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#player1 Mark_P. Mark P.
#player2 Jim_Burlant Jim Burlant
>Mark_P.: ?AERSUX 8F ReSEAUX +92 92
#note The other playable bingo is 8F ARUSPEX. Whatever, this is an awesome start for Mark.
>Jim_Burlant: AADDNOY 7E DAY +21 21
#note I thought I needed to keep the H column alive if I was going to get back into the game, and 7G DAY (the first thing I saw) killed that. I also thought 7G DAY left him one turn away from being able to shut almost everything down if he had an overlapping play at 7K or even something like HIT 9K. I saw the risk of the vowel placement with this choice and expected him to come back for 30 - 35, all the while crossing my fingers he didn't have the J. Even with this conceding 7 scoreboard points and risky board position to 7G DAY, I felt at the time that this was the lesser of the two evils. These were definitely the right tiles to play off, but in retrospect, I still don't like either of my options and I do question this choice. Quackle says 7G DAY or YOD were the plays and it hates this.
>Mark_P.: EEHIOTV 6D HIVE +40 132
#note This is Mark's actual rack - ouch! Like I said, I'd expected to give back 30, not 40. Quackle wants him to play THIEVE for a few more points, but whatever - this is a strong choice.
>Jim_Burlant: ADENOOR D4 OO. +12 33
#note Good thing for Mark he hadn't played THIEVE like Quackle wanted, as I'd have replied with RA(T)OONED. As for this play it's this, L7 OXO, or 9F ANODE if Quackle is to be believed. I didn't even look for ANODE, and looking at it now I don't like it - while it scores 32, it makes it way too easy for Mark to shut down the board while I'm still trailing by a bingo. OXO is interesting, as it takes out the X and forks the board. However, OXO could backfire and give him a home for another big play that could put the game out of reach. I already made that mistake once, and I wasn't about to repeat it, which is why I passed on OXO. For those curious about plays like ROOD 5B, the sim doesn't like them - too much of the rack broken up for not enough points in return. 12% to win.
>Mark_P.: ACEOTTW C6 COW +22 154
#note Again, this is Mark's actual rack. Q prefers that Mark balance his rack with C2 TOW. The question is, if you're Mark, what's more dangerous? A front S hook on row 1, or the possibility of a 4 coming back like HAWK or TOWY? Given that I had just dinked off 2 O's, I think Mark made the smart play here since he had good reason to assume that I was fishing from a rack of 1-point tiles (possibly sitting on an S) and that I wasn't too likely to have a big play coming back at 8A.
>Jim_Burlant: ADENORU L1 RONDEAU. +84 117
#note How often do you see any bingo ending in EAUX, let alone two on the same board? This is so cool! This is the only bingo and I'm 24% to win.
>Mark_P.: AEIINTT K8 .INTAITE +66 220
#note Yet another cool bingo. Only bingo for Mark, and he's 85% to win.
>Jim_Burlant: CEEGNTV 15H VEG.TE +33 150
#note Right word, wrong place. I puzzled over this rack for a couple of minutes before I finally saw the word. It just never occurred to me that I could play at 15J for 3 more points. The 15J placement is better than this, and not just for the extra points; it also puts the E at O15, keeping that much more hope alive. Having said that, I benefitted from this mistake.
>Mark_P.: AEIKLOP 1H PIKE. +33 253
#note This was his rack, and had I made the correct play on my previous turn, he would have extended the S into SOAPLIKE for 92. Quackle agrees, in principle, with Mark's choice here. That said, it gives slight preference to POKIER 1G or POKER 1H. Regardless, he's 90% to win and my next couple of racks don't help my cause any.
>Jim_Burlant: BCDMNRT 12J B.RM +16 166
#note No need to exchange, but I needed to turn a little more of this crappy rack. Best looks to be 6J BRAND 18. This sims way down the list, but that's kind of deceiving, as there are no really good plays available and this barely concedes 3 equity and less than 1% winning chances to the sim winner.
>Mark_P.: EF 8A FE. +27 280
>Jim_Burlant: CDHINNT 5H INCH.D +24 190
#note Strong play, but not best. Quackle likes M5 NTH by a few points, presumably because it thinks it's worth the lack of turnover to keep CDIN together. Frankly, I'm not that enthused about CDIN as a leave and certainly not enough to kill the northeast with NTH. As for the rest of the options (this, 2I DINO, 2K NOTCH, 5H CHINED), it's a toss-up and they're practically identical plays in quackle's eyes.
>Mark_P.: BOP 3B BOP +23 303
>Jim_Burlant: ?AENNOT A8 .ONTANEl +83 273
#note What a cool collection of bingoes for a single game! Anyway, this is my best bingo, and it wins 15%. Other options are 11E ANNOTATE/iNTONATE, B7 NEONATES.
>Mark_P.: IJOS 3I JOI.S +40 343
>Jim_Burlant: AEIILRZ 13A .AZI +26 299
#note Spent a while on this and Q confirms this is the only worthwhile Z dump I have. Q says I should hold the Z and play 9F ARIL - maybe it thinks I can draw STY on the ensuing 4-tile pick for ZESTY N10? The one drawback to this play is that it does give back the cheap QI for 44 if he's got IQ in his rack.
>Mark_P.: AELRSTY N10 LAYER +32 375
#note This was Mark's actual rack, and Quackle just wants Mark to fish the Y at 5D. It doesn't like this at all, probably because he is breaking up SALTER (with which has a 50% chance of bingoing down the N column if he draws 1 tile given this pool), and also because he's opening up the O column for me. Having said that, he's still winning 94%; Quackle's preferred fish, 5D OY, wins 96.
>Jim_Burlant: EILLNRT O6 LENTIL +22 321
#note Throwing in the towel; the fat lady is singing. I took several minutes on this position double-checking the tracking before putting this down. Reasons I gave up on this game: the only fish I could really see working was an A, which was barely more than a 10% shot of getting it based on the unseen tiles; even if both were in the bag it was a 1-in-6 chance at best. Also, I (correctly) figured there was virtually no way that the O column was going to still remain available to me - even if he was addled with garbage he'd still have had some way to block it. With a more volatile board I would have fished. Given his next rack it wouldn't have made any difference what I put down here.
>Mark_P.: GGIQSTU E9 QUITS +42 417
#note The first tile I drew was the A, and had I fished with (COW)L and not played LENTIL Mark would have blocked the O column with O8 QUIT and my subsequent AEILNRT rack would have had nowhere to go. Q wants Mark to play on row 12 for 52; Q is wrong here. While Mark has clinched the win, I think Mark made the correct play and it's okay to trade 10 scoreboard points for the defense because there are some potential 8's (FARMLAND, among others) that could play and this blocks them.
>Jim_Burlant: ADFMRSW B12 W.D +25 346
>Mark_P.: AEGGLOU 2E LUGE +11 428
>Jim_Burlant: AFMRRS 5D .F +24 370
>Mark_P.: AGO 4L .AGO +11 439
>Mark_P.: (AMRRS) +14 453
#note A strong case can be made that I put DAY in the wrong position in response to his opening bingo, but that's the only real question mark I have about how I played this one. The rest of my misses were all minor imperfections that, from my perspective, came out in the wash. In short, I don't think there was much I could have done about this.
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