November Kimchi Tournament

Sunday, November 10th, 2013. Korean mahjong league tournament.

My individual account of each hanchan.

半荘一 [南]
First hand toimen riichi’d. I was 1 shanten yakuhai on nan. Also had three W tiles. I knew I wasn’t playing against akagi, so I played defense. Toimen was waiting for 14p, which I didn’t have anyway.Then played out my nan tiles for noten. Definitely nervous to start. I had a double riichi opp but didn’t take it. Riichi’d on the second turn. Ended up riichi tsumo pinfu dora ura. Would have been a haneman. Oh well. Was a low scoring hanchan overall. Only two rons from any player, no renchans. Dealt into a damaten tanpin dora dora. At least it wasn’t oyaman, I guess. Kind of had to deal out the tile. I was 2shanten san ankou. I drew a fourth 1m before dealing 6s to kamicha. Another time, I had an opp for chun hatsu toi toi, but it went to ryuukyoku. I had played against my kamicha before. Definitely a strong player. Toimen pulled off haitei tsumo pinfu dora dora, mangain. Again, lucky it wasn’t oyaman.
The misread on double riichi probably cost me.
3rd

半荘二 [東]
No massive hands this hanchan. Stole a few riichi bows after ponning yakuhai. Shimocha was chasing all the way after dealing into kamicha’s damaten tanpin dora dora. mangan.
Thought toimen would give me trouble. At practise on Friday, I was chasing and dealt into his hatsu honitsu toi toi dora oyahane. It was obvious too. Had that on my mind when he riichi’d during the hanchan. Kamicha was clearly nervous, cutting 7 from my wall by accident when collecting tiles. Toimen also nervous after ponning chun from me and placing the tile turned to his right by mistake.
An opp came to pon W, my yakuhai, but I didn’t take it. But at second turn, kamicha discarded the final W, so I pon’d. Good thing too, cos later he riichi and dealt into me. I had a chance for open chanta dora dora, which would have put me in the lead, but shimocha dealt into toimen, and that was on the 3rd multiplier. So bonus points to toimen. Didn’t deal into anyone. Didn’t riichi.
Shimocha did his best and furiten riichi at oorasu for ri pa mo tanyao. Discarded 8s, waiting on 258s.
Toimen, as expected came first. Shimocha was always chasing and came last.
Still ended up in negative at -700.
2nd

半荘三 [南]
Played kamicha and shimocha before in Friday practise. Whenever I played shimocha, I never placed first. Shimocha ran away with this one. Good flow of sands for shimocha. Never dealt into shimocha either. I nicked a riichi stick from toimen for nan shanpon wait. Was too far away from first and was battle for second. Don’t know if I did the right thing by ponning yakuhai to scare off 3rd and 4th. Nearly had a Ting baiman special, but it wasn’t to be (ri pa mo, chitoi, dora 2, ura 2). Kamicha was suffering from flu like symptoms, didn’t help him. He came 3rd. Again, didn’t deal into anyone. Lucky I always had some genbutsu or semi-safe tiles when someone riichi’d. I missed one opp to pon 2s to get into open tanyao tenpai, but other than that, I played my game. No massive hands for me. Lots of ip tsumos. Was most worried about this cos of kamicha’s and shimocha’s history of play.
After ponning for open tanyao tenpai wait, had to decide to go shanpon or two sided. Decided on two sided, but it was for 25m and that was never coming out. 6s for shanpon, one was already out, so I thought no way a 4th would come out, and it didn’t.
Shimocha at oorasu riichi’d on 78p shanpon wait. Good to scare off everyone. Shimocha was eventual overall winner of the tournament. I never dealt into her. She must have won all her hanchans.
2nd

半荘四 [北]
Played kamicha before. Very strong player. Always good at efficiency. And always seems to pick up terminals and yakuhai when someone riichis. Lucky b. Everything was going ok, until I dealt into shimocha. Mangan. That put me to 3rd. Kamicha was blazing away. Good sands. Was damaten at oorasu for like 5 turns. Kamicha had pon’d chun and chi’d 2s. Obvious, blatant honitsu. Should have thought about renchan and riichi’d. I had kanchan wait on 4s, which would have never come from kamicha. Was semi chasing in this hanchan. Dealt into toimen once. No massive hands. I had a riichi tsumo, but it didn’t help me. If I had direct hit toimen or kamicha, that would have been better. But it wasn’t to be, and both were strong players. Kamicha would eventually place second overall in the tournament.
3rd

Overall placing was 15 out of 28/29.
Consolation of highest placed ‘foreigner’ in the tournament. Meh.