Jumping rule sets has always been an issue for me. That’s why I try not to play too much on ron2 before an EMA tournament. The differences in the rules are slight but enough to drastically change my game strategy.

Having things like open tanyao (open inside hand/all simples) really changes how often I steal and how much I rely on dora tiles. (Those who play me know that I heavily rely on dora tiles to make better hands rather than making real monsters from the hand lists. It’s the reason that I tend to kan (quad) more often than I probably should.) I’ve even made a few chombos due to the lack of an open tanyao.

Is this fair to players who are used to reach mahjong how it’s played in Japan? Isn’t this acting as a severe disadvantage when they come to play in Europe? Many would argue that they do.

The EMA rules are not without Japanese precedent though. There are several versions of reach mahjong being played there, which also have similar restrictions and variations.

What we mustn’t forget is that the EMA rules have done an excellent job of formalizing and unifying reach mahjong in Europe and allowing it to grow. Without the good work of the rule’s creators, mahjong may never have gained the following in Europe that it has now.

However, should things like open tanyao be opened for discussion, now that the players are more established? Should there be a more democratic stance taken on these controversial points? Or perhaps more than one sort of rule set should be allowed but that all rules approved by the EMA will count towards the EMA ranking… That might be a compromise that we could all get behind.

And there are enough players who are passionate about these issues. Which brings us back nicely to the player who started my musing…

Robert is passionate about mahjong and he has some very strong ideas about how the EMA rules can be changed for the better. Last I heard he was doing some statistical research using the Tenhou hands to demonstrate that the EMA rules are not fair. I hope he does complete that because I’d be really interested to see what his final conclusion is.

Robert is a very good player. I got to play him in Vienna and he was excellent, but would he have been even better with one of the rule sets from Japan? Probably!

That’s the risk that is being taken at the moment though. That good players like Robert who prefer to play with a Japanese rule set will be disillusioned by the EMA rule set, which will be a great shame for European mahjong.

Anyway here’s hoping that I can play him again in the future but with his favourite rule set!

3rd ReachMahjong.com Cup Results

Even before the league began, I was going over how I would play on that day in my head.

I was 70 points ahead of 2nd place, so as long as I didn’t get a negative score then it looked like I could win.

But, I kept attacking.

The first game started and I went into the final hand as the dealer feeling a bit off my game. I was at a small positive 2nd place. I got ready with a 7700 point Inside Hand. There was a chance to change to 3-Colored Runs so I didn’t Reach. Then the player to my left Reached. If I folded then I probably wouldn’t be negative, but I fought back.

And then I discarded his winner.

I ended up with a negative 3rd place.

I guess I really am having a bad day.

In the 2nd game I decided to be more conservative.

But then everyone else drew their winners and I ended up in last place.

At this point I started to panic but I still had a bit point lead and somehow I calmed down before the 3rd game.

But then I threw another player’s 13 Orphans winner in the 3rd hand of the South round.

For a second my head just went white. At this rate with 3rd, 4th and 4th there was no way that I could win now. And this time I lost even more than the 30,000 starting points.It was over…

I had practically given up. And then I remembered something that Takeo Kojima had told me. The only things that you can never do in Mahjong are panic and give up!

That’s right. This tournament wasn’t over yet. All I could do was do my best in the last game.

The result was 1st place with over 50,000 points.

It was a roller coaster of a final session but somehow I came out on top.

I feel like I learned a lot this season.

Somehow my wish of moving up in 1st place was realized, next season I want to aim for 1st place again.

Thank you everyone for supporting me this season.

Kazunori Takizawa

“Even though I won the first game of the day by the end I was down 40 points. Somehow I’ve found myself in a battle to not move down a league.

I think that one of the requirements of being a pro is to be able to adapt to every rule but I’m afraid that this time I didn’t choose a good strategy for JPML’s A-rules. Perhaps it’s because I haven’t prepared enough.

In the past 9 years I have never been in a position where I had to worry about moving down a league but for some reason I’m not very upset about it. On the contrary I find the thrill almost exciting. (Maybe I found my real cause?)

