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#player1 Sal_Piro Sal Piro
#player2 Joshua_Sokol Joshua Sokol
>Sal_Piro: DEEI 8F EIDE +10 10
#note Final game for 5th, 4th or even 3rd place. This placement has its issues, but I don't know what he kept.
>Joshua_Sokol: AABDINR 7G BAD +26 26
#note I spent a long while here trying to find a bingo, to no avail. I believe this play is second only to 7E RABID. RABID scores 4 more points, and its leave, although far inferior for my bingo chances next turn, has more flexibility. I should have taken the extra few seconds to find RABID.
>Sal_Piro: LMOO 9F MOOL +27 37
#note This would not have happened in that case!
>Joshua_Sokol: AIINORR J8 RAI +18 44
#note This draw would also not have happened. Hindsight 20/20. I'm still in OK shape here if Sal is struggling.
>Sal_Piro: BDEN 11H BEND +18 55
#note A very volatile play. The good thing about my play of RAI is that much of the time, Sal has to make a play similar to this one.
>Joshua_Sokol: ILNOORY 12D LOONY +35 79
#note Again I did not take enough time here to evaluate other options. I decided quickly to keep an I over an O, which was an oversimplification of a more complex position. There aren't many places to score on this board, and LOONY creates a relatively easy overlap for many tiles in the pool. Given this, it is likely better to sacrifice a slight leave advantage to play IRONY. In any case, ROILY and NOILY may have better leaves than LOONY for this position, as IR is pretty bad for scoring; the O being able at least to underlap the word EM on the board if all else fails. This seems like a very marginal mistake.
>Sal_Piro: EEW 13F WEE +23 78
>Joshua_Sokol: AIKOORS 10B KAROO +28 107
#note In the end I drew another two O's, which would have been pretty ugly if I kept one. But this case scenario is not a common occurence. Although WEE perplexed me (for some bizarre reason, it's just a play that scores on a board bereft of opportunity), I didn't take any time to consider playing KOI/(WEE)K for aggressiveness. Although that doesn't seem right, it should have been a consideration.
>Sal_Piro: ?AENPST 14B PAtENTS +90 168
#note Here is the disaster moment of my tournament.
I overdrew, adding ELOQUU to my rack of IS. Naturally I hoped he would miss my S, but fate had planned to punish me for any mistake I would make in this cash game.
Sal Piro proceeds to draw the three important tiles on my rack, SUQ! Amazingly lucky, and greatly deserved due to my inattention. He actually makes the right play here, I would say, by getting rid of my Q instead of my S, or even my U. Knowing I have an S is valuable in and of itself, and much of the time, the U prevents me from scoring. What do you think? Should he throw my S away on a board that is very biased towards S-hooks? Or should he damage my rack short term and take my scoring tile away? In any case, this was likely the worst result to an overdraw I have ever had in a tournament game, and hopefully it stays that way!
>Joshua_Sokol: EILOSUU C8 LU.U +5 112
#note In one turn, my chances of winning this game went from a coin flip to an outside shot in 7. A slight case of tilt overcame me, and instead of exchanging tiles, I figure it's best to sacrifice my leave value to open another scoring spot and hopefully by that metric, the left side of the board as well. This was an oversight, and exchanging was likely correct here.
>Sal_Piro: IJL 8A JI.L +36 204
#note As it stood Sal did not have a good way to score under PAtENTS, which although rare, occurs enough to tilt the balance in favour of exchanging.
>Joshua_Sokol: AEEIOSX 15A XI +31 143
#note At this point I need two consonants, two good consonants, as my chances are steadily decreasing. This, although quite ugly, is the correct play.
>Sal_Piro: ?GIRSTY L5 STRInGY +72 276
#note Sal fixates on (BEND)Y, it seems, and misses GRISTlY on his rack, which scores 10 more points than STRINGY and has similar merits. STRINGY sets up a double-double lane that could hurt Sal's chances of winning once I have my way with the state of the board.
