| Player 1 |
|
#player1 Karl_Higby Karl Higby
#player2 Sean_Wrona Sean Wrona
>Karl_Higby: EJW 8G JEW +26 26
>Sean_Wrona: ABDMOPU 9F POM +22 22
#note I definitely wasn't looking hard enough here. DUMBO is definitely better. Hell, I even think I like JUMBO more. Since I'm a worse player I should be more volatile like that, but on the flip side, at this point I was still winning the tournament and only needed to win 1 of the last 2 games against Karl to win it overall.
>Karl_Higby: ISV J6 VIS +28 54
>Sean_Wrona: ABDEIMU 10E DIB +26 48
#note The U is a huge liability (especially with other vowels), and the EMU hook is obvious. I just clearly wasn't looking hard enough.
>Karl_Higby: CDDFIIY -CDDF +0 54
#note Again, I don't know what tiles specifically he exchanged.
>Sean_Wrona: AEEMTUX 11E EX +36 84
>Karl_Higby: DIU D11 DUI +19 73
>Sean_Wrona: AEEMRTU 14B MATURE +25 109
#note Well, I don't like fishing here (especially since there's a strong chance I wouldn't know many of the bingos containing MATURE besides MATURED/MATURES) but I got burned after this play, so I'm not really sure what I should have done. MURIATE perhaps... This doesn't sim badly though.
>Karl_Higby: AEFINRT 15G FAINTER +88 161
>Sean_Wrona: AEIKOOR 15A KOI +27 136
>Karl_Higby: CELLOS N10 CELLOS +39 200
>Sean_Wrona: AEEIORZ 13G RAZEE +32 168
#note Didn't think of ZOEA. Therefore, I didn't think of ZOEAE/ZOEAL either. Those are clearly better.
>Karl_Higby: AGITU 11I AUGIT. +14 214
>Sean_Wrona: EEIORRW 6H RE.IEW +12 180
#note At this point I felt I badly needed to open the board because CELLOS and AUGITE did a good job of closing it, and this seems to be one of the few plays that opens two different lines. Perhaps it was too desperate since I wasn't FAR behind.
>Karl_Higby: OTU 12L TO.U +16 230
>Sean_Wrona: BCDNOOR H1 CONDO. +33 213
>Karl_Higby: EGIOPTY 1A GEOTYPI. +101 331
#note The OTHER play that lost me the tournament. I had closed in and still had a shot of winning before this play, but after GEOTYPIC (if it was good), I knew I would have had next to no chance of winning. I knew that he had already phoneyed me with AURISTA. Although I'm sure he knows considerably more 8s than I do, it may be unreasonable to assume that he would have studied the 8s down to that level, and he was probably just taking a crack at it figuring I wouldn't challenge after I didn't challenge AURISTA. I don't know WHY I didn't challenge this. Spread was meaningless since the winner was already effectively decided between us (whichever one of us won five games would win the tournament). Ben told me after the tournament I should have challenged, and indeed I should have. Since Karl is simply better, he would be expected to win our last game, and not challenging this effectively gave him the tournament. On the flip side, I'm satisfied that I was in a position to choke the tournament given my rating at the start of it. Obviously, I'm not guaranteed to win if I do challenge it off, but I AM guaranteed to lose if I don't. My worst decision in the tournament, but it was a good educational lesson.
My only explanation is that in my second tournament I challenged Dan Blake's EPITOMIC and it was acceptable, which probably played a role in me accepting this one faster (as it turns out GEOTYPE isn't a word at all, even though it probably should be).
>Sean_Wrona: AABDNRY 5K BRAY +33 246
#note 1% chance of winning after this play. 2% chance of winning after BRAND. Yeah, letting GEOTYPIC go was BAD. Having said that, had I challenged it, I probably would have lost anyway since he's better...
>Karl_Higby: ?ELLNOV 3H .ONLeVEL +72 403
#note The other problem with letting GEOTYPIC go is it allowed him to draw 7 more tiles, including the blank. If I had challenged it, would I have drawn that blank and then won? Quite possibly. Instead, I chose to challenge this. GEOTYPIC does sound like more of a word than NONLEVEL to me, and I'm not sure why.
>Sean_Wrona: ?ADINNS - +0 246
#note I don't remember what my rack was here but I know on the next play I played NU 12C as a fish to create a GNU hook and had ADGINS? on my final turn, but I don't remember what the last tile I drew was. Regardless, I probably had any number of 8-letter bingos on this turn and the next one that I didn't see demoralized (and even more so when I learned that I challenged the wrong bingo and could have drawn the blank and won had I challenged the first one). I'm going to hope since I didn't bingo that my rack was something like this, but that's no guarantee.
>Karl_Higby: AFH O1 HA.F +42 445
>Sean_Wrona: ?ADINNS 12C N. +2 248
>Karl_Higby: AEHT 2B THAE +30 475
>Sean_Wrona: ?ADGINS B6 SANDInG +66 314
#note Oh well, DASHING scored two more points. With Karl getting stuck by the Q, I made this game look far closer than it should have been (kind of the opposite of the end of the Ted Rosen game).
>Sean_Wrona: (ANQRS) +28 342
|
