| Player 1 |
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#player1 Mark_Milan Mark Milan
#player2 Josh Josh
>Mark_Milan: ENO 8H ONE +6 6
#note Game 1 of Vegas! I was excited to begin the tournament. And the first tile I drew out of the bag?
>Josh: ?BEFNPT J7 B.EF +17 17
#note The blank! For this turn, my considerations were as follows: Mark is likely to have two or more of ENSRT from this play. But I can't be that sure of this, since I don't know my opponent.
My instinct is to play defensively here, and I see 9H FEN or FET. I discard FET because of FET(A) and the probably inferior leave, but I thought he would have an S a lot of the time, so keeping a bad leave seemed to backfire too much with plays forming (ONE)S or even 7s at G2.
So I decide that it's between F(O)B and B(E)EF/FE(E)B. I think B(E)EF is better than FE(E)B because his bingos seem to score a bit more after the latter. I decided against F(O)B (F(O)P's leave is inferior) because of the score difference mainly, but also since I didn't want to shape the board in my disfavor with no S in hand and a likely S in Mark's. If he bingos forming (ONE)S I would have to draw into an 8 most of the time, and that would come at a price of losing some form of control over what plays I can make. This is very overthinkish, but it's a small factor. I think the best play depends on what I infer from Mark's last play. Top experts would probably almost never play ONE if they didn't have an S I think, but Mark isn't quite at that level, so it's hard to know what ONE's leave is.
>Mark_Milan: AHLR K9 HARL +24 30
#note Hmm, I wonder what he kept
>Josh: ?EENPTU 12E cENTUP.E +70 87
#note I saw H8 (O)UTPrEEN but I wasn't sure enough of it. That seems to be the best option at my disposition here. Instead I take the bingo that scores 7 less. At least I'm pushing plays to the right hemisphere of the board with this. I also considered that CENTUPLET* was phony, and that Mark may attempt it or that I might feel like I can get it past him. I had forgotten that CENTUPLE also took a D though. The only other bingo available is UmPTEEN, which plays in many places that don't seem worth a few points sacrifice. This is probably an error of around 5 points.
>Mark_Milan: AEM H12 .AME +18 48
>Josh: ?DIIQTU G9 QUI.T +28 115
#note I looked for a bingo here, and I only thought of 9s. I unfortunately missed DISQUIET in two spots, the more lucrative of which is F6. I considered QUI(N) and QUI(N)T. I ultimately played QUI(N)T for long-term defense, but the short term points it gives back (QUINTE/QUINTA) are problematic. IDT? is also a better leave than ID?. But DISQUIET is the right thing to play, and this is probably another error, this time a bit larger than last turn's.
>Mark_Milan: EF 14F FE. +31 79
>Josh: ?DIINRY K3 RINDY +25 140
#note Here I considered the idea that RINDILY* was a word, but quickly discarded the possibility because it didn't make much sense and didn't ring a bell. I couldn't see anything else. In fact, there is no bingo, but CENTUPLED had escaped me, so I didn't play the clearly superior RINDY at M9. This is following suit as a decently sized error.
>Mark_Milan: DO E10 DO. +6 85
#note He took around 5 minutes to make this interesting play. Afterwards he mentioned how he wanted to take out the 2x2 and keep a great leave. No recollection of that leave though...
>Josh: ?BIISTU D5 BIScUIT +63 203
#note And even more interesting was me preparing to lay down BUrSITI(C)* before his play. I highly doubt Mark would have challenged if he knew BURSITIS. I thought BURSITIC* was a word, and luckily I didn't have to deal with playing it. And yes, this was a nother error, as SUBTIlI(N) 5D is available. I didn't know the word. I also missed STIBIUm as a 7 on my rack, but that's not of importance. This BIScUIT, which scores one more than the other BIScUIT, at 7B, seems superior as it decreases his bingo percentage and kind of strangles the top of the board between the B in BISCUIT and the RIN in RINDY.
>Mark_Milan: CHNO 8A CON.H +27 112
>Josh: AAIIPTX 15C IXIA +24 227
#note Another word knowledge error. I had no idea that CONCHA was a word! Playing IXIA with CONCHA is clearly the best play here. Instead, I sacrificed what I thought were 6 points (vs. IXIA E2) to eliminate freak plays on row 15 that would put the game in jeopardy and also to not give Mark anything new to work with. I don't know if it's worth the points sacrifice. All I know is CONCHA.
>Mark_Milan: EKO 14B OKE +29 141
#note Quite an aggressive play, probably stemmed out of frustration. I don't blame him.
>Josh: AILNPTW A12 PAWL +47 274
#note Nothing to say here I think.
>Mark_Milan: EGGJLOS M6 JOGGLES +79 220
#note CONCH has a ton of weird hooks! CONCHS is another. CONCHY I knew, but not CONCHA or CONCHO. JOGGLES at F2 seems to be a better play than this. Nice word though!
>Josh: EIINTTV 4H INV.TE +20 294
#note I didn't want to give up trying to control the board here, so I didn't consider going for points+leave with C12 TI(KI) or VIT(R)INE 3H. I don't think it's a good idea to do that. I felt like INV(I)TE did a lot of good things, such as blocking many 8s, forcing a 7 to finish in an S and blocking scoring/forking plays down column N or column L. If he doesn't immeditely bingo here I am in quite decent shape, especially if I hit a good scoring play down column E next turn.
>Mark_Milan: GRY H1 GYR. +24 244
>Josh: AAEIITZ E2 ZITI +34 328
#note Here I missed a splendid play, C3 ZEATI(N). Even though that lets Mark bingo more than ZITI, it scores better and leaves a more flexible leave, so it seems like a better option. Another option was A(G)ATIZE at 1G. That didn't seem to accomplish much at all and it didn't score too well, so I decided against it.
>Mark_Milan: AMO 8L O.AM +24 268
>Josh: AAAEEOS 7C A.EA +13 341
#note At first I thought that my options really sucked here, but this isn't all too bad. There are a ton of consonants left in the pool; many more than vowels, so this play's leave is actually pretty good. Other options would be exchanging, which seems pretty bad, since it would give Mark more vowels to draw and would score nothing. The other two meaningful options would be 1) G1 AA, as that blocks one of the three main threats at this point; a bingo starting in G, a bingo starting in M and a bingo starting in E. And 2) J2 EA(V)E, which basically accomplishes the same thing but allows for higher-scoring comebacks and uses up one more vowel. I think this is a good idea, because it does block the O as well as maximizing my potential for next turn.
>Mark_Milan: DW I11 W.D +15 283
>Josh: ADEOOSS F2 ADO +24 365
#note I don't think I should empty the bag here, because there are a few possibilities Mark could have that would beat me. So I should probably play 3 tiles and score decently. ADO does that. OD(A)S F5 (I still didn't know CONCHS) does that, and I can also set points up by playing N2 OES or ODS, which should outrun anything. It seems like all of those plays always win, per championship player. I don't know which one is better.
>Mark_Milan: R D13 R.. +10 293
>Josh: EORSSUV N2 VERSO +41 406
>Mark_Milan: ACELNRT J2 CA.E +19 312
#note -4 to 3B ACR(ID)E(R)
>Josh: SU 12A .US +5 411
>Josh: (LNRT) +8 419
#note I made many word knowledge-related errors this game, but other than that I think I did well. My intentions were well-founded but my execution was a bit poor.
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