Friday 18th April: 4-3-2-1

Only three players met at Kodama last night, Noda, Nobu and Jaime.

The night lasted four hours, saw three chombo, two games and one yakitori. Amazingly Noda did not finish as top dog, but no surprise in him still eking out a finish in the black. Nobu, unfortunately took the blunt of losses. He is still very much in the infancy of his MJ gaming and this was clearly highlighted when he made his only chombo of the night by declaring tsumo with only one yaku on a ryanshi hand. However, one can hardly blame him as this was his first foray into playing MJ without a fourth person hovering around to guide him. But four players seem to be somewhat of a luxury at the present.

Jaime was responsible for the other two chombo of the night, both ludicrously stupid mistakes. The first time he forgot to tsumo on a discarded tile and the second, a little distracted by Nobu’s phone calling him away from the table, he changed his hand, went riichi and hen realised that he had royally screwed up. When your discard row reveals all three tiles you are waiting for, something has plainly gone amiss.

Only two games were played, both lasting two hours and both involving players achieving ryanshii. Noda streaked off into a lead, Nobu hovered around parity and Jaime dived like Russian nuclear submarine. Yet by the end of the both games, Jaime had claimed top stop, Noda finished just slightly up and Nobu looked like Rocky and the end of all of his movies.

Nobu’s phone was also the source of much consternation during the first game of the night. Four times its rather annoying American pop song ringtone took Nobu away from the table. All Nobu would say, was that there was “a big problem” at work. This I suppose could be quite worrisome considering he works for the local energy company and we could have been at any moment plunged into some electrical meltdown. Yet once the first game ended, his phone was a distraction no more, so they must have been able to find the spare battery after all.

The first game also ended with a little orange sparrow glued like a Thai gecko to the table just in front of Nobu. For a man who throws some blatantly lethal tiles, he manages to survive without extinction more than the odds would favour. He was though unlucky to finish with a yakitori, having been tenpai for much of the south round, but that is how the MJ Gods wish to toy with us mortals.

So that was the night that was, 4 hours, 3 chombo, 2 games and 1 yakitori. Jaime yo-yos again, Noda treds water and Nobu takes the lift down to the basement.

Jaime +39#, +46# = +85

Noda +18*#, -6 = +12

===

Nobu -57, -40 = -97

*Yakitori

# Chombo

Filed by: Jaime