiles of the shabo were held but the 8p was still lingering in the wall because of a kabe on it as the 7p were all visible, making the hell wait better. I tsumo it on my very next turn, the other tiles were all held (the other players at the table were dora tanki and revealed to sate each others curiosity) so I got to see all the tiles just sitting in people's hands and I could not have been happier with that wall read. I end up at 31600 for the hardest fought +6.6 of the tournament.
3) All last of another game I have a healthy 2nd place and I'm in first overall. I get tanyao tenpai with a 5m takame for ipk. 1st is ahead by 5200, so any ron with ura or takame is going to tie unless it's a direct hit. Tsumo 1k/2k will fall short but I'm okay with it. The 2m comes out from the player in 3rd fighting me, but I hit ura 2 on the 4m and win the game outright.
4) All last of the final hanchan. I am in 4th and worried I'm going to lose it all for a couple reasons. The player in 3rd overall is at a nearby table and I've heard him say "4k all" 3 times already. Although I have a little bit of a buffer, I'm not even sure 3rd will be enough, but 2nd is in reach with one more dora. I am waiting 25p and there's a riichi on the table. I basically thought we're getting 2nd or bust, and I pass a win on a 2p for 3900 and 3rd place as I don't know if it's good enough to maintain my lead. The player in 2nd riichis, making the 3900 point direct hit on them enough, but then they drop the red 5p for mangan for me. At that point I knew I had won, and frankly I have zero idea of the tone of my ron declaration because any positive score wins and this accomplished it. It felt like an out of body experience. I spent the rest of the night running that play through my head. Taking the 2p win would have also still just won the tournament, because in spite of all the "4k all" coming from Wesley one table over, I missed when he later pushed and dealt into a baiman. In fact, if the game ended with even mangan tsumo and me in 4th, I actually would have still managed to win by a point or two.
In the end I went 1 2 1 1 1 2 1 2 1 2. 100% rentai rate with no negative scores. It becomes abundantly clear how strong some of the field was when you realize this amazing record was only enough to win by 36.7. That's quite a big lead at the end but I never imagined going into this event, the largest open ever held in the US that I would achieve first with a 100% positive game rate. Top 8 are shown below that received medals or trophies, but the RNO was uniquely designed with prize tiers for ever 30 places, so everyone had things to fight for, to try to cross 90th, 60th or 30th place or break into the top 8. I joked originally that being player number 100 would be lucky, and I guess I was right. It gets difficult to know if you're actually doing the right things in a tournament when bad variance can lurk around every corner. The whole experience was incredibly validating that the work on my tournament play and good luck successfully came together!
Upcoming events on my radar include Vancouver; PML Team Tournament; Chicago; Cork, Ireland; PML Open; and Cincinnati. Of these, I'm doing Ireland for a vacation, and although too far out to fully plan for, I'm looking at the PML Open and Cincinnati. I am bummed that I will be missing Chicago's first 2-day open but I will be traveling with family.
Look forward to some more blog content about improving your play and streaming! I started streaming on Twitch in the interim and will be taking my Mahjong Soul Ladder journey public as I have time to play multiple games.
https://www.twitch.tv/zel_84
Thanks to Riichi Nomi NYC for hosting an amazing event!
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