For the last session I need to prepare and condition my body for the game…”

Hisato Sasaki

“In the end I lost the points I had saved up but it was all because of the 13 Orphans hand I threw in the 4^th game. I was ready with a concealed Full Flush, Inside Hand and All Sets and just concentrated on myself, not even looking at the other players’ hands. On the final discard I drew and discarded 1-bam and my opponent said ‘ron’. I reconfirmed that bad results await those who discard without a plan. I was about to move up to the next league but instead I’m now in danger of moving down. In the last session I’ll fight with nothing to lose.”

Kozue Miyauchi

“I started the day in first place. Part of me wanted to protect my points, but aiming to win my league, today I racked up points instead.

The first game: I started in attack mode but was shot down at every chance I took and lost the game. In the second game I kept the same strategy and attacked but I sunk again.

I was down 40 points for the day. It was looking to be a bad day.

Going into the 3^rd game I figured that I had to play tight and make sure I didn’t lose anymore points! Funnily enough, in the first hand of the East round I got an Inside, Peace hand with 3-Colored Runs and 3 Lucky Tiles for 18000 points and took first place in the game with no trouble. In the 4^th game my good run continued and I got first place again.

In the end I was able to pull a positive score again today and keep my lead in the league. If I can just get past the final session I’ll win the league!

This season I’ve been taking a very aggressive approach but because of that I put myself in a lot of dangerous situations. In the last session I want to play more carefully.

I’ll do my best to go for the win in the last session.”

All 4 of our featured players can be found as featured pro’s on Ron2 and Mahjong Fight Club.

Nope! She meant at the final table. If that’s not doing good I hate to think of what my results come to…

The OUI tournament started with amateur qualifiers all over the country. I recommend this tournament for anyone visiting Japan during October. In the spring you can play in the Masters Tournament, but these are the only chances for non-pro’s to play in JPML tournaments.

The Pro qualifier happened in November and Garthe, Kamimura, Konno and I played in the first day along with over a hundred other players from various organizations. Konno was the only one of us to make it to the main event, but he didn’t make it to the finals. There was another qualifying day and because of the popularity of the event this was the first year they didn’t allow us to play on both days of the qualifier. Instead Garthe and I played in a tournament at Kamimura’s mahjong parlor the next day.

The next week hosted the main event and the quarter-finals and a week after that was the semi-finals and the final table. Our featured player Kazunori Takizawa won this title 2 years in a row but we didn’t see him at the finals this year. However, all the players were from JPML and there were many familiar faces, even to those of us at RM.com.

The final five: Masayoshi Ara, Kaori Shimizu, Hiro Yamai, Yoshihiro Ohashi and Satoshi Oda.

Ara, being the vice-president of JPML was the seasoned veteran and has held this title twice before in 1977 (before it was even a JPML event!) and 2003. Shimizu also won the event in 2001.

The final table started with 5 games with one player sitting out each game. The top 4 players would play the last 2 games for the title. After the second game these veterans were hurting with negative scores while Ohashi was in the lead with Yamai right behind him. Yamai was able to take that lead in the next game but Shimizu and Ara were still trailing with 3^rd and 4^th place finishes.

Shimizu took first in the 4th game but it wasn’t enough to get her in the black and her 4^th place finish in the 5^th game put her right back down in the negative score. Ohashi stole the lead back with twice as many points as Oda in 2^nd place.

The second round didn’t bring any solace to the players behind as Oda and Ohashi took first and second again respectively. The last game changed nothing and the final results were

1st – Yoshihiro Ohashi

2nd – Satoshi Oda

3rd – Hiro Yamai

4th – Kaori Shimizu

5th – Masayoshi Ara

Kudos to Kaori for making another final table, even though she wanted to win and congratulations to Ohashi on his second title (he won the rookie cup his first year in the league). Ohashi is also an avid poker player and this title solidifies his presence in the professional mahjong league. You can catch all these players on Ron2 and Ohashi, Yamai, Shimizu and Ara also appear on Mahjong Fight Club.

Kazunori Takizawa

“I wanted to win this time more than anything but ended up with negative 40. I was in a good position but ended up back to zero. Mahjong isn’t a game that shows results exactly according to skill but maybe my focus is a bit off. This is m 4th year in A2. I’ve never been in danger of falling down, but am never really in a position to move up either somehow. My elders keep asking me when I’m going to move up to A1 but I don’t get stressed about it. If I improve my skill I think the results will come naturally.”