>Joshua_Sokol: AEEIOSU 7K U.EA +5 148
#note This is the only play worth considering, as it sets up my S and leaves the other huge bingo lane on the board untouched.
>Sal_Piro: EMUV N6 M.UVE +18 294
#note Sal attempts to defend my opening, but doesn't do enough to thoroughly block. I do not know what he kept, but I cannot imagine it is worse to keep the V and play 8N MU
>Joshua_Sokol: AEGIOST O10 TOGAE +10 158
#note This turn, I decide to be a tad brilliant, at perhaps the wrong time. TOGAE has an interesting value attached to it. It takes a D, one of the only words ending in AE to do so. I was unsure if Sal would see what I was setting up, but even if he does, there are still two huge spots out there for me to attempt a comeback with. But now there are 3, and there is no way for him to block me within two turns. I am down 146 points though, and despite the one-of-a-kind value of TOGAE, I might be better off just taking the points for EGOIST at O3, as there are still spots on the board I can hit afterwards. A double-double will do me good after EGOIST, bringing the score close. What do you think?
>Sal_Piro: GITW 5H TWIG. +18 312
>Joshua_Sokol: AIINSSZ 13C ZA +46 204
#note Well, I drew the case S, but a bit too early! I would have preferred to draw it after one bingo only. I missed an interesting opportunity here, though. I could have kept the Z here and played 10B (KAROO)S. I would do this to draw an N. ZINNIAS would play in two spots: at D4 for 94 and O1 for 110. But as last turn was perhaps a mistake just based on how few I scored, this play of ZA may have been correct. Unfortunately things are still looking BLEAK.
>Sal_Piro: FHQV -FHQV +0 312
#note I get an undeserved break here
>Joshua_Sokol: AIINNSS H1 SAIN. +18 222
#note This play seemed automatic. M11 SAIN is an interesting alternative though, protecting the (TOGAE)D hook but also partially blocking it. I think I have to play SAINT to maximize my chances of two bingos, and it seems Sal has just exchanged the Q, so I wouldn't be risking losing to a 44-point bomb.
>Sal_Piro: ADHHR N13 HAH +27 339
#note Sal said he had the D here and could have played HARD for 60. He unfortunately missed the D hook to TOGAE, something that I was banking on. Too bad that he decided to just score instead of attempting to keep me from winning the game by blocking bingo lanes...
>Joshua_Sokol: CFFINSV J2 VIN.C +24 246
#note I was all set to play VIN(I)C since it kept FFS, which normally isn't too good, but in this position, before Sal's play, I really felt I needed a huge bingo, and SFF is very good once coupled with an E and an R, and I could even draw into a S__FFED bingo, with TOGAED, which would have been the jackpot. I also saw 3G V(I)FF, which is a more normal play and also prevents a Q-bomb from happening in the future. But from my standpoint, it seemed pretty unlikely that Sal would have the Q, let alone the last I as well. This move was also very interesting and up for debate.
>Sal_Piro: IQ G3 QI +44 383
#note Time heals all wounds. But this one really stung.
>Joshua_Sokol: EFFNORS 15A ..S +22 268
#note Now, barring a huge mistake from Sal, it looked like this game was unwinnable. I decided that my best shot was going for FORFEND(S) and fishing off my S. It could win if Sal did not block, was what I thought.
22 points plus 107 would bring me to 375, and after a play such as F4 PEC, I lose by 16. But perhaps the C is in the bag. Ugh, he would have to phony I guess, or forget about the S and block the L in JILL. I don't know. Anyways, I couldn't do much, I guess fishing off an F was better for spread, or perhaps emptying with B7 F(I)N(K).
>Sal_Piro: CDER 1D CRED. +11 394
#note He had the D all along.
>Joshua_Sokol: EFFNORT O1 FRONTE +34 302
#note Instead of losing by 118 because I wanted to get away with a phony, I could have played (C)OFF and lost by at the most 109, putting Matthew Tunnicliffe high enough to clinch 4th place.
>Sal_Piro: EPRT D1 .REPT +18 412
#note Sorry Matthew
>Sal_Piro: (F) +8 420
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