Beta League Pool C Summary

By the end of Round 3, Pool C really appeared to stratify itself compared to the other pools.

On one end, there was a clear group at the top, with 5 people over the century mark overall, compared to 2 pools which has no one over that mark. While he suffered a huge 4th to end his 3rd round Max Suddendorf still put together a positive session and led the Pool. Oliver and I continued to give chase, this despite being paired together. Oliver gained a modest 34 points to hold onto 2nd position, while I managed to have a big session gaining 67.4 points almost doubling my score and putting me in 3rd place overall - thanks in part to a dealer baiman during Game 1 that came together late in the 3rd row.

Drawing the more expensive side for riichi, tsumo, tanyao, pinfu, sanshoku, dora 2

At the other end some were preparing to proudly fight for the lower leagues with a group proudly calling themselves the “negative gang” fighting hard to hold their positions and even attempt climb back toward zero overall.  Bret Lockerbie, the original founder of the negative gang, had to resign his position after he had accomplished his goal and ended at +20.1 previously but soon was back to take his place as leader as he was a casualty of the pairing with Oliver and I. Another member of the group, Steven Franco achieved his first positive session of the season on the back of a dealer mangan in Game 3, and was warmly congratulated by his fellow negative gang members.

A clean riichi, ippatsu, pinfu, iipeikou for a dealer mangan against 1st place

Round 4 seemed to be a turning point, as Max’s hold over the pool was relinquished. Despite making gains every round, that huge 4th at the end of the 3rd round took some of the wind out of his sails. He struggled to make headway against Panhandle Mahjong’s Ryan Adams, who after a back-and-forth start was really hitting his stride. Max could only gain about 20 points on the session while Ryan was definitely the big winner gaining almost 80 putting him in reasonable reach of the A1/A2 playoffs.

Ryan’s ura-3 puts a dent in Max’s point total in Game 2

That opened the door for Oliver, who used his 2 first place finishes to bank over 50 points and take over the top spot from Max heading into the penultimate round.

But that wasn’t even close to the story of the 4th round. Dustin Fries, who also gained over 50 points putting him in the final A1 guaranteed spot had what you could say was a wild 2nd game. In it, within the span of 4 hands, almost 90,000 points were exchanged.

Starting in E2-1, Zelong Li hit an early dealer haneman tsumo, taking 6000 points from everyone:

No ura needed here - riichi , tsumo, pinfu, sanshoku, dora for dealer haneman

On the very next hand though, Zelong would give back those points and much more as he decided to push riichi while Dustin was already showing 2/3 of a daisangen. The plan would backfire as he could not win before dealing in the final part of Dustin’s yakuman:

Dustin had just picked up the 2nd 5-pin the turn before allowing him to be yakuman tenpai!

Dustin managed to tack on another 7700 points as dealer which was fortunate for him as on E3-1, the aforementioned Steven from Round 3 started with 11 terminals, but had to be patient to get to kokushi tenpai in the 3rd row, and was immediately paid off after declaring riichi.

A happy ending to a somewhat frustrating hand. No extra points for ippatsu though.

Moving day finally arrived with Round 5 as the scramble was on to secure any spot, guaranteed or otherwise.

By far the biggest mover was Amy Gu, who after spending the majority of the league hovering between even and +50, took the literal axe to her competition, banking over 100 points moving her from B1 territory to almost the A1/A2 playoffs all in one go.

Meanwhile ARML Founder Edwin Dizon, who had a rough go of it the entire season (including being the 4th player at that double yakuman table), was all but resigned for the B2 league when sitting down at a table with Stanley Deng who was on the B1/B2 border as well as both Ryan and Oliver who were fighting for A1 spots.  Somehow in game 1, he avoids 3 early riichi’s of turn 3 or before, winning over 40000 points before his dealership ends in E3. That +50 allowed him to be in striking distance of the B1/B2 playoffs for the first time in a while with 3 games left to go.

Unfortunately that luck would not last. Oliver ran over the table in the second match keeping everyone else under 30000 and keeping all the positive points for himself.  That would help him break the 200 point mark all but guaranteeing his place in A1. Stanley would dominate the final 2 games taking two 1st place finishes placing him securely into the B1/B2 playoffs. Ryan had little to lose with such a big gap between him and the group below that despite posting a negative 5th round, he had the last A1/A2 playoff spot secure. 

Focus then shifted to the final 2 tables which would determine in part where the top 8 of the pool would finally settle into.

