| Player 1 |
|
#player1 Joshua_Sokol Joshua Sokol
#player2 Joshua_Sokol Joshua Sokol
>Joshua_Sokol: AEIRSTV H4 VASTIER +78 78
#note Out of the three bingos, it seems VASTIER has the best long term defense, and its snapbacks don't seem worse than the snapbacks of VERITAS or RAVIEST. The top quarter of the board seems pretty locked down for a while.
>Joshua_Sokol: ADHINOR G9 HOARD +26 26
#note I don't think it's necessary to be so desperate to bingo that you play HO or OH for 20 here, and I don't think it's necessary to be so desperate to draw an S than you play G9 HAIRDO here. HOD and HOARD were my two candidate plays. HOARD did the best job at keeping the board open it seemed, so I was fine with taking the reduced bingo chances here.
>Joshua_Sokol: BDIILLS I10 BILL +12 90
#note Of everything I saw, the only thing that seemed to make some sort of sense was BILL. It's 12, it doesn't leave particulary well, and sets up big snapbacks for my opponent. But the most I can score here is 22, with 14D LIBS (or DIBS for 23 if I'm insane), so 12 isn't that bad in retrospect. I saw 5H (A)LIBI, but that blows the board so wide open even the most aggressive players would cringe. BILL at least blocks a few floaters and increases the value of a tile I don't know if my opponent holds, the S. Unfortunately, I missed LIB(R)I at 12D for 16. That isn't that attractive either, but it scores better than BILL and leaves similarly. I don't really want to make the board a bingo-ey one with a lead, and BILL totally does that. Sevens with an S are almost never not going to play after BILL, and there are two left. LIB(R)I also bodes a bid worse after snapbacks than BILL does, but that's not that huge.
>Joshua_Sokol: CIKNORZ 6H .OZIN +34 60
#note I played this game at midnight in the dark, so I'm probably going to miss plays. ZIRCON(S) at 6B is one of those plays. The benefits of (S)OZIN just don't compare to the benefits of ZIRCON(S). Now that the board is ridiculously S-friendly, I need to draw at least one to have a chance. Leaving myself with just one tile is a good idea here in that sense, and the K is very handy for dealing with not-so-good draws given its scoring potential.
Otherwise, I also missed F11 ZOIC, which looks funky, but gets the scoring job done and really doesn't block much. The bottom left of the board may need some CPR at some point in the future, but other than that, things aren't going to close down anytime soon. 5H (A)ZONIC seemed like a good option, but really CKR was so much more beneficial to me than KR, and (S)OZIN did a good job at benefitting the fact that I didn't get have an S. But yeah, still not the best play.
>Joshua_Sokol: DEEGIMS M5 GEM +24 114
#note I kind of chickened out on MIDGE here. I didn't have a dictionary handy so I only wanted to play words I was sure of so as to avoid situations where I played phonies that would likely be challenge in a tournament. I think I would have played MIDGE otherwise. Otherwise, this scored better than other EGM plays and didn't seem to have setbacks or a lack of benefits that the other EGM didn't or did have.
>Joshua_Sokol: ACEEKRR K1 CREAK.ER +78 138
>Joshua_Sokol: ADEIIRS 14A DIARIES +80 194
>Joshua_Sokol: ACFIOPU A12 FA.O +36 174
#note It ended up being a decision here between 2J C(R)OUP and FI(D)O or FA(D)O. After deciding (C)ROUP didn't really make any sense board dynamics-wise (setting up easy huge scoring spot and decimating an entire quadrant of the board), it seemed reasonable enough to pit FI(D)O and FA(D)O together. It seemed the leaves were comparable, perhaps ACPU being a bit better than CPIU normally, but for the sake of leaving the possibility of I(C) words open if possible, I decided to keep CIPU. It seems a bit less flexible. I probably should keep ACPU given the likelihood I won't get to use that C up there anyway.
>Joshua_Sokol: BLOQRSV E13 Q. +11 205
#note This was really lazy. BROVLS is going nowhere. 11 points is really not enough in the long run. BLO(C) and BLO(C)S 3J work fine, and even B(E)VOR 3J if I want to be aggressive, which I sort of don't with a Q and two blanks unseen.
>Joshua_Sokol: CFIPUUY 2I PU.IFY +32 206
>Joshua_Sokol: BLORSTV F6 VOLTS +32 237
#note Surprisingly, the S didn't seem worth keeping for 11 points here. Scoring seemed primordial and the S lanes were of the worse kind; both 14I and N6 required words with an S in early position, which by now we know do not abound nearly as much as those with an S in late position.
>Joshua_Sokol: CEOOOTU J6 .OO +16 222
#note In the absence of palatable options, you should most likely take the one that sets yourself up for next turn (in this case OR(C)), because otherwise you aren't likely to continue scoring. Quackle prefers 1M OOT, citing firstly its superior score, but that it also benefits your opponent in terms of their likelyhood of scoring well or playing a bingo. This is undeniable, but the benefits this granted me seemed to be much more magnified than the benefits it granted my opponent.
>Joshua_Sokol: BINNRWX C13 W.X +26 263
#note Sort of lapsed here. Thought the A was more important to block than the scoring spot at L4, but the A is the least of my worries right now.
>Joshua_Sokol: CELOTUY L8 CUTELY +36 258
#note Also considered CUTEY, but the L didn't seem useless in the slightest, especially given the prevalence of consonants in the pool.
>Joshua_Sokol: BEINNRT L4 BE. +26 289
#note I thought the difference in score was much larger between this and K11 NEB. This is certainly a mistake.
>Joshua_Sokol: ?ANOOTU 1F AUTO +16 274
#note Not sure if this is the right route to take. I might be able to win without a bingo, but it seems unlikely. I think this has to be correct.
>Joshua_Sokol: IJNNRTW F1 .JI +26 315
#note Was hoping to be able to play W(E)NT next turn and defend the board. But perhaps I can't afford to try and defend against bingos at this point.
>Joshua_Sokol: ?EMNOPU B6 sPUMONE +67 341
>Joshua_Sokol: ADENNTW A8 NEW +33 348
#note I wanted to be able to win games without having to draw a bingo/the S, so I decided against K11 WEAN. Between NAW and NEW, E's were more prevalent, and the A seemed more flexible than the E in that respect, so I played NEW instead of NAW. That seems wrong in retrospect.
>Joshua_Sokol: AIINNST N6 SAINT +31 372
#note Seems I'm in a good position to win, even if my opponent has the blank. I pull ahead and leave 2 in the bag, limiting overlaps.
>Joshua_Sokol: ADEHNRT O8 DEARTH +46 394
#note "Championship player agrees"
Played over other options for more because I wanted to threaten to go out next turn, which seemed very important, since I could still be outrun. Forgoing 6 points seemed much less important than forgoing going out. Otherwise, I didn't even look for plays in any other spot of the board, but for what it's worth (61 points to be precise), (C)HEAT plays at 1K. Not the right play unless I'm going for spread, and even then? Too many bingos play down column O.
>Joshua_Sokol: ADEGGIN C3 AGGIE +22 394
>Joshua_Sokol: ?EN 3M EoN +18 412
>Joshua_Sokol: (ND) +6 418
|
