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#player1 Jim_Burlant Jim Burlant
#player2 Orry_Swift Orry Swift
>Jim_Burlant: ENOOPTU 8D PUNTO +20 20
#note Initially put down 8H UPO and, after thinking about it, pulled it up and put this down. While UPO set up the N hook down the K column 2x2, I didn't think ENOT was so great as a leave to justify giving up 10 scoreboard points to this. The sim agrees with me; Championship Player says I should have played short with UPO and says this is a 4-1/2 point dog.
>Orry_Swift: AELORSS D6 RE.OSALS +70 70
#note Bingos all over the place for Orry - I3 OARLESS, I8 SEROSAL, I5/I6 LASSOER, etc., but this is clearly best.
>Jim_Burlant: AEOOOUW -AOOOUW +0 20
#note Yuck. I didn't even think twice about this, figuring that I could exchange now or on the next turn, but Quackle disagrees. WOO E11 was the play. I can see the point though I think Quackle is being a bit optimistic. Regardless, an almost worst-case scenario panned out that would have been prevented by WOO, so perhaps Quackle is onto something.
>Orry_Swift: IWZ C9 WIZ +41 111
>Jim_Burlant: EEEIMRY 13B MI.ERY +30 50
#note Tough call. If Quackle is to be believed, I should just balance the rack with C13 EYE or EYE 7G. I realize I have an R to back-hook EYE C13, but that still seems too likely to backfire IMO. And can I really afford to give up the 14 scoreboard points to this choice? This turns 5, scores 30, and dupe E's aren't the worst thing to keep. I'm fine with this, even if Quackle thinks it sucks. 14-1/2% to win.
>Orry_Swift: Q 10B Q.. +32 143
>Jim_Burlant: EEEGINP 14G EPIGENE +69 119
#note The only other placement is at 9H, and its main drawback (besides the scoreboard points given up) is that it only creates a single hot spot at L8. If he takes that out for huge points as I expect, I'd have nowhere to come back. This sets up any number of scoring opportunities: 15H, N14 if I have an S, and something to 15O. It's virtually impossible for him to take all of those out at once. Q agrees - this is clearly best and I'm back up to 26% winning chances.
>Orry_Swift: AD 15H AD +24 167
#note Play incorrectly scored as 22.
>Jim_Burlant: ACEENOW 13J ANEW +31 150
#note Missed 15L ENOW for some reason. This isn't awful per se, but punishment for the this indiscretion was forthcoming.
>Orry_Swift: ADEJ 12J JADE +52 219
#note Ouch!!!!
>Jim_Burlant: CEGGMOU E2 GOUGE +16 166
#note No really great options available. If Quackle is to be believed, F6 MUNGO and 6B MORGUE are best. I dunno - CM isn't great as a leave but it strikes me as being better than CG. The only danger to this play is if he has OX in his rack, but I do need to clean this crap out and, with both blanks unseen and a reasonably balanced pool, I figured my best bet was to turn tiles.
>Orry_Swift: ACFY F6 FA.CY +43 262
#note Ouch! No matter what I put down, he's got the rack to punish me.
>Jim_Burlant: CMNORTX 11C ..X +38 204
#note Best despite the lack of turnover.
>Orry_Swift: AEU 9H EAU +6 268
>Jim_Burlant: CMNOORT 10J MOC +23 227
#note Obviously a 10J play was called for, but which one? Q prefers MO, but I felt that it put me in a position of having to draw 2 vowels - not likely with Orry sitting on a vowel overload and the vowel count rapidly dwindling. 14.3% to win.
>Orry_Swift: AEHLLT 8J LETHAL +35 303
>Jim_Burlant: DINORTT 15L TROD +31 258
#note Best. Still at 9% winning chances.
>Orry_Swift: HOO 9M OHO +20 323
>Jim_Burlant: ?AINNOT 4C fO.NTAIN +66 324
#note Best is apparently 2B pOIGNANT/TANGOING. I saw NUTATION and talked myself out of it and only saw NEGATION on row 2. No matter what I put down, it didn't really matter given how the end racks panned out.
>Orry_Swift: FIKSU 3I KUFIS +47 370
#note Ouch!
>Jim_Burlant: BBIRSTV 2J BIB +33 357
#note Best. I'm ostensibly 20% to win with this.
>Orry_Swift: IRT 2B TRI. +10 380
#note When he put this down I figured that, for sure, he didn't have the blank. He told me post-mortem that my hunch was correct.
>Jim_Burlant: DELRSTV 14A VET +22 379
#note Truth be told, I didn't even recognize that a bingo would play on this board. That said, my feeling is, not knowing which is the 8th tile in the bag, the best play was to take out his most likely spot to score, which was down here. In reality, the only thing this play did given his next rack was blow a bunch of spread. If I block the bingo he has flexibility with the blank rack that my one-vowel rack does not and he wins that way. I didn't play perfectly by a long shot, but I don't feel like I played horrendously either. My gut says better play loses by less, but that there wasn't a whole lot I could do about the result. I just felt like I'd accomplished something merely by still hanging around in this game.
>Orry_Swift: ?AEINRV 5I RAVINEs +81 461
>Orry_Swift: (DILRS) +12 473
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