We watched Takki from the beginning, even though it was hard to reserve a spot to watch behind him since his adoring fans crowded around his table. Takki was at the same table as Hiro Yamada, a fellow Mahjong Fight Club player. Things just didn’t seem to be going his way this month. He generally had pretty awful starting tiles, and once in a while when he did start with 3 Lucky Dragons or was a few tiles away from ready, another player managed to draw out faster.

In the first game he had 9,700 as the final Dealer and continued once, but couldn’t keep it going. In the 3^rd game he drew a 12,000 point hand as the final Dealer again, but that was only good enough for a smaller negative than the other games. In the last game he finally took 2^nd place with 37,200 points bu tit wasn7t enough to overcome the 4^th place and 2 3^rd places preceding it. Hoping to see a few more chances come his way next month. Of course, maybe he’s saving it up for his 3 consecutive OUI title…..

Hisato Sasaki

“Today I was up against Sarukawa, Iwai and Konno. It was as if we were playing with the same state of mind and it was a very worthwhile match. We ended up finishing in less than 3 hours, way before anyone else but for me speed is an important aspect of the game so I was grateful for that.”

I was really looking forward Hisato’s table this month as it was a veritable who’s who of people we talk about on the site and our podcasts: Shintaro Konno, our rules director at the World Series; Sarukawa, this year’s Masters winner and final tabler in 10 steps Tourney; and Kenta Iwai, also as new to JPML as Hisato yet like Hisato winner of both Champions League and the Special league to get himself into B2 a lot quicker than Jenn and I seem to be getting there. The table was moving at breakneck speed so by the time I got there they were already nearly done with the third game after just a couple of hours. Hisato took first in the first game but had two negatives in the second and third to put him below 0 before the last game. Apparently he was saving it up for that last push.

The first hand was key. The Red Dragon was the Lucky Tile and Iwai woke up with two of them in his starting tiles and only 2 away from ready. Hisato’s hand looked like this when he drew the last Red Dragon to go with the one already in his hand:

In watching his play there weren’t a lot of situations where his decisions differed from what I would have done but this time was a big one. I would have thrown so that I could call for the if someone threw it out. He knew better and threw the instead. Of course, what did he draw two turns later but the , after which he reached and drew his winner immediately, BLAM! 2000/3900 to start off the game with a big lead. The rest of the hands were pretty uneventful, 1000 or 2000 pointers back and forth though Hisato had another first draw win to give him a fairly strong first place lead. That first place gave him 13.9 points for the day and moves him up to 6^th in B1’s field of 16. It’s still quite a distance from the top 2 who will move up to A2 next season, but it’s also a little more breathing room between him and the bottom 6 who will drop down to B2. Looking forward to checking out his play next month.

Saki Kurosawa

“In the first half of the day I couldn’t get a hand and I didn’t even win one in the first game. I couldn’t do anything through the 2^nd game and was down 30 points, but then took 2^nd place twice in a row with small positive scores. My total was negative 6.6 for the day. In the 4^th game in the first hand I had this Baiman (16,000 points) hand that could have even been a Limit Hand if I had drawn it myself, but I couldn’t win (T.T)

I’m still at about zero for my total score so I’m aiming for 3 positive scores in the final 3 sessions so that I can move up. (*^-^*)”

Unfortunately we missed the opportunity to watch Saki this month but we did interview her for the site and you can check that out in a few weeks. After her victory in Pro Queen last month it must be hard to go back to the mundane League tournament, but if anyone can pull of 3 big scores in a row, she is definitely one of them. Keep your eye out for our coverage next month.

Kozue Miyauchi

“This time I was able to push my lead up as a result of my points, but there are a few hands that I played badly that stand out.

In the first game I was lucky and took 1^st place. In the 2^nd game I had a great 7 Pairs hand with 2 Lucky Tiles (dora), waiting for the 2c, but when it got near the end of the game and I hadn’t won I got frustrated and changed my wait. My next draw was that 2c.

With this kind of miss there is no way I can win that hand.In Mahjong you not only have to put your entire body and soul into the game, you need to also trust yourself completely.If you lose the heart then you lose the right to win hands. I keep that in mind everyday while I’m playing but changing my wait like that proves that I was playing weakly.

After that, since I had a lot of points and there was no pressure I had other careless mistakes. There were certain hands that I could have won had I played differently but didn’t. The way I was running I should have gotten a lot more points.My task from now is to not take the points I have for granted and see if I can play Mahjong correctly.If I look at it that way, I learned a lot from this session.”