First up was the pairing between Max, Dustin, Kevin Shi (who was himself fighting for an A2/B1 playoff spot) and Albert Yeung. With Oliver already in the clubhouse at +232.3, Max put in 3 solid games totaling over 50 points and pushed himself ahead of Oliver for top spot and a place in the Winter Season Championship. This came at the expense of both Dustin and Kevin who ran the risk of falling out of their playoff position. However, that would have to wait as the games took too long and they had to reschedule the last game for 3 days later, and potentially as the last game of the pool for the regular season…

The spotlight then turned to the table with myself, Zelong, Vincent Cordera and Andres Hernandes. We would play 2 games over 2 days and would finish right before Max’s table would play their last game. My goal was to take the top spot, Vincent was looking to keep his A1/A2 playoff position, Zelong had a chance at breaking into the A2 league and bumping someone out, and Andres was looking for a positive score to put him squarely in the B1 League.

In the games on the first day, I was the only significant winner at the table putting in a 1st and 2nd and gaining almost 40 points. Zelong and Andres was able to blunt the damage being dealt which mean that Vincent’s spot in the A1/A2 playoffs were in severe jeopardy.

With the most to lose at that point, Vincent went for broke in Game 3 with back-to-back haneman and mangan as dealer in E2.  I managed to weather the storm finishing 2nd with still a shot of taking 1st overall in the pool. Zelong this time took the brunt of the attack, and while he still had his A2/B1 playoff position, his margin of error suddenly got a lot smaller.

Riichi, tsumo, double yakuhai (E), honitsu for a much needed dealer haneman…

…followed by a simple double yakuhai (E), dora 2 paid by Zelong.

With nothing to lose having secured 3rd place and a spot in the A1 League, I pressed the initiative in the 4th and final game, winning 5 of the first 7 hands, including back-to-back dealer mangans to start my dealership.

First up was a sneaky yakuhai, dora 3 to take the lead…

…and then a double yakuhai, honitsu to put myself within arm’s reach of the top spot.

I was then able to hold onto those points until all-last when I capped off the game with a tsumo haneman to post a +52.1, putting myself at +238.7 ahead of Oliver with just Max’s final game left to play.

That third dora only came on the turn prior to the win!

As for everyone else, Vincent was in trouble much like everyone else after my rampage, but was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief when he finally hit a haneman tsumo in S2 to push himself over the 2nd place positive score he needed to keep the A1/A2 playoff position.  Andres, couldn’t get that positive score and ended up in the B1/B2 playoffs. Finally Zelong, who had looked like a solid contender for a top 5 spot after 3 sessions ended up being the biggest casualty and fell all the way down to a negative score overall and the B1 league.

Then it was finally time for the last game in pool C.  Max still held an 11.5 point lead, so even a modest 3rd place could be enough for him to hold onto the top spot. But of course he wasn’t only the person fighting for something. Kevin was the beneficiary of Zelong’s unfortunate final round as he now occupied the final A2/B1 playoff spot. But it wasn’t guaranteed. A bad 3rd or a 4th place finish would mean he would relinquish that spot back. Albert had an outside shot at taking Kevin’s spot as well, but needed a big 1st and for Kevin to finish in the bottom 2. Only Dustin had their place pretty much decided barring a large explosion or collapse.

Albert began proceedings immediately as dealer chasing a riichi by Kevin and drawing it on the next turn for a mangan.

Ippatsu tsumo, on the dora no less!

But after that the game turned into a nervous stalemate, with points being exchanged around the table, but everyone still within reach of any position - good or bad. Heading into the late stages, Albert still had the lead and Max had managed the game well and sat in 2nd and with Dustin in a clear last, even if he fell to 3rd, so long as it was a minor 3rd, he would still take the pool.

The race down the stretch though, had other ideas…

First, Kevin in S3 kicked things off with his own dealer ippatsu tsumo mangan, catapulting him into 1st and moving Max to 3rd. The numbers showed he still led overall, but by mere points.

Didn’t hit the expensive side, but it’s still expensive enough anyways!

And then it was time for the last person to take the stage. Having been battered the entire round, Dustin made one final push of his own. Thanks to another ippatsu tsumo (see a trend?) his modest hand turned into a mangan of his own. He was still in 4th heading into all last, but more importantly in striking range.

Yet another ippatsu tsumo limit hand!!

In the last hand of the season in Pool C, Dustin would seal the fate of everyone. Max would later lament about the amount of ippatsu tsumo’s in the game, and indeed Dustin would pull the trick one more time out of the hat. Riichi, ippatsu, tsumo, and drawing the last 4p to add in an iipeikou would make for one final mangan hand, putting him in 2nd and locking his position in the A1/A2 playoff, while Max was relegated to 4th in the game and 3rd in Pool C, which meant that I was headed to the championship.

The final nail in the coffin…

Pool C had wild swings happened every session.  It featured the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th highest scores in the entire league with the difference between them being a total of just 10.7.  Every round was tense with huge scores and wild swings.  There was even a game with not just 1 but 2 yakuman in it!  After the dust finally settled I was fortunate to head to the championship and will join Oliver and Max into the A1 league next season, both well deserved.  Dustin and Vincent would head to the A1/A2 playoffs while Amy and Ryan would enter the A2 League with solid scores over 100.