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#player1 Dave_Koenig Dave Koenig
#player2 John_O'Laughlin John O'Laughlin
>Dave_Koenig: ACENNOU -UNO +0 0
#note It's often a difficult choice of whether to play long or short or trade on an opening rack, but my philosophy on these situations is that computers are better than humans at evaluating them objectively. A two ply sim from Quackle suggests that 8D OUNCE is my best opener here, and that this exchange is a little bit less than a 7 point error. I'll accept that. There really is no general rule about whether trading is right or wrong; it's just a question of how good an exchange is relative to the other choices. There's nothing particularly great about OUNCE. It's just the best way to balance scoring and leave among a multitude of mediocre options when there are no strong plays available. My feeling was that I like the ANCE synergy. Also, I like balanced leaves with a single scoring tile like the C, because they are still quite bingoable, but even when they don't bingo, you're going to have scoring options available. Apparently though, my internal metric for judging this was off by about 7 points.
>John_O'Laughlin: KY 8H KY +18 18
>Dave_Koenig: AAACEMN 9G MAA +21 21
>John_O'Laughlin: HOT 10F HOT +25 43
>Dave_Koenig: ACEEJNR J6 JEE +36 57
#note I failed to notice the R hook to make MAAR, which would have allowed me to make the strong play JEER here. Still, this play is not too much worse, as I have the AJEE hook and the R has good synergy with these tiles.
>John_O'Laughlin: ?EGISTV 11E VoGIEST +108 151
#note John finds the best bingo
>Dave_Koenig: ACINRRY 5I RACY +29 86
#note Given how blocked up the board has become, it looks better to play more tiles to open things up with RIANCY#, which is better than CAIRNY, because it makes the top left part of the board difficult to access. Already staring at a big deficit and a tight board, I need to work hard in this situation not to let him lock things down.
>John_O'Laughlin: DOW H4 DOW +19 170
>Dave_Koenig: CFIINRX 12K INFIX +48 134
>John_O'Laughlin: EMOZ 4L MOZE +46 216
>Dave_Koenig: ACGRRST O1 CAG.R +24 158
>John_O'Laughlin: AEGLNOR N7 GERAN.OL +72 288
>Dave_Koenig: BNOORST O10 BO. +18 176
#note If I had remembered BOET#, I would have certainly played it here. I'm in dire straits in that I really need to bingo fast on row 15, and I didn't want to leave 8L-O open, but I couldn't find a good rack managing play that went there. I didn't love leaving the too consonant heavy SNORT leave here, but I failed to find the better option.
>John_O'Laughlin: LU N2 LU. +31 319
>Dave_Koenig: NNORSST 8M S.N +9 185
#note CONS K5 is a very good play that I missed here. Though it does burn my only vowel, it scores significantly more while taking out the 8L spot, thus reducing the damage he can do on the TWS. STEN# 8L might also have been better than my choice. Gotta review those fours.
>John_O'Laughlin: EEEEEE -EEEEEE +0 319
#note John mentioned after the game that he had seven vowels here, and the best he would have been able to do without trading was something like AI O14, when I'm going to be able to fit S ending bingos on row 13 anyway. It was very lucky for me that his rack was so bad, but I think that in this particular situation it was justified for him to make a play like AI in the corner, even though he's probably going to have to trade the next turn. Normally you would not want to take only 8 points and almost guarantee yourself 0 for the next turn, but this is not a normal situation. The reason is that it is an obvious inference from my previous turn that I am holding another S and on the verge of bingoing, and that my chances of coming back are SO MUCH WORSE if I have to place the bingo at 13E-13L. It's not just that the bingo scores a lot less, but also that the board will be very bad for my comebacks after a word goes down in that spot. In comparison, as you'll see in the game, if I am able to bingo on row 15 in a way that still allows for row 14 bingos hooking it, I'll have a considerably better chance.
>Dave_Koenig: INORSTU 15H TURIONS +84 269
#note This was a very intentional choice to play the T starting bingo so that I would have the ST# hook later.
>John_O'Laughlin: AFOOPT 4B FOOTPA. +26 345
>Dave_Koenig: EHNPRTW C3 R.WTH +30 299
#note I need as much volatility as possible. This sets up potential S hooks onto row 8 and the front T hook onto row 2. It doesn't matter that I don't have those letters yet. I have to give myself the chance to draw them.
>John_O'Laughlin: EE 5C .EE +18 363
>Dave_Koenig: AEILNNP 7I P.IN +20 319
#note Considering how many I's are still unseen, I like this better than PEN or PEAN in the same spot, which are high rated by Quackle's static evaluator.
>John_O'Laughlin: EEEEI -EEEEI +0 363
>Dave_Koenig: AAEELNU 3E AUE +14 333
#note EAU B8 is an interesting gambit, because I have the only remaining non-blank tile that can front hook the U on 8A, though of course he would be able to play through the U if he has the S.
>John_O'Laughlin: Q K14 Q. +11 374
>Dave_Koenig: ?AEEILN 14B dELAINE +68 401
#note I have to be careful here. Although I'm finally catching up on score, there's a good chance that John might be close to bingoing back himself. I put the blank D in the B column because with three D's unseen, there's a good chance it would be a duplicate letter, making bingos more difficult for him.
>John_O'Laughlin: BDERSU C9 BURSE.D +26 400
#note John saw that I had high scoring possibilities on row 15 (VITAE/VITAL), so he tried to score in such a way that blocked the lane. But he missed that I had another high scoring possibility elsewhere. It's difficult to say for sure without knowing his rack, but it might have been right for him to do something like BUSED 8A to take maximum points, since he can't stop me from scoring anyway. As it turns out, with the tiles I drew, I would still have won after BUSED.
>Dave_Koenig: ADIILTV 2A VITAL +32 433
>Dave_Koenig: UNKNOWN (challenge) +5 438
#note It seemed John had forgotten about or wasn't sure of the TROWTH hook, as my play caught him by surprise. He thought for a bit and decided to challenge, because he has no chance to win if this word stays on.
>John_O'Laughlin: DEI 1D DEI +16 416
#note John missed his best out play IDLE D12 for seven extra points, but it wouldn't have been enough to win, whether or not he had challenged.
>John_O'Laughlin: (DI) +6 422
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