Tight At The Top...

The situation remains very tight indeed at the top of this year's 3-Player Mahjong table.

Two weeks ago Hide enjoyed a big win in the final game of the session, largely at Noda's expense, which was a good enough result for him to come top for the evening, overtake Noda and get into second place on the Grand Accumulated Results Table for the year.

David finished the evening "second and in the black" which secured his position at the top of the table for the time being.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the table, Nobu tweaked the bottom record with -15, while Jaime continued to move closer to Nobu by finishing in the red again.

Results, 16th October 2009:

Hide --, -10, +122 = +112
David --, +30, +11 = +41
===
Nobu +9, --, -24 = -15
Jaime -42, -5, -- = -47
Noda +33, -15, -109 = -91

That result left the situation at the top of the table like this:

David +292
Hide +228
Noda +156

However, in last night's game, which was between David, Noda and Jaime, Noda came top in three games out of four and ended the evening on +98.

Jaime was chief sufferer in the first three games, starting off the night with a Yakitori on the table.

David held his own until the fourth game, and ended the evening as Jaime had started it with his Yakitori tile still stuck on the table.

Noda +29, +35, -5, +39 = +98
===
David +5, -8, +22, -48* = -29
Jaime -34,* -27,** -17, +9 = -69

* Yakitori
** Chombo

So now the situation at the top of the table looks like this:

David +263
Noda +254
Hide +228

Noda And David Swap At The Top

Noda finally made it to the top spot, bringing David's five-month reign to an end in a session played at Kodama on Friday 3nd October. Actually, both Noda and David advanced in the course of the game, at the expense of Jaime whose progress up the table to second place was reversed in the middle of July.

Here's the score sheet for 2nd October:

Noda -6, +9, -17, +40, +61 = +87
David +46, -44,* +38, +14, -30 = +24
===
Jaime -40, +35, -21, -54, -31 = -111

* Yakitori

When those results were plugged into the "Grand Accumulated Results Table 2009" it looked like this:

Name	Played	Chombo	Yakitori	Score
Noda	55	2	0	+211
David	64	0	4	+201
Koji	5	0	0	+143
Hide	32	0	0	+111
Kenyon	19	0	0	+105
Ray	10	0	0	+96
Neil	3	0	0	+94
Kiyo	1	0	0	-39
Jezz	6	1	0	-44
Yasu	4	1	0	-152
Jaime	61	2	1	-173
Nobu	18	3	2	-553

Play resumed at Kodama last night. This time Noda, David and Jaime were joined by Ray and Hide. David finished top at the end of the West round of the first game and sat out the second game for dinner.

Noda won the second game but crashed in the third when David returned to the table. Ray cut his early losses in half.

In the final game of the evening Hide made the early running as starting Oya with a series of fast wins, but his position eroded through the game and Noda came out strong at the end, but not quite strong enough as David managed to cling to top spot for the evening with enough points to reclaim top spot on the "Grand Accumulated Results Table 2009", something which has not been seen before as late in the year as this...

Jaime's descent continued, and produced a fine Chombo in the last game by not claiming Tsumo on the 6-Bamboo on a three-tile wait (6 & 9-Coins, 6-Bamboo).

The score sheet:

David +39, --, +47, -36 = +50
Noda -18, +51, -60, +63 = +36
Hide --, 0, 0, +5 = +5
===
Ray -21, -17, +19, -- = -19
Jaime --, -34, -6, -32* = -72

* Chombo

So the top of the table now looks like this:

Name	Played	Chombo	Yakitori	Score
David	67	0	4	+251
Noda	59	2	0	+247
Hide	35	0	0	+116
Kenyon	19	0	0	+105
Ray	13	0	0	+77

It promises to be an exciting last quarter...