Watching from behind, it seemed as if Kozue was playing in “the zone.” In the first 2 games no one could stop her from winning. Even a hand like this:

Became an 8,000 point hand when she ponned the last , discarded , drew a , drew a (the Lucky Tile) and won on her opponent’s discarded .

The last 2 games she was a bit quieter, but she ended up with the best final score at her table thanks to the 2 wins in the beginning.

One of the things Kozue said in her comment before this month’s session was that she thinks that when she’s running well, she’s good at keeping the run going. She certainly seemed to have every intention of riding that wave as she posted the highest positive score in C2 for the second month in a row with a relentless attack, even as they mounted their own strong attacks. It’ll be interesting to see how long she can make it last, and how/if she changes her play if/when the run comes to an end.

All 4 of our featured players can be found as featured pro’s on Ron2 and Mahjong Fight Club.

Name: Kazunori Takizawa

Titles: JPML 32nd and 33rd OUI, Second Mondo 21 OUZA, Nogutchi Kyouichirou Title

League: A2

Sign: Sagittarius

Favorite tile: East Wind

Favorite hand: I don’t like any hand in particular.

What got you started in Mahjong? I just wanted to learn the rules and took it all in at once. My faily doesn’t play.

Goal for this season: With only a few sessions less I’m in a difficult position, but of course I want to move up.

Long-term goal(s): I think it’s important to win titles and in the league, but my first priority is to improve my own skill. I am always practicing. I don’t think that results are that important.

Hobbies: Music. I pulled out my guitar and am playing it again. I like to play covers like metallica with my friends. I like a lot of bands, but my favorite is probably PANTERA

Name: Hisato Sasaki

League: B1

Titles: Champion’s League

Sign: Capricorn

Hobbies: Number games. As you get older your brain gets slower, so almost everyday I battle with the digits 1-9 to prevent that.

Favorite tile: Red 5 of dots, you could literally say I was raised with it

Favorite hand: Half Flush (昆一)

What got you started in Mahjong? When I was in 11^th grade my friend invited me to play. I was so excited that I couldn’t sleep. This was the first time I ever had this feeling. I think that’s the reason that I was so inclined to play.

How long have you played? 15 years, but I’ve played pro for 3 years

Goal for this season: Of course I want to win and move up. A2 is a year long, so if I can’t move up in the 2^nd season of the year then I might have to take half a year off.

Long-term goal(s): I want to let people know about me. The most important thing for a pro is to have your name remembered. I’ll do whatever I can to achieve that.

Name: Saki Kurosawa

League: C1

Titles: JPML Pro Queen

Sign: Libra

Hobbies: Just mahjong. Although I do like to drink high quality alcohol (especially champagne and red wine)

Favorite hand: 4 Concealed Triples (四暗刻)

What got you started in Mahjong?: A friend in college taught me to play. I was a science major and all my classmates were guys, so whenever we had a break from class I followed them to the mahjong parlor and I learned how to play.

Titles: 2008 Pro Queen, 2008 Women’s League 2^nd runner-up

Goal for this season: Advance to B-League and make it to the Women’s League finals

Long-term goal(s): Win the Phoenix Cup (JPML A1 league title)

Name: Kozue Miyauchi

League: C2

Titles: Mondo 21 Queen Cup 4, 4th Women’s Mondo, Mondo 21 Queen Cup 5

Sign: Aries

Favorite tile: Red Dragon

Favorite hand: Three Colored Runs

What got you started in Mahjong? I first developed an interest with friends in Junior High School, then bought software some years later and taught myself.

How long have you played? Been playing about 9 years having taken the pro test 2 years after I started.

Goal for this season: Take first in league and move up to the next league.

Long-term goal(s): Win the Phoenix Cup

Hobbies: Watching Dramas, Human Analysis

So how did these 4 players fare in the first session of the fall season?

