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#player1 Jim_Burlant Jim Burlant
#player2 Darrell_Day Darrell Day
>Jim_Burlant: BDEJNPY 8D BENDY +28 28
#note Context: KOTH. Entering this game, my record is 5-0. Darrell, the only player with 4 wins, trails me by 326 spread points and nobody else has more than 2 wins. While winning the game would be icing on the cake, I can lose this game by up to 162 points and still win the tournament. As for this - this word also scores 30 at 8H, but I played here because the 8H placement puts the vowel underneath the double-letter, which this does not. This is best.
>Darrell_Day: AFZ E5 FAZ. +32 32
>Jim_Burlant: AEJLNPV 6B JAV. +30 58
#note Saw this, saw 30 points and that it unloaded the J and the V, and that was that. Q indicates that three plays stand out atop the sim: approaching 3500 2-ply iterations JALAP 6B is declared the winner, and this is the runner up (wins .11% less often at a deficit of 0.3 points), with JAPAN also in the mix. I'm fine with this.
>Darrell_Day: DEO 9D ODE +28 60
>Jim_Burlant: AELNPRS C9 REPLANS +76 134
#note Lack of word knowledge does me in. BENDY takes the back S (which I didn't know), and this word (or its anagram PLANERS) plays at I2 for 73.
>Darrell_Day: GPU 12A GU.P +18 78
>Jim_Burlant: ?AEIOSY 15A EA.Y +33 167
#note The pure equity play is B10 YOU, as its AEIS? leave is better than the IOS? with this choice. However, given the context of this game, my first priority is making sure this doesn't turn into a blowout. If I sacrifice leave to prevent something like a 212-point FISHNETS and wind up grinding through racks and lose by 80 instead of winning by 30, so be it. Lose the battle, win the war. Anyway - a conflicted sim indicates that this was the correct choice; YOU has the highest equity, but this wins more than anything else (1-1/2% more often than YOU) even though it sims over 3 points down on YOU, the runner-up.
>Darrell_Day: DEF B8 DEF +34 112
>Jim_Burlant: ?AEHIOS A7 HO +24 191
#note If you don't know the BENDYS back hook, HOAgIES doesn't play. Q thinks the best non-bingo option is 7E ZOEA; given that I didn't know where to put the bingo I'm fine with this.
>Darrell_Day: AEIRSTW 10F WAITERS +84 196
>Jim_Burlant: ?AEISUX 7H AUXItES +70 261
#note I agonized over whether this or AUXINES* was the phony. Turns out both of them are. Whoops. The only legit 7 in this rack is AUXESIS. Saw this, which I thought was legit and, given that I was primarily trying to win the tournament, liked the board better with this than if I found an 8 down the J or K columns (which give back easy 7's). That goes a long way towards explaining explain why I never saw EXURBIAS K7, which is my best legitimate play. This wasn't so much as held, much to my relief.
>Darrell_Day: AW 14A WA. +21 217
>Jim_Burlant: AMOORTT 8K TOROT +26 287
#note This scores as well as anything else available, turns 5 tiles, and most importantly, takes out O8, puts me up by 70, and makes it a lot tougher for Darrell to bingo. After this turn, I knew that, short of having to open a 3x3 to make my best play, winning the game was now at the same priority as winning the tournament.
>Darrell_Day: CDNTU H10 .NDUCT +33 250
#note As expected - he scores well while opening up the southern half of the board for 8's.
>Jim_Burlant: IIIMORT 14F MI.RO +17 304
#note While this scores as well as anything else I have available I didn't like this play at the time and a sim confirms that it sucks. Besides only unloading one of my I's, it's not strong defensively. While it takes out row 14, it only adds token resistance to rows 13 and 15, and does nothing about row 12. Even IDIOM for 8 on row 12 might be better than this. The kibbitzer points out a word I didn't know that would have made this position a lot easier to deal with. Even though a sim claims C2 MOIRAI is best (pfft), L10 (S)MRITI would have been the killer play I needed, as it scores comparably to MOIRAI, dumps the I overload, and reduces his possibilities on rows 12 - 15 to disconnected 9's.
>Darrell_Day: BENO F2 BONE +17 267
>Jim_Burlant: IIIIKNT M3 INKI.. +20 324
#note Again, my choices suck and anything I can play has its liabilities. As late as it's getting in this game, the worst-case possibilities have to be considered probable cases, which made this so tough. I considered TIKI 13J, but didn't want to give up a nightmare sequence of QURSH followed by a bingo on row 3 or 4. The only front hook INKIER gives up in the remaining pool is the H (something I neglected to consider at the time, I only thought of the D and P, which were no longer available) and the lines it opens up aren't *that* great bingo-wise. I also rationalized this, thinking that if I could overlap at G2 or G3 on the next turn, that would kill the northern half of the board. Not sure what I'd do if I had this one to do again. Maybe TIKI 13J, maybe not. Tough call.
>Darrell_Day: GNO 6I NOG +23 290
>Jim_Burlant: HIILMTU G3 HUM +31 355
#note The bingo doesn't play. Saw HILUM 13J and was 50/50 on it; I thought I might be confusing it with FILUM, which I was 100% sure of. HILUM 13J is a hair better for the rack balance as well as its defense and turnover (5 tiles turned with the blank unseen). It scores well and kills the entire southeast except for a handful of hard-to-fit bingoes. That said, this play outscores HILUM by 6 and blocks all bingoes on rows 3 and 4, and is still a good choice in its own right.
>Darrell_Day: AEEQT 13F EQ.ATE +56 346
#note What does he do here if I play HILUM?
>Jim_Burlant: AGIILST L10 .IGS +26 381
#note With DIGITALS blocked, Q wants me to fish with L3 GI. I'd rather outrun at this stage because the bingo may not come and the points sacrificed by fishing could cost me the game. This is my best non-fishing option. 56% to win.
>Darrell_Day: ?EILRRV 2I REVILeR +83 429
>Darrell_Day: ?EILRRV -- -83 346
#note I wasn't 100% sure LINKIER* wasn't good (thought it might have been newly added), but the game context dictated that I challenge, and here's why: if I let the play stick and play out the end game, I lose by roughly 40. If I lose the challenge, I lose by roughly 75. If I win the challenge, I win the game. Since this was the last game of the day and the magic number for me to lose the tournament was 163 spread points, I was only risking ~35 spread points in a tournament I had already clinched. So there was no reason for me not to challenge.
>Jim_Burlant: AEIILLT 15J TAILLE +24 405
>Darrell_Day: ?EILRRV C3 VIR.L +18 364
>Jim_Burlant: CIO N12 COI. +12 417
>Jim_Burlant: (ER?) +4 421
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