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#player1 Dave_T Dave_T
#player2 hector hector
>Dave_T: DGILLOO 8G GOLD +12 12
#note DT: Q likes 8H LOGOI. I'm not sure what to think about the benefit of a vowelless leave here. Hector: For grins, think of the eight ways to make a nine-letter GOLD- word stretching to O8. I thought of, umm, one of them.
>hector: ?EHIPVX J8 .EX +27 27
#note Qs top two choices are VOX (H7, 13) and HIVED (J4, 20). DEX is about six equity points back of the pack. Good start, son. The top five choices from the duck all spend the V.
>Dave_T: IIJLOUY I4 OILI.Y +23 35
#note My leave was going to suck no matter what I did. I spent a lot of time here and thought this was best. Q likes 11H JOY and 11J YOU, both of which I ruled out because of the II leave. Maybe I should have played OILY or LILY, but the more time I spent looking at these tiles, the more I wanted to part with them. Setting up the TWS is probably a bad idea though.
>hector: ?GHIPRV H1 PRIG +32 59
#note I spent probably too much time weighing between PRIG and HIP (K9, 34). They're essentially even per the Duck but the winner is . . . wait for it . . . VuGH (H1, 51 points, save of -RIP). I'm generally open minded to playing off the blank for a high-scoring non bingo, but is a mere gain of 19 enough?
>Dave_T: EFJNOSU 6F JOU.E +30 65
#note J2 JEON and 3E FUJI are better.
>hector: ?ADHNTV J2 VAT +18 77
#note Nothing else close.
>Dave_T: ?AFGNSU 2F FU. +14 79
#note 2nd behind K8 SNUG
>hector: ?ADEHNR 3F AH. +24 101
#note I had HARDENeR ready to go until FUR was played; I considered the H8 path to a bingo but didn't see the findable word. AHI is the best non-bingo play, slightly ahead of the H only in that same area.
>Dave_T: ?AGINOS K9 SIGNOrA +79 158
#note DT: Q thinks it's better to fish than play GIGATONS. Hector: Dave saw both bingos here and obviously plays the right one; GIGATONS (G8, 61) doesn't score much and it puts the S in the zesty seventh position. Q gives the nod to SIGNORA, then opts for a host of non-bingo choices before it gets to GIGATONS.
>hector: ?DENRRY 15H DER.Y +39 140
#note I had two bingos available; one looks vaguely familiar, the other I didn't know. Once again I got the best of the non-bingos. That's why the blue hairs fear me, baby. Hmm.
>Dave_T: DEMNNOW 14I WO.MED +42 200
#note DT: Q gives 4A WONNED a slight edge. Hector: Nice job visualizing the blank, which can be a tricky thing at times.
>hector: ?DENRUZ 4D ZED +33 173
#note I took a while here and hate minting the board for an easy give-back, but Player de Championship agrees with ZED. The second choice is pretty cool - it scores 24 and saves blank-Z. Good luck finding it.
>Dave_T: AEEFNNV 5C VAN +27 227
#note Quackle is thinking defensively here and loves M9 VENENE. Although 13M FAN, FEN, and FEE seem to be asking for trouble.
>hector: ?NRRSUW H8 .WN +16 189
#note I thought this was a good play when I made it, but Q likes RUNES (M11, 20) a little bit more. I considered RUNES but I didn't like making the board harder to bingo on while I also flushed my S for a low score. A perfect player will find all the resulting bingos in RW-? while I won't, of course, which makes me wonder if at my current level OWN makes more sense. Anyway, I feel good about this option. Blah blah blah . . .
>Dave_T: EEFHINT 13M FEH +31 258
#note DT: best Hector: When this went down I reminded myself that -ED is an easy ending for nines, and of course that H looks juicy in the O column. Then I went about the business of getting a bingo down with my rack, but I didn't make the best choice . . .