Kazunori Takizawa: (Garthe)

While most of us are played our first session of the season this month, Takki is in A2 which means that he’s now entering the second half of their league season. Theirs goes the whole year rather than just the half years that the rest of us play. His scores from the first half were pretty average leaving him in the middle of the field. However, with a positive 35.6 (3^rd highest for A2 this month) he moves into 5^th place with 46.9 and a little closer to the possibility of jumping up to A1. First place is a little out of reach, currently over 200, but one weak session from Ito and Sawazaki and he could be right in the running for the second spot to go to A1. Were he to make it there, he’d be the youngest player ever to play in JPML’s A1 league. At his table next month, is Yamada Hiro, formerly an A1 leaguer who dropped down last year and is having trouble again this year in A2. Could he be just the fodder Takki needs to move himself a little closer to 2^nd place and A1…

Hisato Sasaki: (Jenn)

Hisato is used to moving up in leagues. He started in D2 in 2006 and moved up, taking 8^th place for his inaugural season. He spent a whole year in D1, luckily avoiding dropping back down despite a negative score for the first half, but made it into C3 in the spring season of 2007. In the 2^nd half of C3 he got 6^th place and was on his way to C2, except that he also managed to win the special league and moved himself straight up to B2. Last season (Spring, 2008) he took 2^nd place in B2 and is now playing in B1.

He finished the first session in 9^th place with -1.5 for a modest but safe score. This season we will follow Hisato in his progress through the league and hopefully he’ll make it in the top 2 and join his friend Takki in A2.

“I was a little negative, but I’ve never won with a huge starting lead before, so it feels like it always does. At this point, I have to run up to the top quickly so I will think of that as my mission and keep fighting in the following league sessions.”

In November Hisato will face off against fellow special league winner Kenta Iwai, Masters champion, Sarukawa and WSOM Reach Event rules director, Shintaro Konno.

Saki Kurosawa: (Jenn)

Saki is one of the most popular female pro’s and known for her aggressive, “no fear” attitude on the table. She is always eager to learn new things about the game and her love of mahjong parlors.

She joined the league in 2005 and moved up to C2 league rather quickly. Last weekend she took down the JPML Pro Queen tournament and you can bet that her large blog following was cheering her on.

“I started out really good, but in the 3^rd game I lost it. I did notice that my decision-making was better than normal. For now, I started out with a positive score so I’m ready to do my best in the coming sessions.”

Working a full-time job in addition to her busy professional schedule, it’s amazing that Saki can stay focused. This season we’ll root her on while she works her way up the ladder.

Kozue Miyauchi: (Garthe)

My other featured player, Kozue, is tearing it up in C2. She scored a plus 88 to jump straight up to 1^st place after 1 session. Of course there’s still a long way to go, but it’s a great start on the way to moving herself up to C1. She only won 2 out of 4 of the games, but they were big wins and the other games she had positive scores too which is why she was able to finish with such a huge score. The reporter from her table commented that she became pretty unstoppable after winning the hand the two of them battled, he with a limit hand and she as dealer with a 6000 points from everybody win.

“It’s definitely off to a good start and I’ll be looking to continue playing my game so as not to let the run fade away. Though I’m great at running up my points while I’m running well, I’m not so good at turning it around when I’m running badly. I’m anticipating now how to react in my next bad run.”

She’s coming off a great season last year too where she also finished in the top 8 in Champion’s League. Definitely looking forward to following her progress throughout the season, in league and in the big tournaments coming up too.

A grand total of -93,400. This won me 71st place! Hurrah! The full list of final classifications is here if anyone is interested: http://www.mahjongnews.com/rmc2008.htm

However, I’m still a very happy bunny for going. I actually had much more fun that I anticipated I would. This was my first tournament (I’d like to point out before someone else does, that I know this isn’t strictly a ‘tournament’). I also hadn’t played with real people for almost a year now – I’m so used to having Ron2 check my scores etc, it was a bit of culture shock again! Those are my excuses for playing so badly and I’m sticking to them!

Seriously though, the real fun was playing with so many new people. I met a lot of people that had, up until now, been faceless handles on the internet. I also met a lot of new people that I had never come into contact with. Regardless of final scores, I think everyone there had an amazing time. The atmosphere was fantastic – everyone was so friendly and from a very wide-range of backgrounds. I learnt a lot from the different playing styles and from talking to the other players.

Overall: A+ – Definitely doing that again!

BIG THANK YOU to the organizers. Without their amazing organization skills and smiling faces the weekend wouldn’t have been complete.

