Path to the 26th Annual Phoenix Cup: Going Crazy
This is an ongoing serialized column from the JPML website. The previous episode can be seen in English here. Path to the 26th Annual Phoenix Cup: Introduction
Written by： Naoki Setokuma
November 25, 2010
Friday, February 26, 2010. I thought this day had finally arrived.
This was the first day of the 26th Annual Phoenix Cup Final.
The rest of the world was focused on the Vancouver Olympics.
The day before, Mao Asada and Yuna Kim’s short program in figure skating took place and everyone in Japan was talking about it.
From the point of view of those people throughout the world, my battle was worlds smaller the Olympic stage.
But to someone like me, who has chosen to live their life on this road, this stage was a battlefield and a stage we all dream to be on.
After 3 days of battle to the death here, only joy or despair would remain.
For some reason, 5 years earlier I was bubbling with confidence.
I believed that it was decided I would win. I opened everything up on the table.
But… I failed.
After losing the battle I couldn’t sleep for days. I was filled with regret and self-pity and I even thought I wanted to quit mahjong.
The only way to take back my discouraged heart was to get revenge.
But, I lost out to the fear of tasting the same losing feeling again.
Especially this time, when I only made it to the final with the 4 concealed triples (su-anko-) hand. That brought on a whole new wave of pressure.
After the final session for the Pro League, a number of people said to me,
“After winning your way into the finals like that, the winds are on your side to win the title.”
The venue for the first day was at “Kinkoso” in Yurakucho. It’s the same venue that’s been used since I joined the pro league.
But, today we would play on the 4th floor and not the 3rd. Actually, I don’t have very good memories on the 4th floor. I had a bad feeling.
In a few hours that bad feeling would be realized.
In the train on the way to the venue, I repeated to myself over and over my basic strategy for the next 3 days and the things that I had to make sure not to do. (Details are in my interview)
Then I arrived. I had all intentions to get plenty of sleep the night before, but my body was tired.
I was nervous to the max and just wanted to get started. Fujiwara-pro’s opening words felt longer than ever.
At this time I was only thinking one thing.
“After these 3 days and 18 games, I can pass out. I need to put that much energy into it. Let’s end this long road.”
At long late the 26th Annual Phoenix Cup Final began.
1st Game, East 1st Hand, 8th Discard, Reach from the Dealer, Itakawa.
My hand was what you see above.
At this time, I was thinking that if I could cleverly drop my pair of 
then I could draw 
But, it didn’t go as I hoped and so I started to fold. Then at the 13th discard.
Maehara-pro came in with a Reach after Itakawa-pro’s reach, using 5 of Itakawa’s winning tiles, 
and 
and the hand ended in a draw.
When Maehara and Itakawa opened their hands, I looked at the tiles of both men and I trembled again the genius in Maehara’s fighting style.
“Maehara is fighting hard and smart. What the hell am I doing,” I thought.
Fighting 18 games over 3 days is tough. The road is long no matter which way you look at it, so I think it’s fine to go full speed or keep it at a low gear the whole way.
Either way, the time alternates between offense and defense.
But, you can’t be on the fence during the times of defense and when you’re attacking you can’t be concerned with only yourself.
Out of the 4 contestants I was 3rd or 4th.
I saw the results in this order.
Until the last hand, the biggest win was 3,900 points and the scores were as to be expected:
Maehara 38,000, Itakawa 30,200, Shibata 24,900, Setokuma 26,900
Maehara had set the pace.
The rest of us didn’t discuss it, but we all knew we were thinking the same thing.
The 3 of us were thinking, “We need to end this game here.”
But, in the final hand.
If he drew or he never would have discarded 
. Only Itakawa knew it, but a deafening silence pursued.
“Oh no, next the big one is going to come.”
Then, the dreaded scene was set, the last hand, 1 continuance. The word “reach” echoed. Of course, it was Maehara-pro that said it.
I’ve been in this exact same situation numerous times. This reach is for a real hand. “Who can fight him? Not me.”
On the 16th discard, Maehara won the higher end of his hand from Shibata pro, who had also got to Ready (tempai) with Peace (pinfu), Three Colored Runs (sanshoku) and 2 dora.
Everyone besides Maehara-pro knew this would happen when he won the first 1,500 points in the last hand.
But, even knowing the future couldn’t change it. This is the peak of the mountain I am climbing.
In the next hand, Shiata finally won a 2000 point hand from me and the first game was over.
1st Game Scores
Maehara＋33.4P Itakawa▲2.3P Setokuma▲8.7P Shibata▲22.4P
During the short break before the 2nd game, I was reflecting deeply on the prevous game.
“If I don’t do something, today is already over.”
2nd Game, East 1st Hand, Starting down by 5,200 points.
Shibata-pro pulled this 
after he was Ready.
After looking at his open hand, I found 4 
that would give me my higher score.
I was desperate to keep in the weak tendencies that would break me.
I repeated to myself over and over, “Today I’ll defend. For tomorrow and the next day.”
