TEST POST: I'm just copying over a bunch of text with colors and…

TEST POST: I'm just copying over a bunch of text with colors and formatting from writefreely

Akagi Ep 1 for people who can't be bothered to read the rule book

The reason I keep hearing for why Akagi is less good than Kaiji is no one outside a very specific subset of weirdos actually knows how this game works. The psychological thriller breaks down if you can’t make sense of the pay structure.

Ok we're 4 minutes into the episode and Nangou is pretty far in the hole. I think he’s down to 24k points in his little drawer. For the sake of brevity, point sticks = poker chips. The round is South 4, 8th turn. We’re about half way through this hand. It is the last hand before we turn chips back into cash.

Nangou's hand is: 235p123m99s 123sRRR

Nangou is going to discard the 5p. He could win on either 1p or 4p, with 1p being ideal.

His hand is currently worth 2 guaranteed points. If he wins on 4p, this is all he gets. <ul><li>Dragon triplet RRR - 1 point</li> <li>Dora (3s) - 1 point each</li></ul> If he wins on the 1p he can gain <ul><li>Tricolor matching sequences - 2 points</li> <li>Mixed all terminals + honors - 3 points</li></ul> for a total of 7 points, with a payout of 12k chips.

HOWEVER the yakuza across the table has already called “uno” (riichi), and he's previously discarded 2p, which means the safest option for Nangou's wallet is to fold, and discard 2p, as it is guaranteed to not deal into that guy’s hand.

MEANWHILE the guy to Nangou's right was waiting on the 2p or a Green dragon, so folding would have totally screwed Nangou over. Guy on the right is going for:

<h2>22p GG 666m SSS ???</h2> <ul><li>Table wind (South) = 1 point</li> <li>All triplets = 2 points</li> <li>Three Concealed Triplets (closed hand) = 3 points</li></ul> for a total of 6 points, which is a 12k chip payout. After 5 points, payouts get tiered: 6-7/8-10/11-12/Max.

IF he is in the South seat AND wins on the Green dragon, he would add 1 point for the seat wind and 1 point for the dragon triplet, pushing his hand into the 8-10 point tier, which has a 16k chip payout. If, by some miracle, he pulls the Green Dragon himself, I think this upgrades to Four Concealed Triplets, which hits the point maximum, 13 points = 32k chip payout.

7 mins into the episode, and Nangou wins on that guy to the right's discard of 1p for the full 12k payout!

<h2>Now we fast forward to Akagi's next hand. WhWh GG RR W 89p 2357m</h2>

IF PLAYED PROPERLY THIS COULD BE A POINT MAXIMUM HAND.

Three Big Dragons WhWhWh GGG RRR = 13 points + liability

Only a few point maximum hands come with a specialty condition called a liability payment. Three Big Dragons is one such hand. Anyone who contributes to this hand is liable for payment, not just the person who discards the final tile. Did you see the tiles getting turned sideways in Nangou's imagination? The sideways tiles are how you mark liability.

If Akagi draws his own winning tile, anyone who contributed to his hand pays the full 32k (48k if he's dealer), each. If Akagi calls the winning tile off someone else, the person who deals in pays 32k and anyone else who contributes pays an additional 16k each.

If Akagi plays this open hand, and all three of the yakuza somehow contribute to it, he could be looking at a 64k payout. If Akagi is sitting in the dealer's seat, and somehow all three yakuza contribute to his hand, he could be looking at 106k.

One of each dragon tile gets discarded, and Akagi doesn't call any of them them. Nangou's losing his fucking mind because he sees Akagi NOT capitalizing on his crazy good starting hand.

Now the second Red dragon gets discarded--if he doesn't call it NOW, the point maximum hand goes down the toilet. There are no more red dragon tiles left, and it's not like there are joker tiles to fix it.

Nangou’s next assumption is that Akagi is determined to play this hand closed; with his ability to form a Dragon triplet having gone up in smoke, his best bet for this hand is Seven Pairs, which is flat-rated at 1.6k payout (2.4k dealer).

Now we are rudely interrupted by the police, during which time… HE CHEATED!

<h2>WhWhWh GGG RRR 888p W</h2>

<ul><li>Four concealed triplets = 13 points</li> <li>Three dragon triplets = 13 points</li> <li>(there's more here, but it doesn't matter)</li> </ul>

This is a Double point maximum hand with liability. Whoever discards that final West tile is looking at 64k damage (106k if he's dealer).

NOW do you understand why the yakuza threatened to cut off his fingers if he tried that again? Imagine how much 1k chips is worth in irl money. Nangou is 3 million 1950's yen in debt to these gangsters. Every time the anime says "in today's money" during the washizu arc, they add another 0 to the figure. Today in that anime was like 20 years ago. If i ignore the lassage of time, and assume his 3 mil is 30 mil in 2000’s money, Nangou is ~189k USD up the creek.

EDIT: according to <a href="126,121.84">this calculator</a>, 100 yen in 1955 is worth 668.05 yen in 2026. 3 million yen in 1955 = 20,041,500 yen in 2026. 100 yen in 2026 = 0.6293 USD, so Nangou's debt at today's exchange rate is 126,121.84 USD, which is slightly better than my back of envelope calculation above.

#mahjong #test post

no notes yet