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#player1 Sam_Dick-Onuoha Sam Dick-Onuoha
#player2 Jim_Burlant Jim Burlant
>Sam_Dick-Onuoha: ?ACHMOR -?A +0 0
>Jim_Burlant: CDEEGST 8G GED +10 10
#note His decision to exchange certainly made things easy. This is best; other placements have vowel placement issues.
>Sam_Dick-Onuoha: AEIINOT I7 I.EATION +62 62
#note IODINATE is safer and, not surprisingly it wins 1-1/2% more often and sims 1-1/2 points above this. Sam is 64% to win, but not for long.
>Jim_Burlant: CEEPRST 15G RESPECT +102 112
#note Any of the bingos (SPECTRE, SCEPTRE, SPECTER, and this) all sim withn 0.1 points of each other and win within 0.1% of each other. The one weakness this has is that it gives up potential extensions that the others do not, but I wind up benefitting from this. Now I'm in the driver's seat, and I'm 63% to win.
>Sam_Dick-Onuoha: JO H13 JO. +21 83
>Jim_Burlant: ABEKLRY F7 BALKY +30 142
#note Hmmm. Q says I should just fish with 10H YAK for 20, and it likes 15G RESPECTER. Saw 15G RESPECTER but didn't like the leave. And I wanted to take away the GED front hook and score. Q also likes BRAKY for 34. I saw 5 tiles turned and the ER leave and was happy. Q says this is a 3-point dog.
>Sam_Dick-Onuoha: MOW E11 MOW +30 113
>Jim_Burlant: BEEEIRR 15G .......ER +39 181
#note The bingo doesn't play, so now it's time for RESPECTER as it not only scores well but does a very good job balancing this rack. This is best, and I'm holding steady at 72% winning chances...but they're about to dwindle steadily.
>Sam_Dick-Onuoha: ADEHS J9 SHADE +47 160
#note Ouch!
>Jim_Burlant: ABEEIIR M10 REBAI. +16 197
#note I'd initially considered O12 BIER but thought it was too fishy. D10 BARE scores 27 but saddles me with duplicated I's. After several minutes I found this - cleans the rack, and turns 5 tiles with ??SSXQZ in the pool. Q agrees - this is best.
>Sam_Dick-Onuoha: OTWY D12 TOWY +37 197
>Jim_Burlant: EEIINSV 15A VIN. +30 227
#note Up to now I haven't played perfectly, but I have played very well. This was the turning point. The stare play is a tough one that many of us would miss: ENVIS(AGED) 8A 45. From this point forward the choices got more and more complex and between that and the draws, I couldn't manage the game effectively.
>Sam_Dick-Onuoha: EHN 14B HE.N +41 238
>Jim_Burlant: CEEFIQS 14M .F +20 247
#note I saw K5 FICES (Q's preferred play) because it potentially set up a Q spot at J6. But I also thought it had way too much potential to backfire. Even if I was more paranoid about the X than I should have been, this board is mostly dead, and I thought J6 would disappear immediately if I did open it up. And for that, I'd have blown the rack apart, given up my S, only scored 23, and I could easily still be stuck with the Q. With all this and other possibilities going through my mind I decided to take a waiting tack and while I killed the O column for 20 points. And maybe Sam's next play would set up a Q dump? Quackle says I should play FICES to set up the Q and it absolutely despises this. In reality, anything other than FICES pretty much sucks here if Q is to be believed. YMMV.
>Sam_Dick-Onuoha: DG 7H D.G +8 246
>Jim_Burlant: CEEIQSX K9 SIX +49 296
#note Debated between this and K5 QIS. I had him sitting on another S since SHADE, and QIS was a tempting play but I thought that if he did bingo elsewhere I might not have an X play worth more than 20, so I took the sure 49. Q says I was right to take the 49 and not play the Q...but there was a slightly better play available that I missed: IBEX 12L. Nonetheless, this puts me back in the driver's seat - up from 38% winning chances to 66. FWIW, IBEX sims 4 points better despite scoring 7 fewer on the scoreboard.
>Sam_Dick-Onuoha: ?ALMPSU 13C M.. +26 272
#note Sam told me post-mortem that this was his rack and that he passed up the bingos here. The sim result surprises me in that Q says that he was correct to pass up the 76 points for PABLUMS or AMPULES, but in reality that 13C POW, MOW or the 2 K1 bingos are all equally strong plays. I'd have certainly not passed up 76 in this situation.
>Jim_Burlant: CEEIIQT J5 CI. +8 304
#note I assumed Sam was getting ready to bingo and wanted to prevent him from hitting an easy bingo at K1. Q says I should play G10 ICE for 21.
>Sam_Dick-Onuoha: ?ALPSTU 5J .UP +14 286
>Jim_Burlant: EEILOQT -EOQ +0 304
#note Finally, not seeing a worthwhile blocking play or a q dump, I felt it was time to unload the Q. Quackle's suggetions (L3 LOPE, TOPEE, and TOPE) look utterly stupid. Given those choices I'd make this play again.
>Sam_Dick-Onuoha: ?ADELST M2 bLASTED +74 360
>Jim_Burlant: EFILLTV 9C VIL. +11 315
#note It's either this or N7 LEV or 8M DEV.
>Sam_Dick-Onuoha: Q D8 Q. +21 381
#note Yet another indication of how tough a day this was: this thing sat in my rack for 4 turns because I didn't have a valid play. So of course, he gets it when what is probably my best rack cleaner gives him a spot to dump it for 21 points.
>Jim_Burlant: AEEFLOT 8M .EF +21 336
#note Q likes N7 FOE...I don't. Seems too reckless and it's only going to give him a lot more back. I'm history.
>Sam_Dick-Onuoha: GNOO N1 GOON +16 397
#note Where the hell were the U's when I was sitting on that otherwise unplayable Q? Anyway, annotation stops here - this OUU draw pretty much tells you everything you need to know about how the rest of the game went. As for the rest of the game - we more or less move tiles to end the game, and in the thank-goodness-for-small-favors department I do get a 29-point Z play to keep the score respectable but that's about it. Final score 390 - 459.
#rack2 AELOTUU
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