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February 6, 2005
Column #200
Japanese Modern (riichi/dora). For those readers who enjoy celebrating things, please note that this is my 200th column. Woo-hoo! (Or, as they'd say in Japan, banzai!) Okay, let's not overdo the partying. Here's how Noriko's hand was shaping up. It was the east round...
Watanabe had just thrown 9S. Noriko wasn't ready to commit based on the hope that someone would throw tou (E). In case that didn't happen, then she would have to keep her hand concealed. Besides, there was also the tanyao option. So she let it ride. Her next pick was a throwaway. Then Watanabe declared riichi on 6S. Noriko still didn't call.. She picked 7P and examined Watanabe's discards.
What are the safe tiles to throw? See answer #1, below. Noriko threw 4M. Then Shigeru went riichi too.
What are Shigeru's safe tiles? See answer #2.
Then Watanabe threw E.
This, as mentioned earlier, is what Noriko had been waiting for. But circumstances had changed by this point. So here's the deal. Noriko could call it and make her hand qualified to go out. But then she wouldn't have many safe discards. What else could she do (besides pung the E)? See answer #3.
Noriko picked 9M and 8S, getting rid of her winds. She picked and threw some odd dragons, then got 5M. She threw 9M - safe.
Watanabe threw 2S, and Noriko decided to claim it. 3S looked safe to throw, so that's what she threw. After Watanabe discarded 8M, Noriko picked one and threw it. Then Shigeru declared tsumo (self-pick) on 7P.
Big one. Iipeikou, tsumo, riichi, three dora, and two ura dora. Eight fan. "Baiman!" 8,000 from Etsuko and 4,000 from the others.
1. The safe throws were NW, 13469S, 58P, 147M.
2. WGR, 147S, 58M, 1469P.
3. She could just use her own E's as safe discards. Go for tanyao, but probably throw the hand.
* Dora tile shown, not dora indicator tile.
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