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#player1 Kevin_Rickhoff Kevin Rickhoff
#player2 Jim_Burlant Jim Burlant
>Kevin_Rickhoff: IQ 8G QI +22 22
>Jim_Burlant: ?EEFMOS 9H FE +11 11
#note Too bad he didn't float an A or R so I could have gotten off to a fearsome start (pun intended). No matter - there are no bingos here. A fish is the right call, though Q says I should only open the S hook with H7 FIE.
>Kevin_Rickhoff: AEOT J7 TOEA +12 34
>Jim_Burlant: ?EIMMOS K3 mOMMIES +81 92
#note I draw 2 tiles and fish a duplicated M? Are you kidding me? I realized my mistake after the fact: I definitely should have made the blank a C. I misapplied the rule of thumb that says you should just duplicate whatever is in your rack if possible. Still in good shape, though - 65% to win.
>Kevin_Rickhoff: BEEORRS 10B REBORES +69 103
#note Plays at 11D for 73.
>Jim_Burlant: EEGIIOY 5G GOYI. +11 103
#note Yuck - how do I miss BEIGY? This sucks. Despite Quackle's preference for EYE plays, I think that if I had it to do again, BEIGY would be my choice.
>Kevin_Rickhoff: GLN 4J L.NG +12 115
>Jim_Burlant: DEEFIII 11C DIF +31 134
#note The leave sucks but I felt that with no really good leave options available, just max out the points until I'd either have to exchange or the rack could clean itself out. Q says I should trade the 6 scoreboard points by playing FIE 11C.
>Kevin_Rickhoff: HILT H1 LITH. +36 151
>Jim_Burlant: CEEIIJX N2 EXEC +32 166
#note Just going for maximal turnover and points since there's really no promising rack fragment from which a bingo can be built. Q says I should trade points and turnover for leave by playing M2 JIG for 22.
>Kevin_Rickhoff: ?ADENRT 12D sTANDER +82 233
>Jim_Burlant: GIIJLVZ C7 JIV.. +28 194
#note Yay, I finally got a play right! This is clearly best - nothing else is remotely close.
>Kevin_Rickhoff: AEIKNU 3C UNAKI.E +26 259
>Jim_Burlant: DGILUUZ 8A GU.D +24 218
#note I saw ZING but thought the DLUU leave was a recipe for losing. This leaves at least a little balance and also doesn't give any potentially huge plays back if he doesn't have a bingo. Q says I should take the pionts with D1 ZING.
>Kevin_Rickhoff: ACEP 4A CAPE +30 289
>Jim_Burlant: AADILUZ H12 .UAL +15 233
#note I considered cashing the Z with ADZ E4 or F12 but there were a couple of drawbacks. First, the leave is awful. Secondly - As it stands now Kevin is one turn away from shutting down the board, and the line on row 13 is very limited and not easy to hit. This opens the bottom half of the board so it will stay alive at least two more turns, and ADZ plays all over the place for 30+ on the next turn. Q says I missed a better option: AID 2A, setting up the cheap ZA 1A for the next turn. I'm lukewarm on that - maybe that works against Quackle, but how likely is that to work against a human opponent?
>Kevin_Rickhoff: HO M2 HO. +37 326
>Jim_Burlant: ADILRTZ E3 .DZ +36 269
#note Yay, I finally got one right! This is best, but I still need a miracle: I'm winning not quite 5%.
>Kevin_Rickhoff: AINPRSU 15D PURS.AIN +63 389
>Kevin_Rickhoff: AINPRSU -- -63 326
#note I was familiar with SUPERNAL's anagram PURSLANE and thought this might be an alternate spelling. However: with the bag down to 9 tiles, if this stuck, it put me down 120 points and would take the bag down to two after he drew his tiles, meaning that the game would be over. I had to challenge. And this was a huge break in more ways than one. Not only do I know his rack; I now know what's in the bag, and he doesn't.
>Jim_Burlant: AAEILRT 15D ARIL.ATE +59 328
#note I wondered after the game if I'd played this in the correct location. Quackle says row 15 was the right place to play, but in reality the difference is minimal - the sim says everything wins within 1/2% and sims within 1/2 point. Back up to 30%.
>Kevin_Rickhoff: AINPRSU L6 UP +13 339
>Jim_Burlant: ANORTWW O1 TWO +37 365
#note Can I pull the miracle comeback? Back up to 47% with this, the clear sim winner.
>Kevin_Rickhoff: ABOR A1 BAR.O +27 366
#note I held this, but then my brain went soft. What I should have done: alpha-gram ABCOR and recognize that the legitimate words were CARBO, CAROB, and, COBRA, and challenged this nonsense off when I didn't see BARCO in that list. Instead, what I did after holding: I asked myself whether he'd be crazy enough to try a phony barely 2 turns after I challenged off PURSLAIN*? I said to myself, "No way," so I let it stick. As if there was any doubt, it's official: I'm a moron.
>Jim_Burlant: ANRSTWY 1H .AWNY +15 380
#note I was about to set myself up to go out in two when I saw that VENISON made NONLIVES through the L, so I put this down to block. The sad thing was that I rushed this and didn't give the play enough thought, even though I had enough time to do so. Had I bothered to look at the B, I'd have realized that BRAWNY 1A clears the extra tile and will enable me to go out in two and win, which this play does not.
>Kevin_Rickhoff: EINNOSV 14B VINES +28 394
>Jim_Burlant: RST 6K ..TS +24 404
>Kevin_Rickhoff: NO A14 ON +15 409
#note The final footnote on this comedy of errors: after the game, Kevin was puzzled about why I played on row 1? When I explained to him that I was blocking NONLIVES, he replied that he'd never seen the bingo. Regardless, I sure didn't deserve this one - even letting the late phony go, I still had the win and I just rushed the end game for no reason. We reap what we sow.
>Kevin_Rickhoff: (R) +2 411
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