>hector: ?ELRRSU 11B REcURLS +69 258
#note DT: wish I had known this wasn't good. In the words of Aibretty . . . urp. It's funny, the first word I saw was BURLERS, but I wanted to make sure I played something I was positive of. I really thought CURLERS and RECURLS were both good. I don't blame Dave for letting this go.
>Dave_T: ABEIINT B10 B.AIN +26 284
#note DT: D1 BAIZA is best followed by 13I TIBIA and 12I BINE. Hector: I've drawn a flexible rack post-bingo and should be in a decent position. Okay, this one's a layup, right . . .
>hector: ABKOPRS A12 KOAS +54 312
#note KBAR in the same spot. Fawk! That's really a bad miss. I got hosed on my subsequent draw (it's a vowel-plentiful bag), but my inferior play and leave set me up to be unlucky. These are the errors that get you beat.
>Dave_T: AAEIQTT E10 Q.IT +13 297
#note C5 VITAE is the runaway favorite, and I wish I had the board vision to play it here.
>hector: BMNPRRS -BMNR +0 312
#note CP agrees.
>Dave_T: AAAENTU 14E EAU +19 316
#note DT: best I was happy to see I had the last As and could bide my time before playing off the B to reach the TWS. Hector: Given my last rack, this sort of reply from Dave isn't a surprise. Good dump. As to my next rack, see if you can find the one star play.
>hector: CEIPRST O8 PERIS. +36 348
#note I don't know CERIPH, a shame - it would give me an 85 percent chance to close it out (the next batch of stuff is in the mid-60s). I spent a long time looking for a really good play here and I didn't want to settle for PERISH, but it's not a terrible choice - it's competitive in the sim. Slightly better according to the Duck are ICH (O11, 11), ET (C11, 9) and ICED (N11, 7). I can see ICH, I don't know about the other two. One other problem for me - by the time I chose a play here I had just a couple of minutes left, and once again I played a mediocre endgame (that's usually a strength of mine, but it wasn't always this weekend).
>Dave_T: AAENNOT 15C TONE +22 338
#note DT: It was between this and N7 NONET. Somehow I thought I was playing QUIETEN. 13E TANTO is best. Hector: Where was that turbulence bag? I held the play and didn't like QUITEN*, but I eventually let it go, thinking of how I don't know the JQXZ sixes as well as I should. Bad logic, because this is a *hooked* six and a word I surely would have seen by now. Had a Wedell or a Stella or a Breitbeil played this word on me, it's bounced quickly (I won the vast majority of my challenges this weekend, in fact, though it's more a comment on them than it is on me). I respected my opponent more than myself in this position, I guess, and I felt I still had control of the game. Bottom line, let's not spin this - I deserve to lose for waving this through.
>hector: CEILMTT F9 MI. +20 368
#note This play only wins 41 percent of the time - among the better choices are MEET (C9, 20) and LEET (C9, 16). I wonder why they're that good - while they shut off A-access into the first row, it's also likely Dave has the O and I hate playing 7-on-7, generally speaking. By the time I played MIR I was into my final minute, a critical problem.
>Dave_T: AABCNRT A6 BARCA +31 369
#note DT: Not only best but the only play in the championship player report where I have a chance (25% to win). Hector: Very nice. I've still got a win, though, if I can process quickly enough.
>hector: CEELOTT 12I CO.E +12 380
#note A word I didn't know, VELOCE 2J, wins easily; TT has several outs if he extends the game, and Dave's outplays don't score much. Playing off COL for a decent score, through LOCO (13H, 19) or COLZA (D1, 19) will also win. I couldn't find either in my time remaining.
>Dave_T: INT 3J .NTI +8 377
#note Hector: Best (the other ANTI, from 7A, is three less points). Game was recounted, score held up. Very well played, David, and congrats on your second-place finish. Tournament attendance is the only thing that's keeping your rating down - it's obvious to me that you're a lot better than your current number. DT: Thanks. I'm glad this game was less lopsided than are first encounter.
>Dave_T: (TTLE) +8 385
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