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#player1 Joshua_Sokol Joshua Sokol
#player2 Ben_Schoenbrun Ben Schoenbrun
>Joshua_Sokol: ?AEHIKX H7 KEX +28 28
#note There is another play that is very strong here, and that play is H6 HAIK. I did not see it. It nicely sets up my X in a way where it won't be blocked all the time, given that (HAIK)A and (HAIK)U will be used when Ben has vowel-heavy or low-scoring racks, but KEX's defense and potential seem like too much to give away. If Ben has no other choice but to exchange, which is very unlikely, AHI overlapping KEX next turn will consequently dig him into an even deeper hole.
>Ben_Schoenbrun: CIW 7E WIC. +16 16
>Joshua_Sokol: ?ABHIIU 6D BAH +34 62
#note I missed G7 CHAI here. Quite the equalizing draw after the very lucky first pull of mine. Normally taking the points and running is a good idea here, but BAH opens the board up quite well, which isn't really a good thing despite my holding a blank, since I will very likely have to exchange next turn and lose a whole lot of ground. I think instead I should be attempting to slow things down/control the board here with a play like I8 HI or HUB. CHAI looks like a good mean between scoring, playing aggressively and keeping as balanced a leave as I can, but I shoùld address the fact that WICK opens quadrants of the board that I can close down, thereby counteracting Ben's strategy of keeping the board open.
>Ben_Schoenbrun: GIORR I8 RIGOR +19 35
>Joshua_Sokol: ?CEIIIU 12H U.EIC +16 78
#note this may be one of those times where exchanging, despite being quite strong. is not something I considered. There are nice spots for CE? or CEI? here.
>Ben_Schoenbrun: ABDR 5B BRAD +32 67
>Joshua_Sokol: ?DEIIII -III +0 78
#note exchanging last turn would have saved me for this turn. Given that there were only 2 I's left to come I opted to keep an I, but there were really too many other vowel left to draw, so I should have either stuck with just the D, nothing, or DE. I considered it but for some other reason I preferred the vowel-heavy leave. Although Quackle prefers my choice, I disagree. Perhaps even DI might have been worth it since there were so many E's left.
>Ben_Schoenbrun: EEGRT 8A GREET +29 96
>Joshua_Sokol: ?DEEEII J5 EIDE +10 88
#note As I should have forseen, I drew into another useless blank rack. I should still be OK for next turn. I don't think playing EIDE(R) makes any sense here despite the extra points and the possibility of a huge bingo for me next turn. I also dislike other fishing plays, and preferred to keep things controlled.
>Ben_Schoenbrun: AQT K3 QAT +28 124
>Joshua_Sokol: ?AEEEIO -AEEO +0 88
#note Is O(G)EE A7 worth it here? At this point Ben probably knows I have the blank, but there isn't too much he can do about it. It seemed preferable to keep an I here instead of an A, and preferable to keep two vowels here, now that a lot of E's and other vowels are gone, but again, this is quite the variant leave. I should probably just keep the E.
>Ben_Schoenbrun: ?EIIOST 13B OIlIEST +66 190
#note seems Ben had vowel trouble too, which is quite improbable. Good thing he was able to score and bingo with his. It's interesting that he decided to open up ROILIEST, or perhaps he just spaced here. I think this is a very good play, better than IOLITES or (R)OILIEST for sure, but perhaps not as good as E(G)OISTIc A7. That heavily reduces my chances of scoring and of getting a bingo. But maybe that's too cute, and aggressiveness is merited here, as well as 7 more points. It also seems like I bingo less after OILIEST, which doesn't make much sense to me.
>Joshua_Sokol: ?EEILOP L8 PLIO.EnE +65 153
#note Whew, I can finally lay down a bingo. But wait! PIEHOLE plays at L2 for 20 more! That is a large improvement and a hard find, especially since I looked at EEHIOLP and couldn't see PIEHOLE. It's an alphagram I struggle with to this day. I saw EOPHILE*, realized I was confusing it with ENOPHILE, then didn't take the next step to realize that I'm usually not just confusing a word with a nonword, I'm probably making the same mistake I've made multiple times on an alphagram quiz. What a fit, though! Also, L1 PLIE looks better than my play anyway.
>Ben_Schoenbrun: EMNNOV 15I ENV.NOM +36 226
>Joshua_Sokol: HNOOOOZ 8L .OOH +27 180
#note It was hard to choose between (P)OOH and OZON(E), but ultimately I felt like it was better to keep the Z and hope to catch up after a small score from him.
>Ben_Schoenbrun: AFFLY B10 LAY.FF +34 260
#note nice find
>Joshua_Sokol: ANNOOSZ F9 OZON. +34 214
#note not sure I understand why a simulation thinks I score more points by keeping the O and playing ZONE. Probably just cause vowels are getting scarce. For bingo potential OZONE is apparently the favorite though. Not much else to say here, couldn't really set up my Z
>Ben_Schoenbrun: JN K11 J.N +40 300
>Joshua_Sokol: ADINSSU 3J S.UAD +30 244
>Ben_Schoenbrun: AESY O1 EASY +49 349
#note too easy
>Joshua_Sokol: GIINSTT 14D ITS +25 269
>Ben_Schoenbrun: AALMW N1 WA.MAL +44 393
#note wow. nice!
>Joshua_Sokol: AINPRTT L1 PR.TA +27 296
#note TRIPTAN(E) would have gotten me back to life too! M7 P(O)INT seems better than this.
>Ben_Schoenbrun: ELNRUUV O11 VELU. +11 404
#note dunno why Ben played this, guess he didn't really care. We were both running really badly.
>Joshua_Sokol: DGINT 10K D.NG +22 318
#note missing M7 D(O)ING, second nice play there. -2
>Ben_Schoenbrun: NRU 15B .UN +10 414
>Joshua_Sokol: IT 6A TI +10 328
>Joshua_Sokol: (R) +2 330
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