_____________________________________________

Garthe “California Kid” Nelson (Japan Professional Mahjong League, ReachMahjong.com columnist)

Well it wasn’t quite the fear and domination result I was looking for but all in all, last weekend’s European Open Reach Championship was a success and good fun for all. 7th place wasn’t nearly as high as I would like to have placed, and wasn’t even good enough to be best American, Benjamin Boas’ title, having placed 2nd overall. Think I’ll talk about my usual favorite subject myself. I’m pretty much the only thing I pay attention to so I’m pretty much the only thing I’m qualified to write about.

Certainly by most measures, I played a pretty good solid tournament. My record in 8 games was 3rd 3rd 1st 1st 1st 2nd 2nd 1st for an average placing of 1.75. I finished with a total of 101,800 points which means I averaged a positive nearly 13,000 points per game. And I took 7th out of 80 players, placing above even my mentor from Japan and Vice President of the Japan Professional Mahjong League, Shigekazu Moriyama. But maybe that result merits a little more investigation. Mr. Moriyama maintained a strong second place in the tournament rankings throughout the first 6 games finishing that game with more than 100,000 with the tournament leader off somewhere around 160,000. He definitely could have played the final games conservatively to save his points and maintain his 2nd place ranking. What did he do instead? When his hand got to ready for another 8000 he went for it, reaching and ending up throwing a double winner to 2 players who reached after him, effectively knocking him out of the race for first and even the race for the top 10. But really, what did I gain by playing safe and taking the 7th spot?

Not much.

The difference between 7th and 20th may be a lot numerically but it’s pretty meaningless as a result. Nobody remembers either of us at this point and pretty much everyone forgets 2nd place after a week or so too. (Sorry Ben) The difference between 1st and 2nd is all the difference in the world, and kudos go to Moriyama and Benjamin for going for 1st down to the bitter end. By contrast, I played good tight Mahjong, the kind I play when I play in the Mahjong parlors in Japan. When I got the lead in a game, I tightened up to be sure I didn’t throw any winners and lose my hold on first FOR THAT GAME. That’s generally good strategy when I want to make sure I bank my winnings playing for money but in a tournament setting where I need to be taking advantage of every opportunity I can to accumulate points, it’s all wrong. After winning an 18,000 point hand as dealer, 2 hands later I had a chance to go for a 16,000 pointer or maybe even Limit hand. Instead, after two people Reached, I played safe and then watched in despair as the the two tiles I needed to get to ready came soon after and then the dealer threw my winner. In fact there were at least 3 other instances where if I had reached instead of waiting quietly I’d have won much larger hands for a total of at least 30,000 in missed point opportunities. Once again, I must relearn the lesson, just go for it.

Anyway, congratulations must go to Ping Song of China in 3rd place, Benjamin Boas in 2nd, Thomas Kragh winner of the whole tournament and the best in Europe

_________________________________________________

Jenn “West Coast Angel” Barr (Japan Professional Mahjong League,　ReachMahjong.com columnist)

My second trip to Europe started off great. I left my car at the airport in Tokyo and took a flight to Shanghai before hopping over to Milan, Italy. I met with some family friends and while they were great and amazing and wonderful, the trip itself started to go sour. I managed to lose 50euro right off the bat when I only had 60 to begin with. This just walked out of my wallet somehow. Thursday morning my friend Tommy and I went to get the rental car and they screwed up his reservation, so this process took some time and we got a late start, so no time for sightseeing on the way. We did, however, get to enjoy the amazing landscape of northern Italy and Austria on our 10-hour drive up to Hannover. Tommy and I had a great drive and there’s nothing better than a long car ride to solidify a friendship. Too bad we didn’t realize until the drive back you could save the bathroom pit-stop vouchers (yes, you have to pay for toilets on German roads) and use them for purchases. Once arriving at the hotel I realized that in addition to the 50euro, I also lost not one but TWO iPods. I had my shuffle, my old nano and my new nano and was somehow left with just my old nano. So instead of corny American reality shows, I got to spend my weekend listening to corny American poker podcasts. Still enough to put me to sleep.

Friday was set-up day and Tommy and I headed over to the venue to help Sjef, Martin and the German Mahjong League set things up. Then, thanks to Garthe delaying his trip (yes Garthe, I AM going to milk this), starting at 9:00 I got to rush around picking up people, t-shirts, taping and delivering. We met up with our mentor, Shigekazu Moriyama for dinner and it was finally time for me to relax and get ready to play. (Benjamin Boas and Takunori Kajimoto also helped us out a lot by bringing some t-shirts over from Tokyo for us. THANK YOU!!)

