| Player 1 |
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#player1 Jason Jason
#player2 Josh Josh
>Jason: AEQTU 8D QUATE +48 48
>Josh: AACELST C2 LACTASE +85 85
#note Although this gives the big Z spot and makes it easier to hit COEQUATE, I would say that it shapes the board pretty well given my lead. Comparatively to (E)SCALATE or ESCALAT(E) I think this wins my post-analysis choice. I didn't see ESCALATE though, and seeing it might have made my choice a bit harder. But wow, for some reason this was scored as 75 rather than 85! I remember announcing the correct score though...
>Jason: FFGI 2B G.IFF +40 88
#note I almost challenged this. I didn't know it.
>Josh: DIIORSY B6 YO +28 113
#note It seemed this scored much more than anything else, set up a second triple spot to counter the one on F1 and blocked CO(EQUATE). I didn't really mind keeping two I's here, but if I had seen a play that rid me of one I and scored, I would have played it. The other play I considered was I(C)Y, but the difference in score was a key factor in my choice of play. I don't know in hindsight why I thought it was a good idea to open the board up, but I guess I felt fearless. This was a rather large mistake and I should have taken the time to consider other plays, especially YID/EQUATED. That's a clear winner.
>Jason: BMU A7 BUM +26 114
>Josh: BDEIIRS I2 BIRDIES +78 191
#note I guess fearlessness paid off but that doesn't make my last play correct. I chose this over I5 BIRDIES because despite it scoring one less point, it closes down the bottom right quadrant and blocks long words on row 1. It also yields no S for Jason to play through. I think this makes my play clearly better than I5 BIRDIES.
>Jason: ?DGINRV 6F DeR.VING +74 188
#note Jason didn't know if DRIVINGS was valid or not (I did!), and that would have been the right play at 3G for 78, I think.
>Josh: AAAEIWX H1 WAX +52 243
#note 4G EA(R)WAX is worth considering. I didn't see it. Even thoguh it's 18 less points the leave is much less atrocious.
>Jason: OOZ 5E ZOO +28 216
>Josh: AACEIIW L3 WAI. +14 257
#note Unfortunately, Jason blocked my great WI(C)CA play, unexpectedly for me. So it was either WAI(N) or ACI(N)I at L3 for me, or B9 AWA. I quickly decided AWA didn't really accomplish anything besides blocking the only 7 lane left, and in turn creating big scoring and opening opportunities for Jason. I then decided that ACEI, despite being more vowel heavy, was a more synergistic leave than AEW was, and that usually I would draw more consonants than vowels as the pool was around 60% consonants. A factor that I didn't consider well enough was that putting the I in ACI(N)I at L7 interferes with a lot of plays Jason would want to make on columns K and M. It also sets up my W at M3, but that's kind of a nonfactor I would say. The W scores better than the C, especially on closed boards. Maybe that's also an important factor. In the end I think I might play ACI(N)I if I were in this position again, but I think both plays are really close.
>Jason: INOU D8 .UOIN +28 244
>Josh: ACDEIJO M2 JOE +32 289
#note Here I think I was set on playing JO or JOE at M2 and then I considered 11C J(I)AO briefly. But it created two easy 7 lanes, and I really didn't want that. What I failed to consider was a very very unorthodox JOE at 10C. That play is very defensively strong. It blocks the OIN as floaters and 9B as a bingo lane, blocks a majority of bingos or scoring plays pluralizing QUOIN, and still leaves me with the same leave as the 9-more-points option at M2. The problem is if Jason has the Y, as words forming (JOE)Y score a ton and open the board to an S hook all over again. Since I am only ahead by around 40 after my play, I don't think JOE is right here, but it's a worthy opponent to JO or JOE at M2. I chose JOE as it was harder to overlap, scored more, there were a lot of E's for me to draw, and the leave was pretty similar to ACDEI.
>Jason: GH K4 GH. +28 272
#note I was happy I no longer needed to worry about K5 as a 2x2 after this play.
>Josh: ACDIKMO 1D KOI +33 322
#note And now I had a really difficult choice at hand from my perspective. The plays I considered here were 1D KOI, 4A MA(C)K/CO(C)K/MI(C)K/MO(C)K and AMOCK* 9B, which I quickly remembered wasn't a word. Unfortunately all of those plays are nothing if I notice that I can put my M at 9B which I unfortunately failed to see. If I see that, the obvious choice is MIKADO for 36 and the less-obvious choice is MODICA. I knew MODICA was a word, plural of MODICUM, but I think I thought MODICAL was also a word, so had I seen the possibility I would have gone with MIKADO. Another cool option is (O)OMIACK at 10D, which I also missed. All of those plays race for the blank, which is very important and which I couldn't figure out how to do in this position. This was another rather large mistake I think.
>Jason: AEEIRRS M6 .REASIER +72 344
#note When Jason was putting this down I really hoped one of the letters was going to be a blank, but alas, I'm in trouble.
>Josh: ACDLMNP 12H CLAMP.D +34 356
#note Here I felt like it was quite important for me to score. This was the primary necessity. The secondary necessity was playing as many tiles as possible so as to increase my chances of drawing the blank, because realistically this is what will be the decider on who wins this game. This is why I chose this play. At this point the 10-point error in score is really important, because I think that my play will only just barely put me in the lead. The much better option here, which I may have seen if I wasn't so worried about momentum and staying in the lead, is L9 LAMP. It scores 32 and sets my C up at 8L for C(LAMP)/C(E)__ plays that score a ton! Wow!
>Jason: ADRT 8K TR.AD +31 375
>Josh: HLNOTTY C11 HOTLY +29 385
#note Alright, here's the turning point play. Do I try to close the board as best as possible, or is that futile because of the S at 10M, the D at O8 and the 9B lane? Do I play N1 HOT or HON? C11 HOTLY? 10B HO(O)TY? Again I think that the score is 365-346. This will teach me to routinely make sure that every score makes sense. But yeah I really don't know what to do. I guess I need to keep something that will score on my rack, in which case I should play HOT or HON? I really am at a loss for this turn. HO(O)TY minimizes his bingo chances, HOTLY maximizes them (not something I intended), HON/YON/HOT score and reduce bingo chances. I think I should have played shorter here, but things are looking grim.
I inferred that Jason must not have been holding an N here, so I really should have played HON or YON given the 3 N's in the pool.
>Jason: ?EEELTV O1 ELEVaTE. +95 470
>Josh: EEINNNT 11C ..N +12 397
#note Now the score is "fixed". I think Jason is ahead by 85. So I have no chance of winning. I should just score with IN(C)ENT this turn.
>Jason: AENPRSU 15A PA.ERS +36 506
#note -1 to (Y)AUPER.
>Josh: EEINNOT H10 IN.ENT +24 421
#note -2 off IN(D)ENT N10, missed it.
>Jason: NU 11J NU +14 520
#note -2 off UN(CLAMPED)!
>Jason: (EO) +4 524
#note Final scores recorded as 514-411, real scores 514-421.
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