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#player1 Joshua_Sokol Joshua Sokol
#player2 Terry_Kang_Rau Terry Kang Rau
>Joshua_Sokol: EIOWWYZ H4 ZOWIE +54 54
>Terry_Kang_Rau: AFO I3 OAF +23 23
>Joshua_Sokol: FGILRWY J2 FIG +30 84
#note I saw WRILY*/L(OAF) after this play, thinking I had maybe made a mistake. That would have been a mistake.
>Terry_Kang_Rau: IIIII -IIIII +0 23
>Joshua_Sokol: DILRTWY 7G W.LY +15 99
#note I haven't done this in a while, but now that the opportunity presented itself, time to play suffocating defense like I did last year :)
>Terry_Kang_Rau: AIRT 6J AIRT +13 36
>Joshua_Sokol: DHIILRT N5 THIRL +32 131
#note An alternative is M1 TRILI(T)H. That seems like a great play. Accelerate the game without opening anything remotely dangerous. Otherwise, between THIRL and THIRD, I looked at the amount of E's left, worrying about plays at O9 down. Since that metric favored THIRL, meaning that THIRL gave Terry less of a chance of getting down a bingo next turn, I played THIRL. The scoring difference between the two plays did not matter to me. Anyways, in a do-over, I play TRILI(T)H. I missed that. It forces most bingos to open huge scoring spots that I have the first shot at, and although multiple scoring spots is not something I want, it's better than giving back bingos that I cannot really respond to, as THIRL and THIRD do.
>Terry_Kang_Rau: INOT 8K INT.O +18 54
#note Another good thing about THIRL/THIRD is that Terry is holding one-pointers, therefore she had a reduced chance of hitting me hard at either O1 or at 8L.
>Joshua_Sokol: AADEIJL 6F JA. +34 165
#note M2 DILA(T)A(T)E is phenomenal. It does not take an S, thereby slicing Terry's opportunities to get back in the game, and it scores 30 points while retaining a great tile for this board. I did not consider keeping the J, therefore I did not look for plays on column M. Instead, I debated JAILE(R) versus JA(W). In the interest of not giving Terry any easy scoring plays if she doesn't draw into a bingo, and also in the interest of being able to best respond to bingos, I decided to play JA(W). I think it's a better play than JAILE(R). The only problem I see is that Terry can now play from A8 with an eight ending in LE or NE, increasing the possibility of a freak occurence.
>Terry_Kang_Rau: BE 5K BE +18 72
#note This turn, I looked for plays down column M, a turn too late. It's not in my interest to keep an E here. I should have seen EDEMA in the same spot.
>Joshua_Sokol: ADEEILM O1 AMIDE +32 197
#note There is no need to keep the E here. Had I been more lenient in terms of keeping a "balanced" leave here, I probably wouldn't have missed EDEMA for 35. That is better than this.
>Terry_Kang_Rau: OPX N1 POX +45 117
#note Not only did this play show me that AMIDE was a mistake, my draw after AMIDE doubly convinced me that I made the wrong play!
>Joshua_Sokol: EELOOUU 9M O.E +9 206
#note This was also an alarmingly bad decision. I wanted to take out the S hook on THIRL, and since TO didn't take an S, I thought this play was defensive enough that it justified the leave I was keeping. What a horrible idea. O(L)E may block a few bingos that Terry would have that ended in S, but it also makes many bingos that were not possible before become a reality, such as those ending in E, R, D, N and T. I really just need to exchange everything. As my lead gets smaller, my mistakes become more and more dire. There was no reason to make this play. This is what a bad draw will do to you...
>Terry_Kang_Rau: NO M1 ON +12 129
>Joshua_Sokol: EELOUUV 10J VOLE +18 224
#note And yet, I magically draw a V, just the tile I needed. Just plain silly.
>Terry_Kang_Rau: KNOR 8D KRON. +20 149
>Joshua_Sokol: DEEIIUU -EIUU +0 224
#note The pool was very consonant heavy. That justified keeping two vowels and one consonant. Although going for blanks may be important here, I also need to keep decent stuff to get myself out of clunky situations.
>Terry_Kang_Rau: DNU 11M DUN +9 158
>Joshua_Sokol: DEEGIIR 9C GIED +19 243
#note No need to keep a more balanced leave here and play GIE. Lots of consonants left to draw.
>Terry_Kang_Rau: CELT 10E CELT +19 177
>Joshua_Sokol: EIMPRST 11B MIPS +28 271
#note There may be something to be said about fishing with 11B P(ER). She has to open the board if she wants to win, and MISTER is a great leave. But I want to keep Terry at a distance, so scoring is a good idea. Unfortunately this play allows her to play something from B10, forking the board, so that's also a setback.
>Terry_Kang_Rau: NR C9 .R.N +5 182
#note misscored as 4
>Joshua_Sokol: AEENRTU 12A RU.E +22 293
>Terry_Kang_Rau: GR K10 .RG +8 190
>Joshua_Sokol: AAENTTU J9 U.EA +12 305
#note This was another incredibly bad play! My overcomplex thought process here was that I wanted to make if harder for her to bingo, and also make sure she can't open another lane if she does in fact hit. It was perfectly conceived in my head! She would bingo from 13D and hook PE and UVEA, not creating anything to worry about. Firstly, that's not true, as most plays at 13D will create a lane at 14A overlapping the play at 13D. It's a hard lane to hit, but it's still possible. Also, a bingo with SS in the middle is not inconceivable either, and that would also create a new lane. Secondly, I completely forgot that GRIN was played and that she could start something with an S or a D. What a stupid, stupid mistake. At least this time, it was very costly.
>Terry_Kang_Rau: ??AEQSS 13C SAcQuES +97 287
#note QUASSES is 113. That would have hurt, badly! This was bad enough.
>Joshua_Sokol: AINTTVY H12 Y.T +10 315
#note Now I was sort of in trouble. I didn't want Terry to bingo, and I didn't want her to score at H12. This play accomplished that. She can't really block my opening, and even if she can, I'm far enough ahead that it doesn't matter.
>Terry_Kang_Rau: AB I13 .AB +7 294
>Joshua_Sokol: AACINTV L12 AVA +20 335
#note This was a complicated endgame. It would have been much less complicated if I had seen 14F IN(TA)CT. I didn't have enough time to calculate everything, so I wanted to make sure I could score enough, not get stuck with a C or a V, and be able to block any setup she tries to make. This seems to be the third best endgame sequence, or maybe it's a bit further down.
>Terry_Kang_Rau: DEEHSU O11 .UDE +6 300
#note this is 10 points off J14 DE. Misscored as 5.
>Joshua_Sokol: CINT 14L .CN. +12 347
#note I miscalculated the rest of the endgame. I thought that This won by 1 more than just taking NI(B) for 36. What a disaster.
>Terry_Kang_Rau: EHS A12 .ESH +21 321
>Terry_Kang_Rau: (IT) +4 325
#note Here is why I've been laying off the defense lately. I am not at a point where I can play good enough defense so that disaster scenarios like these are almost entirely averted. The fact that I screwed up two pivotal positions means that I have a lot to learn and a lot of work to do!
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