Oh right, I didn’t mention that my computer broke in Shanghai, and so besides getting behind on my PokerStars blog, I also missed out on the weekends Review session on Ron2. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry!!! We will have a meet-up this week, so be SURE to sign-up!!!

The tournament itself was uneventful for me. I started out with Ma Yongliang to my left and he proceeded to win continuously while I dutifully counted up all his points. And that is how I spend most of my time at the tables, calculating other players’ wins. My hands were mediocre and I ended with a neutral score of just over 4,000 and 43rd place for the 8 games. Most of my games I got 2nd place. I had one big win, which unfortunately knocked Masato Chiba out of the race, but my final game was quick and painful, leaving me in 3rd. Disappointing, but I just had to keep reminding myself of the bigger picture.

This, the first open tournament in Europe for Reach (Riichi) Mahjong was huge! 80 people from countries all over the world joined together, some playing these rules for the first time, and the result was amazing. The best part was definitely the feedback on the website. So many great players came up to me and mentioned how much they enjoy RM and the podcasts and columns and What Would You Discard questions and everything and that made the entire trip worth it. RM provided T-shirts for all the players to celebrate this momentous event and seeing players wearing these T-shirts on Sunday was so amazing. We’re really accomplishing something with this website and our projects and seeing this first hand, hearing feedback in person from readers, and then showing people in our industry that we respect and admire this setting, and getting their support because of it (meaning Mr. Moriyama and Mr. Kajimoto), is the most rewarding experience I’ve had since starting RM with Garthe and Gem a year and a half ago.

Congratulations to the winner, Thomas Kragh, and all the other players, for making history this weekend. There are going to be many more public Reach tournaments in the near future and you can bet that ReachMahjong.com will be on the scene or in support the whole way. Also, a big thanks and congratulations to Martin Rep and Sjef Strik for a very successful event. Although, after paying out 8,000 points for Sjef’s self-drawn 4 Concealed Triples hand, I’m not sure I’ll want to subject myself to playing in one of his expertly executed events again. (~.^)v

Jenn Barr and Garthe Nelson, the site’s founders, finished an English translation of the software last year and are now looking for new members to justify the implement the translation. Players can now refer to RM for guidance in signing up for new accounts, installing and running the software, using the game screen and more.

“We hope this will give English-speaking users a way to play on this great software and also give us an opportunity to get some feedback and give us a great place to have regular meet-ups for our ReachMahjong.com and Yakitori Online communities because of it’s superior chat abilities. Hopefully with the new Riichi rules, tournaments and ranking system in Europe, players will want to practice with other players on Ron2,” says Jenn.

The tutorial can be found on RM’s website here. RM is looking for feedback and can be contacted on their website: ReachMahjong.com. There are 10 pages of great info including step-by-step instructions and translations of controls in the game. Three more pages will be added this week explaining use of the Chat room, Free Battle room and Spectator functions. New players can try out the software for free with a Trial Membership for 48 hours before deciding on a Free Membership or a Full Membership. Jenn and Garthe play regularly on the site as well as Yakitori Online’s founder, Andy Barzaghi and RM columnist Gemma Collinge.

A New Platform

In 2006, the Japan Professional Mahjong League joined its counterparts and opened a Women’s League. The league Started in May of last year and had 40 participants for 5 sessions of 4 Half-Games (East and South) each. After 5 sessions, it was decided that the top 20 would be initiated into the A-League for the second season and the lower scores would form a B-League. The A Leaguers would battle for a seat at the Final Table, where the girls would play 12 Half-Games over a period of 2 days. JPML’s A Rules (no 1st turn win bonuses for Reach and no Quad Drags or Hidden Drags) were used to increase the skill factor and tone down the luck. JPML has some of the top woman pro’s in Japan and it was a much anticipated a race to see who would win. The Nikaidou sisters, Kaori Shimizu, Keiko Kuwabara, our own Jenn and more fought for a year to see who would be the first to be first. The final contenders were Keiko Kuwabara, Marina Yasuda, Michi Yuuki and Ai Kashibayashi.

First Day Results

*Because Yasuda received a 10-point penalty on the first day for tardiness, the final scores will not add to zero by 10 points.