In the East-2nd hand, I got lucky with a 3,900 point hand from Maehara-pro which led to my turn as dealer.
This was my dealt hand in East-3rd hand, as dealer.
Dora:
A hand that I couldn’t let get away came. The tile I chose as my first discard was .
Many people asked me about this at the end of the day.
“That hand could’ve been a Triple”
“Yeah, it could’ve,” is all I could say, but in reality I had no idea what there were talking about.
If you look at the example above you’ll understand, but if I had discarded first and then discarded after drawing , then this hand:
Draw:
could’ve been a Triple (sanbaiman).
But, it’s a little much to break up the dots (pinzu) , so I think it was a bit far-fetched to go for the Triple hand, but at the end of the first day being asked this so much I was confused.
This shock really hit me at the end of the first day and that led to what happened in the 4th game.
In the end I drew a hand good for 6000 from each player and the first-place player from the first game, Maehara-pro, got a big negative, putting me in first place overall.
At the end of 2 games:
Setokuma＋19.4P Itakawa＋4.9P Maehara▲3.8P Shibata▲20.5P
Before the 3rd game I had a feeling of pointless relief. I was really a fool.
The points going into the last hand of that game were:
Maehara 20,200, Itakawa 31,600, Setokuma 24,300, Shibata 43,900
I figured I was a shoe-in for 3rd place. I really was weak.
This is when Maehara-pro took charge of this game and in the end:
Maehara +22.9P, Shibata +14.2P, Itakawa ▲16.5P, Setokuma ▲20.6P
I got last place.
What in the world was I doing. Did I not realize this was the Phoenix Cup final?
At the end of 3 games:
Maehara＋19.1P Setokuma▲1.2P Shibata▲6.3P Itakawa▲11.6P
At this point it still wasn’t necessary to worry about the scores. But, with Maehara as the only player in the black, it bothered me to no end.
At this point, maybe it was already determined that I would lose.
I wanted to put my feelings away.
Then the 4th game began.
I write about 3 lines in a mahjong journal every day. I write hands that left an impression on me, the results of certain dealt hands, etc.
On this day my journal read as follows:
“On this day, things got tough after I folded with a gut shot waiting for 4. I wonder if I exerted myself when things were going bad overall.
I need to stop going half-ass when I’m folding! I need to turn today’s shame into something good tomorrow.”
That was in East-3rd hand
After Itakawa-pro’s reach, if I discard , then I was ready waiting for 
.
However, the chance of winning with to try and keep my hand together, I heard the word, “Ron”.
I hadn’t prepared myself to lose those points. The only strategy at that point was to be wary of Itakawa-pro’s reach.
I had totally forgotten. After that discard, I could no longer hear my own voice telling me to, “stay.”
4th game scores:
Itakawa +18.0P Maehara +10.4P Shibata▲7.0P Setokuma▲21.4P
At the end of 4 games:
Maehara +29.5P Itakawa +6.4P Shibata▲13.3P Setokuma▲22.6P
5th game scores:
Shibata +33.9P Itakawa▲2.0P Setokuma▲10.5P Maehara▲21.4P
At the end of 5 games:
Shibata +20.6P Maehara +8.1P Itakawa▲4.4P Setokuma▲33.1P
In the last hand of the 6th game, the points were:
Maehara 29,500P, Shibata 32,700P, Setokuma 24,400P, Itakawa 33,400P
The dealer in the final hand was Maehara-pro. I had a bad feeling. And on that first day, all of my bad feelings came true.
Just as expected I threw Maehara’s winner of 1500 points and with only myelf in the red, the game continued.
I got a lucky 8000 point hand. I saw a thin sliver of light through the abyss.
6th game scores:
Itakawa +11.4P Shibata +5.7P Setokuma +2.2P Maehara ▲19.3P
At the end of 6 games:
Shibata +26.3P Itakawa +15.8P Maehara ▲11.2P Setokuma ▲30.9P
And with this the first day ended.
It was all I could do to hold by my anger at myself. I told myself over and over.
“You’ve paid years of dues for what, to play this pathetic mahjong? Did you already forget those tears of regret? Can’t you play to the death? Can’t you prepare for the worst?”
I decided 2 things at the end of this day.
First was that I would sleep as much as possible. Next, that I would play for 1st place or last place from the 2nd day on. Death before surrender.
When I went home and turned on the TV, Mao Asada was giving an interview through tears after winning a silver medal.
It reminded me of myself 5 years before.
Then I heard something from the gold medal winner Yuna Kim that stayed with me.
“The feeling when I lost helped to create this.”
These words helped shape my feelings after the 2nd day.
I put the regret and desire inside and the night went on.
Coming up: Phoenix Cup Day 2 – Sublimation
Written by: Naoki Setokuma
Translated published by ReachMahjong.com with permission from the Japan Professional Mahjong League. May not be reproduced in any way without written consent from both JPML and ReachMahjong.com.
Original Japanese column can be seen on the JPML website.
