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#player1 Vera_Bigall Vera Bigall
#player2 Joshua_Sokol Joshua Sokol
>Vera_Bigall: DEILNRY 8D YEILD +26 26
>Vera_Bigall: DEILNRY -- -26 0
#note So the play here is DIRELY! She played this, I recorded the score, heard her mutter "Oh", and wondered why and looked to see it transposed as such. I challenged and she removed it. I felt bad.
>Joshua_Sokol: DFOORUW H4 FORDO +26 26
#note And now I had partial knowledge of her rack! I thought long and hard about which placement of WOOF would be best but every placement gave her a juicy spot for YIELD! I didn't want that. I then considered FORDO and the disgusting leave it left me with, and weighed everything against exchanging keeping RD, R or nothing at all. I was most concerned with giving her little to work with here, so I played this, since 26 points looked much better than 0 despite UW. I think I actually should have exchanged!
>Vera_Bigall: DEILNRY 4H .RIENDLY +88 88
#note I let out a Chris Cree-like "Oh no!" right here with a followup of cracking up, and Ross Brown gave me a little nudge from right beside me. I'm not sure if that nudge derived from sympathy, annoyance, laughter at my demise or a combination of any of those...
>Joshua_Sokol: EELOTUW 3K WOE +25 51
#note trying to score, leave the board open for a comeback and keep a leave that will bingo sometimes. I think this is the correct play
>Vera_Bigall: CEINOPV 6G P.OVINCE +75 163
#note Oh no!!! :) I love playing Vera, we always have such a fun time!
>Joshua_Sokol: ELOTUYZ M6 .UTELY +13 64
#note There weren't any scoring options for the Z, let alone scoring options for anything really. I considered just dropping the Z and playing 7B TOUZLE(D), but I missed the superior F2 TOUZLE, which scores better and gives the game a bit more variance. I didn't like opening up A8 after TOUZLE(D) at all, since any plays there will score and close things up further. Another good option looks to be 2J YET. I think that's the right play here. It opens up scoring for my Z and keeps the rest of the board open. YO in the same spot looks decent as well but is way more risky I think, and it's still early. I played (C)UTELY over (C)UTEY because ZLO didn't seem as good as ZO and I liked the extra tile and scoring potential ZO gave me over ZLO given M2 as a scoring spot for the Z, even though there is no S hook to CUTELY, which makes CUTEY a bit better than it normally would be. I think I had a lot of trouble rationalizing here and that I should have played something else, but this isn't a terrible play, as I should be scoring well with the Z soon and keeping within reach. This was scored as 15.
>Vera_Bigall: EFK 2J KEF +32 195
#note Damn! This was a great play on many levels, despite how obvious it probably was.
>Joshua_Sokol: ?AIIOTZ L11 AZO +29 93
#note The blank! It's possible I should play 8J AZO(T)Ic here, since I'm so far behind and I can still draw into many a bingo with IT. Yeah, I think I missed a good opportunity here.
>Vera_Bigall: DIR K9 RID +22 217
>Joshua_Sokol: ?BIIRTU O1 BUR. +27 120
>Vera_Bigall: Q 10J Q. +31 248
>Joshua_Sokol: ?AIITTX N1 AX +40 160
#note I was unsure of TAXITIc, but this isn't much worse, nor is M13 XI. I didn't like XI cause there were 4 S's left and the chances Vera had one were huge. I preferred to take the points and play conservatively for a couple more turns.
>Vera_Bigall: EINPRST 14G PTERINS +74 322
#note I guess I was right! But TAXITIc, I should have tried it...
>Joshua_Sokol: ?IITT 10M .IT +5 165
#note I don't remember my rack here, dang it. I felt like I wasn't going to waste time looking for a bingo even if I had one since I needed far more than that to get back into this.
>Vera_Bigall: HMNO O7 MON.H +30 352
>Joshua_Sokol: ??DEINT 15C DETraIN +82 247
#note 15I DENsITy scores very well, that might be right here. Not sure how I missed STAINED and TRAINED. I guess too many possibilities. This is not the best play.
>Vera_Bigall: GNOTU D10 TONGU. +14 366
>Joshua_Sokol: BEEILOS E6 OBELISE +76 323
#note hmm, perhaps on the other side to keep things more open, but I don't think another bingo will win this game more than just pure scoring given the pool
>Vera_Bigall: EEJ G8 JEE +20 386
>Joshua_Sokol: AAGHSSW 8A SWAG. +33 356
#note But despite that I made a play that wants me to bingo some of the time here. I'm not even bingoing 5% of the time, this is not the right play. WAG(E) might even be better for two 40+ scores in the next two turns, but I think I need to go with SHWA/SHAW this turn.
>Vera_Bigall: AV B6 VA. +17 403
>Joshua_Sokol: AAHMRST 15L SHAM +50 406
#note !!!!!!!! (S)TRAMASH!!!! I could have won this game just like that!!! Wow....... It did look like I could have had something but I had never seen STRAMASH!
>Vera_Bigall: AACEGLU D4 LUG +11 414
#note I really thought I was done for here, looking at what I drew and looking at her rack, but she didn't manage to find any winning plays. GULA(G) rather than LUG is the best win, same spot! Scored as 12, which is very important, as you'll see later. And yes, the misscoring of CUTELY was important too! I now thing the score is 415-404 for Vera.
>Joshua_Sokol: AAIIRT I8 TI +13 419
#note Quackle cannot find the best wins here as this isn't an ordinary endgame. Normally it will last more than 3 more turns starting now. This is the best win I can find manually, and if everything is played optimally after this, I win by 5. There are other wins. (O)AT at 13L wins by 4, for example.
>Vera_Bigall: AACE 4B CE. +5 419
#note (L)AC is the best play here, but she has lost already, or has she?
>Joshua_Sokol: AAIR 13L .AR +18 437
#note Even though I should know by now that she has AA and no other out than at C12, since I have the same tiles as her and have been looking across the board for plays for the past 10 minutes, I still decide to "play it safe" and take an apparent two-point win since she may have another spot elsewhere to go out. The best play is obviously C12 AA, blocking hers, as she can't go out after that. It wins by 12, or 13 from my perspective.
>Vera_Bigall: AA C12 AA +13 432
#note We recount after this play, and after having thought I had won by 2, I realize my mistake with CUTELY, and the game suddenly becomes a tie. It's crazy, because I had just made this ridiculous comeback and it seems like my own simple scoring mistake has cost me the win. But I keep recounting despite this crazy feeling and see that she overscored lug by 1... Everything else is fine and I actually win the game by 1.
>Vera_Bigall: (AI) +4 436
#note What an incredible game. To think that I defied those insane odds and still could have sealed it all with a ridiculous STRAMASH!
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