| Player 1 |
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#player1 Winter Winter
#player2 Dave Dave
>Winter: TUU 8F UTU +6 6
>Dave: JLOOOTT E5 JOLT +26 26
>Winter: EW 6E .WE +14 20
>Dave: ?AIIOOT 7C OI. +4 30
#note This was a frustrating situation where my only plays that score anything, JATO/JOTA, are death on my rack. Trading seems like it might be better than my play, but even if I draw a bingo after trading, it might not fit on the board, especially if he plays a couple of tiles off of the J in a way that doesn't allow for easy hooks, since the U in the middle can be tricky to hook. There is a clearly best play here that I missed: TOITOI G8. This is good not just because it clears out the vowel drek quickly, but also because it rips open the board in a way that is favorable for the blank. My play OIL is not as good as TOITOI because I might still fight vowel trouble on the next turn, but at least it plays off my duplicates and increases the dynamism of the board. I also figured that exposing the triple at A8 was a minimal risk, because after he had just played off the W and E on the last turn, he was probably holding low point tiles.
>Winter: GOX 8A GOX +42 62
#note Ha, he must have just drawn the X.
>Dave: ?AAIMOT A8 .lIOMATA +89 119
#note By far my best bingo.
>Winter: DEFIRSU B10 FRISED +64 126
>Winter: DEFIRSU -- -64 62
#note An unfortunate phony for Winter, but a reasonable guess. FRISE is another spelling of FRIEZE, which does take the -D. Just FRISE would have been 57 points, but it turns out his best play is SURFEITED G2. Not an easy find!
>Dave: AFILLNR B10 FRA +33 152
#note I was disappointed that neither of the A's was open for RAINFALL here, but this was a tricky situation, because I know that he has FRISE for 57 on the next turn, so it makes sense to use my own F to take the spot. However, try as I might, I couldn't find anything that went from B10-14, nor any way to use one of the L's with the F. I chose FRA over FIAR to keep a vowel, but this was a case where I needed to think more flexibly. There is no killer play from B10, but my best plays are FINAL/FILAR B11. Even though they don't hit the triple letter, they score the same as my play and manage the rack better.
>Winter: DEFIRSU H1 SURFED +50 112
>Dave: EEILLNN 6A LIN +15 167
#note Here I'm paying the penalty for failed rack management on the last move. Nothing seems to score more than 18 points. I thought about playing longer with something like FELINE, but I didn't like how that opened up lots of good scoring parallel plays for him, in addition to giving him more different one point floaters to bingo through. At the same time, it seems worth it to play a bit shorter here and build for a bingo, because the board is still pretty open, but there's not a very effective way that I could find to manage this rack. I could not find any scoring plays that leave EILN. It really would be nice to keep the I with some of these other letters, in particular because of the chance of drawing JOLTIER or JOLTING, but I couldn't find a nice way to do it. I'm not crazy about my play, but I'm not crazy about the alternatives either. At least I figured I was taking away some places where he could dink some high point tiles off the X while I'm cleaning up a bit.
>Winter: INQT 2G Q.INT +16 128
>Dave: EELNNYY L2 EYEN +29 196
#note I played this instead of EYNE both to make the K5 spot harder to score off of and because I figured he might not know the front hook of EYEN.
>Winter: MOT M2 TOM +40 168
#note Winter's play makes a lot of sense, of course, because it scores so well, but it makes things very interesting now, because in addition to the high scoring QUINTETS hook, there is also the Collins only QUINTETT#, which I figured he might not know, and which also takes the back E of course. There is only one T remaining, but I kept my eye on the spot.
>Dave: ELNRRUY K4 RULY +23 219
#note Seems pretty obvious, but I suppose the case could be made for LYRE 9D on the basis that it scores 5 more points, this is the last U, and there are still 7 E's left to draw. Another thing that it has going for it is that keeping the U makes the N2 spot a little more flexible, for a play like SUER. I prefer RULY though. I'm likely going to need to bingo again for my lead to be safe, and it makes sense to keep grooming the rack aggressively while there are still some open spots.
>Winter: AEGV C11 GAVE +25 193
>Dave: DENPRSW 2G .......S +34 253
#note I couldn't resist going for this fish, which isn't really a fish because I'm also scoring 34 points, taking away the hook from him, and giving my rack some chance to balance out. It's not a bad play, simming at a 75% winning percentage and about 6 points behind the leader, but Quackle prefers the nice WEPT G5, which not only leaves a very strong rack, but also takes away one of the better scoring spots for him off the J. Quackle estimates the winning percentage after WEPT at a bit under 80%. Sounds reasonable to me.
>Winter: AOV F3 AVO. +19 212
>Dave: ADENPRW H8 .NWARPED +95 348
>Dave: DEOOPRT (challenge) +5 353
#note I hit my fish, which doesn't mean it was the right play. Winter made some comment about me winning the tournament after the challenge came back good.
>Winter: ABEK J7 BEAK +27 239
>Dave: DEOOPRT K9 TORPEDO +78 431
#note When it rains it pours. I also had UPROOTED F8, which I thought of, or PTEROPOD 13H, which I did not, even if he hadn't given me this spot.
>Winter: ?AEGISS N4 SAGIESt +67 306
#note He does not have a ton of bingos here, and the only better one is SEASING.
>Dave: EEHIIIZ O8 HIE +36 467
#note I'm probably winning no matter what, but it's definitely a priority to take out the lanes for his really high scoring bingos, more so than cashing in the Z.
>Winter: DEHLN 15J H.NDLE +33 339
>Dave: CEIIIRZ 12K .IZE +30 497
#note Best, to leave myself an out on the next turn. Even though he can potentially block it, forcing him to do so limits his options. I don't see any way that I can guarantee an out in two with this rack, though I spent a while looking.
>Winter: ABCN 11E CAB. +16 355
#note Winter did not care to eke out the most points in this endgame, so he just immediately threw down a play, and I can't blame him since the tournament was over. Best is to block my out with CAP or VAC, which leaves BENT G5 as his out play.
>Dave: CIIR 14E ICI.R +13 510
>Dave: (N) +2 512
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