PARIS - Joel Ratsimandrésy has won the first Red Eyes Tournament (get riichi or die tryin’), completed today in Paris. Runner-up was Maude Grimberg, who was almost 27,000 points behind; third place was for Nicolas Campina.

There were 40 players from three countries; apart from the French, there were two British players and one from Austria, but none of them made it to the top-ten.

Referee was Sylvain Malbec from France.

Organizer Nicolas Campina: "We started at 9:30 AM for the first Hanchan and finished at 8:00 PM. We welcomed the players between 8:30 and 9:15 with a breakfast: coffee and much stuff (croissant, coffee, tea, little cakes homemade, etc.)

"We started the first Hanchan at 9:30. The first break was always under the sign of breakfast. After the end of the second, we had a meal "typical French". Cheeses, wines, meats, cakes salt homemade, homemade rabbit terrine, wild boar terrine etc.

"Then we finished our 5th Hanchan. Joel won the tournament with a last party with more 45K points (grrr lucky guy ^^).  I lost two places to find me after the third held the lead throughout the tournament. Gemma Collinge was the official EMA monitor."

The final results