Mahjong Match with the Yakuza
The Mahjong Match with the Yakuza is the first Match in the Akagi manga series, taking place in Chapters 1-12.
Players
- Nangou's side:
- Kawada Group:
- Police:
Nangou is playing a mahjong match against the Kawada Group of the yakuza in a desperate attempt to clear his gambling debt when Akagi enters the mahjong parlor to hide from the police after surviving a Game of Chicken. Although the boy has never played mahjong before, Nangou sees a fearlessness and determination in him that convinces him that Akagi can win the match. Nangou teaches him the rules and asks him to play in his place. During the course of the match, a detective called Yasuoka barges in looking for a boy matching Akagi's description.
Tricks
Police arrival
- Akagi uses the distraction provided by Yasuoka's appearance to switch tiles from his hands with the discards, making a daisangen suuankou. (Chapter 2)
- Akagi uses his newly-formed hand as leverage to convince Nangou to provide an alibi for him against the police. (Chapters 2-3)
- Nangou lies to Yasuoka that Akagi is his nephew and has been with them since the previous day, using Ryuuzaki's desire to get rid of the police to get him to back Nangou's claim. (Chapter 3)
- Yasuoka counters Nangou's and Ryuuzaki's claims with witness reports that saw Akagi walking into the building and footprints on the stairs outside from Akagi walking in the rain. (Chapter 3)
- Akagi confronts Yasuoka's claims by making up a story about Nangou having asked him to go out and buy him cigarettes, despite Akagi protesting that all stores would be closed. (Chapter 3)
- Akagi uses Yasuoka's presence to resume the game while the yakuza are distracted and confused, and to prevent them from retaliating when he wins the round with the hand he put together by cheating. (Chapter 3)
Reading discards
- Akagi deduces based on how fast Ryuuzaki discarded his 6 sou (bamboo) tile that he had no tiles around it in his hand, and therefore the 8 sou tile was safe to discard. Similarly, based on Ryuuzaki's other discards and the direction of his gaze when he called riichi, Akagi deduces that he is in a wait for a 2 or 5 man (character) tile. (Chapters 4-5)
- Akagi senses that Ryuuzaki is close to a daisangen, and discards two chun (red dragon) tiles to bait him into giving up and discarding his own chun tile as well. (Chapter 6)
- Yagi, the yakuza rep player called by Ryuuzaki to take his place, decides to sit out and wait until the next game in order to observe Akagi playing. (Chapter 7)
- Akagi deduces from the shape of the discards of the kamicha (player to his left) and the fact that he did not discard any 7, 8 or 9 tiles that he is trying for a junchan 3-color straight. Armed with that knowledge, Akagi manages to amass all of the kamicha's winning tiles in his hand. (Chapter 7)
Psychological warfare
- Yagi tries to rattle Akagi by proposing that they both bet 100,000 yen per game, with Akagi, who doesn't have that kind of money, paying by giving up his fingers. (Chapter 8).
- Akagi turns Yagi's tactic against him by accepting the bet as long as Yagi bets his fingers as well. (Chapter 8)
- Yagi rushes to form an early hand and calls riichi in order to put pressure on Akagi. (Chapter 8)
- Yagi draws his winning tile but discards it in order to make Akagi doubt his ability to predict Yagi's hand. (Chapter 9)
- Akagi also discards his own winning tile in order to force the round to end in an exhaustive draw, thus forcing Yagi to reveal his hand and confirm Akagi's predictions. (Chapter 9)
Cheating
- Yagi uses the "caterpillar", a form of cheating where he moves two 7 sou tiles from his hand into the wall so that they are in the position of the dora and kandora indicators. That way, when Yagi calls a kan with his 8 sou tiles, his hand will be dora 8. (Chapter 10)
- Yagi cooperates with the other two yakuza players to continuously skip Akagi's turn by having the kamicha (player on the left) deal into the hand of the shimocha (player on the right), taking advantage of the fact that Akagi has declared riichi and therefore is unable to call on any discards except his winning tile. (Chapter 10)
- The kamicha pretends to accidentally knock down an extra tile when drawing from the wall, then puts the wrong tile back. The yakuza players then manipulate the order of play so that Akagi is forced to draw the replaced tile, which is Yagi's winning tile. Since Akagi is in riichi, he is forced to discard any tile but his winning tile, which forces him to deal into Yagi's hand. (Chapter 10)
Endgame
- Akagi calls on the discards of the other two yakuza players in order to bluff them into thinking that he can make a flush, limiting the tiles they can safely discard and preventing them from building a winning hand. (Chapter 11)
- Akagi puts himself on an open pair wait, then pretends to accidentally knock over the tile he draws, revealing his wait to be on a man tile. In reality, however, the tile he knocked over was a part of his previously-completed kan, and his actual wait is on the dora tile, a 4 sou. Lured into a false sense of security, Yagi deals the 4 sou into Akagi's hand. (Chapter 11)
- Akagi challenges the yakuza to a double-or-nothing rematch, putting pressure on Yagi while he is still shaken from the previous loss, which nets Akagi an easy win. (Chapter 12)
Outcome
- Winners:
- Shigeru Akagi
- Nangou
- Losers:
- Ryuuzaki
- Keiji Yagi
Akagi wins against Yagi and clears Nangou's 3-million-yen debt, in addition winning 3 million yen from Ryuuzaki in the double-or-nothing rematch. Despite his desire to keep going, doubling the wager each time, Akagi is convinced by Yasuoka (who sees an opportunity to make a profit) to let him organize a rematch on a later date, where they can make preparations to ensure that the yakuza will pay up if they lose.