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#player1 Brian_Bowman Brian Bowman
#player2 Dave_Koenig Dave Koenig
>Brian_Bowman: AGZ H7 ZAG +26 26
#note Although I had beaten Brian in two of our three previous battles in the tournament, he had played tough and was still only a game behind me for first place going into this final round battle. He had a slightly better point spread than mine, meaning that the victor of this game would earn first place in the tournament, though I would still win the tourney in the unlikely event of a tie.
>Dave_Koenig: AAGNNQS I6 NAG +20 20
#note Not a great starting rack for me with no way to use the Q, and seemingly a good chance that I might be stuck with it for a while. But this play scores well enough, sets up an S hook for SNAG, and at very least hopes for an I or U for QIS or SUQ hooking ZAGS.
>Brian_Bowman: AGMO J6 OGAM +30 56
#note Amusingly, all three G's have been played in a diagonal line on the first three turns.
>Dave_Koenig: AENQSTU K1 EQUANTS +99 119
#note A ridiculously lucky three tile draw to ANQS.
>Brian_Bowman: CFOPRS 1G FORC.PS +51 107
#note We never did get the opportunity to make the FORCEPSES# extension in this game, but I thought about it. FORCIPES is another plural of this word, but don't try the phony forcep*.
>Dave_Koenig: ADHKOSU 10F HUSK +33 152
#note Wow, I had the amazing bingo SHAKUDOS# here. I did not know it. Nonetheless, I should have thought of HAKUS in the same spot as I played. Defensively it's a bit worse than my play, but it helps avoid vowel trouble in addition to scoring 3 more points.
>Brian_Bowman: EPRRU 11C PURER +21 128
>Dave_Koenig: AAADEOR G9 A..AE +11 163
#note I like this play best of all my options for balancing the rack well, despite some risk in opening the H12-15 line. There are enough other openings on the board that the cost of opening that lane isn't too much.
>Brian_Bowman: DEELRRT 4H TRE.DLER +72 200
>Dave_Koenig: ADIIORX H12 IXIA +48 211
#note Far and away the best play for both score and leave, despite a number of other distracting good-scoring options.
>Brian_Bowman: BIOTY O3 O.BITY +33 233
>Dave_Koenig: DILORTY 15H .DROITLY +89 300
>Brian_Bowman: ACLT 12A CLAT +26 259
>Dave_Koenig: ?EEEINO 13B ONE +21 321
#note I was thinking of -CENE ending words, such as PLIOCENE, but I couldn't quite come up with EOCENE, which is clearly my best play here. At this score at least partially taking out the triple-triple line through the C seemed wiser than dumping more vowels with something like SEELIE M1.
>Brian_Bowman: EENV K9 EEVN +18 277
>Dave_Koenig: ?EEEIOU 5E EUOI +10 331
#note My subpar play on the previous turn forced me to spend a turn fishing off vowels here. I'm still in good shape though, as Brian's remaining tile pool is looking a bit awkward, despite the unseen blank.
>Brian_Bowman: AFLNW 4A FLAWN +32 309
>Dave_Koenig: ?BEEJNV N11 JEBE. +28 359
#note BENJ N6 looks even stronger.
>Brian_Bowman: DI 10N DI +27 336
>Dave_Koenig: ?INOSTV B2 VO.uTINS +74 433
#note Blocking all the bingos, including WIFEDOMS A2, HOWDIED/MIAOWED 2B, and HALIDOME on the B or C column, makes this better than other bingos, including the high-scoring CONVICTS A7 for 90. Admittedly, I only thought of the unplayable VISCOUNT through the C and not CONVICTS, but I was focused on not letting him bingo back. Fortunately, I had moved quickly throughout this game and saved plenty of time to sniff out his possible bingos here. I wasn't sure if he might have some miracle 9 through NE on the E column, (It looks like he doesn't.) but that won't be enough to beat me. The moral of the story is that if you have to leave something open, make it for as few points as possible.
>Brian_Bowman: ?DEIIMO A7 MIOtI. +49 385
#note I challenged MIOTIC, giving Brian an extra 10 points.
>Dave_Koenig: HW 12M H.W +13 446
>Dave_Koenig: (DE) +6 452
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