Final Day

Our intrepid reporter joined the final day’s action on the 3rd game of the day. Even after 8 games of play, the field was still surprisingly even. Yuuki had started the day in 1st and managed to increase her lead a bit with a win in the 1st and a positive 3rd place finish in the 2nd game. The 3rd game, though, really managed to shake things up. Yuuki had lost quite a few points on Kashibayashi’s turn as dealer. Unfortunately for Kashibayashi, she threw the winning tile to Yasuda’s 13 Orphans Limit hand and effectively ended her shot at winning the tournament with just that one throw. The rest of the game saw a couple players winning big hands but the points just seemed to move from one person to another and then right back again. At the end of 3 Half-Games on the second day Kashibayashi had slipped to last with Yuuki close on the leader’s heals as Yasuda jumped into the lead on the strength of her 13 Orphans win.

The 4th game saw more point trading for the majority of the game until Yuuki’s final turn as dealer when her destiny seemed to be decided. She Reached with a pair of Drags and managed to draw a third to snag 3900 points from everyone. A couple of more good hands on that turn as dealer and she had retaken a pretty comfortable lead by the end of the 4th game. Actually there was a spot in there where Kashibayashi was two away from ready on a 4 Concealed Triples hand, but bumped the 2 of Characters as soon as the first one came out. In at least one reporter’s opinion that bump was a little early as she also had two South tiles and was in the South seat. Could another Limit hand have been in the making? At least an 8000 pointer? We’ll never know. The South tiles ended up flowing to Yasuda who wasn’t taking any chances letting them go and the hand ended in a draw.

At the end of 4 Half-Games, the 3 contenders were Kuwabara in 3rd with +0.4 points, Yasuda in second with +12.6, and Yuuki starting to run away with it at +38.2. The 5th game, however, the Mahjong Gods and Yuuki showed that they had no intention of letting anyone else win that day. After two cheap hands ended Kuwabara’s and Yasuda’s turns as dealer, it was Yuuki’s turn to seal her fate as winner of the day. First she got lucky when Kashibayashi threw a cheap hand to her instead of drawing her winning tile on what would have been an 8000 pointer. Then her next hand she got two Lucky Dragons and Yasuda let her bump the third. With another 3900/all point grab on that hand, she hurtled into 1st again with 47,000 points after only 3 dealer turns in the East round. The next hand Kashibayashi took an 8000 point self draw, which was followed by some great challenges from the other players too. Kuwabara came close on her own 13 Orphans hand but alas, while still one away from being ready, the last East tile was discarded on the 11th draw. Kashibayashi got within striking distance of 1st place on her turn as dealer, but Yuuki on another early Reach, ended it with a 3900 point grab from Yasuda. Yuuki stole the next two dealer’s turns too, bumping twice to draw a Half Flush, and then drawing her inside straight for another 2000/3900, even after the dealer and another player had declared Reach. With Yuuki now at 59,600 points and the turns as dealer for both of the contenders already over, she was just coasting her way to champion for the rest of the day. It was now a battle for second place.

The last game saw a good battle between Yasuda and Kuwabara for second. It stayed pretty even until Yasuda’s turn as dealer in the south round. She had been working on a 7 Pairs Hand when Kuwabara got the perfect tile to make her hand Ready and Reached on an open ended straight draw. Not one to be cowed by Kuwabara’s strong move, Yasuda worked her way to ready with 7 pairs but when deciding which one to keep as single for her final pair, she threw Kuwabara’s winner. With her turn as dealer over Yasuda’s shot at 2nd was effectively over too. With Yuuki as the final dealer, Kuwabara made one great last ditch effort at overtaking her with a 4 Concealed Triples hand but couldn’t get closer than 2 away from ready. The tournament was Yuuki’s with Kuwabara finishing a strong second.

Final Day Results:

*Because Yasuda received a 10-point penalty on the first day for tardiness, the final scores will not add to zero by 10 points.

JPML President, Asatarou Nada presents Michi Yuuki with Trophy for first ever Women’s League

All 4 Competitors. From Left: Ai Kashibayashi, Keiko Kuwabara, Marina Yasuda, (Front) Michi Yuuki

Check out RM’s exclusive interview with JPML’s first-ever Women’s League Champion, Michi Yuuki!

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