| Player 1 |
|
#player1 Lloyd_Mills Lloyd Mills
#player2 Joshua_Sokol Joshua Sokol
>Lloyd_Mills: II -II +0 0
#note Oh no, an exchange 2 on turn 1, here we go again
>Joshua_Sokol: BIILMQR H7 QI +22 22
>Lloyd_Mills: ADEEINS 9E ANISEED +72 72
>Joshua_Sokol: ABGILMR F3 RAMBLI.G +73 95
#note I thought I knew the hooks on RAMBLING, but it's only the B. I didn't know if RAMBLING took an S but I assumed so. GRAMBLING*, RAMBLINGS*, MARBLINGS*, RUMBLINGS.
>Lloyd_Mills: IIII -IIII +0 72
>Joshua_Sokol: AEOORUZ 8K AZURE +75 170
#note whew, in great shape so far.
>Lloyd_Mills: EHJ K5 JEH.. +32 104
>Joshua_Sokol: ABEOOUU N6 BU.EAU +16 186
#note I then forgot about BRAMBLING. Luckily for me this position isn't as easy as "take the 18 more points for BEAU", because keeping the U is like a 6-point sacrifice, and leaving that huge triple spot is like another 6-point sacrifice or more, and finally the board control aspect of BUREAU is far superior in my opinion. So the plays are close. Quackle actually thinks that OOU is almost 10 points worse than OO in general. It also thinks that the A there is a 6-point sacrifice. Finally, the Scrabble duck has no comment about the board control aspect of my two plays. ;)
>Lloyd_Mills: ISTTW O11 TWIST +38 142
#note We agreed afterwards that this was likely a small mistake. TWITS instead would be better for a comeback, and would have prevented my next move.
>Joshua_Sokol: INOOTUV 14J VINOU. +34 220
>Lloyd_Mills: EY J6 YE +31 173
>Joshua_Sokol: EEOOOPT E3 OPE +24 244
#note Hmm, maybe TOPO in the same spot. Nah, a consonant is good here.
>Lloyd_Mills: GORT L3 GROT +25 198
>Joshua_Sokol: AEOPTTV D1 VETO +35 279
#note I was really getting worried about the (JEHAD)I spot, not only as an X-bomb spot, but as a scoring spot for an F, an H... Unfortunately that worriedness caused me to space out and miss VAP(OR)ETTO 3B. Just kidding, obviously I would never see or know that word in a million years. Jeez.
>Lloyd_Mills: ACDEL 1A CAL.ED +36 234
>Joshua_Sokol: ADFOOPT J9 .F +13 292
#note Nowhere for FOOTPAD! :(
This turn, I decided to disturb the regular temporal flow and make a sick inference-based block of XI J10 for one thousand points.
I was certain he was holding on to the X at this point. In the normal turn of events, I would lose this game because I missed VAPORETTO, but I didn't think that was fair. I seize victory from the jaws of defeat by overcoming the mathematics of Scrabble and just destroying my opponent's ability to counterplay.
>Lloyd_Mills: ?X 7M X. +34 268
#note He did have XI, but he would have needed to spend his blank to play it, which he would have done. It's 65 points.
>Joshua_Sokol: ADIOOPT L11 POI.D +20 312
#note Probably POD for 24 here. Consonant-heavy pool. 8D OP(I)O(I)D is stylish and a good option too.
>Lloyd_Mills: DG 13K G.D +19 287
#note Started to lay DELEGAT(E) O1 down only to realize I had made a sick block which forced him to block himself. Whew.
>Joshua_Sokol: AAFORST O1 AFTOSA +34 346
#note Immediately saw 3I FOR(G)AT, then noticed that this was 6 more points and that the S was not going to be useful unless I lucked into a bingo draw. It is not appropriate here to keep a bingo leave at the expense of points and turnover. But FOR(G)AT may still be the play, or maybe even FO(P), but those two plays are indeed a disturbance of Scrabble counterplay logic. I refuse to be an equity prostitute here.
>Lloyd_Mills: ?AEHLRT A1 .HELAToR +89 376
#note jeez, I should have instead just made another sick block last turn with TA(E) B2.
>Joshua_Sokol: AEINRWY B5 WINERY +34 380
#note But it was still under control. Leave two in the bag, pull ahead, block the biggest threat on the board. What more can you ask for?
>Lloyd_Mills: IINNOOR C10 ONION +15 391
#note This is Lloyd's rack. He is definitely screwed in most cases, but this is a very good play. It may win him the game in several scenarios where I don't have the blank.
>Joshua_Sokol: ACELMNS D10 MESNAL +36 416
>Joshua_Sokol: ACELMNS -- -36 380
#note Actually it only wins if Lloyd draws S? out of the bag. As it stood, I spent 10 agonizing, agonizing minutes trying to find a way to win this game. Amazingly no bingos play. MENISCAL, MELANICS, MESCALIN, CLANSMEN all don't fit. So I have to score around 30 points in total with my turn while simultaneously blocking RIsK 15A which he drew from the bag. His next best out is Re(I)KI 12A, which scores 18, so yeah, my cumulative score has to be pretty good. At the beginning of the long period of time I spent here, I saw MESCAL, but it looked really funny, so I didn't even write it down, as I must have had something that won that I knew. Indeed 15A MESCAL is my only win here.
Lloyd and I were alone in the room since we decided to play our 8th game before the dinner break, when most people just took 2 hours for dinner. But some hyper kids and their parents came down to the basement since they didn't have anything better to do and started making a lot of noise right outside the playing room. I was unable to think, and even after I closed the doors to the room I could hear them. I finally saw that MESNAL or MENSAL, if either of them were words, played down D10 and scored more than what I had originally calculated was the amount of total points I needed to win. So given that I was unsure of both, I went with MESNAL, as MESNALTY and DEMENSE were words.
Lloyd holds, and ends up challenging, which was a huge blunder! Why? Because he actually has a sure win if he lets it go and plays (L)IKeR for 24, which we both originally missed. He says he would have seen it, but thought I had just transposed tiles and played MESNAL* instead of MENSAL. We also calculated that if I play MENSAL or MESNAL and they stay on the board, Lloyd can then play s(NA)RK 14B for a tie game! I play 3D (TOR)C for 9 to bring us both to 425.
What an endgame. I need to start writing words down that I'm not sure of when they might be my only chance of winning. Turns out MENSAL is valid, and MESCAL is just a variation spelling of MEZCAL, a word I am familiar with. Should have put 2 and 2 together here, but I blew it in an amazing fashion. Imagine if MESNAL was a word, as it should be. Then Lloyd would have been the one to blow it!
>Lloyd_Mills: ?IKR 15A RIsK +41 432
#note Next time, don't miss VAP(OR)ETTO.
>Lloyd_Mills: (MESCALN) +22 454
|
