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#player1 Joshua_Sokol Joshua Sokol
#player2 Jeremy_Hall Jeremy Hall
>Joshua_Sokol: DFLNSTX -DFLX +0 0
>Jeremy_Hall: BGINO 8D BINGO +22 22
#note underscored by 50
>Joshua_Sokol: ?GNNSTU E4 mUNT.NGS +82 82
#note should have played BUNTINGS, but I wasn't 100%. If I lost the game because of this mistake, that would have been perfectly fine.
>Jeremy_Hall: EIKO 6B KOI.E +21 43
>Joshua_Sokol: AEEOORS F8 .OO +12 94
>Jeremy_Hall: CEIP D1 PICE +24 67
>Joshua_Sokol: AEELRST 1D .LEATERS +80 174
>Jeremy_Hall: IIIIII -IIIIII +0 67
>Joshua_Sokol: DEILMST I3 MILDEST +74 248
#note lol
>Jeremy_Hall: ADH 7A DAH +26 93
>Joshua_Sokol: ILLNTWX 2F XI +52 300
#note plays like these are the source of my recent paranoia in Scrabble. I've been extra careful to keep a vowel and a consonant on my rack as much as possible in circumstances where my opponent could make a gambit that would leave me incapable of responding. I really did not like going ahead over 200 points here, since I did not keep a vowel. I considered 7H W(E)LL at length, but in the end it seemed that him getting two huge bingos after W(E)LL was more likely than him doing something along the lines of playing an 8 at A7 that I can't hook and can't block the hook of.
>Jeremy_Hall: IM A7 .IM +18 111
>Joshua_Sokol: ALLNQTW 4H Q. +21 321
>Jeremy_Hall: AEENRST B9 EARNEST +72 183
#note This was exactly what I was talking about. This is definitely not me "drawing badly". It's just timing. Being able to respond to plays that hope to achieve good timing, such as EARNEST (EASTERN is better here for the increased chance of a 3x3 next turn), is a very important facet of top-level Scrabble strategy. EASTERN or EARNEST only win the game for Jeremy here if a) he draws a 3x3 or b) I cannot score and he manages to bingo two more times. The possibility of this momentum is something a top Scrabble player needs to be able to reduce to a minimum. This position seems similar to one I had against the great Richards in 2014:
>Joshua_Sokol: ALLNTVW 13A L.VANT +18 339
#note The only way to block the 3x3 is to either play my only vowel off for 6 points, or to partially block with something like (S)TALL for 7. Once again, it seemed more likely for Jeremy to win through multiple bingos than through a one-hit wonder, so I chose this to unload as much as possible, score decently and some other ambiguous strategy
>Jeremy_Hall: ADIWY 3I .IDWAY +30 213
>Joshua_Sokol: ACELRWZ D12 C.W +16 355
#note I'm able to breathe now, as it once again looks very bleak for Jeremy. I have pulled probably the best tile in the game for the type of position I am in; maintaining a large lead. The Z allows me to score very well, and to crush many of my opponent's attempts to steal the game away. It provides flexibility and unpredictability. I could just play 2M ZA here, which doesn't look as bad as it did in-game. But I opted for a "safer" play. There appeared to be no possible triple-triples after this play, since there were no S's left for E(T)ESIANS. This assessment held true. ZA is fine too, to outrun 3x3s.
>Jeremy_Hall: AHJ 2M HAJ +41 254
#note And ZA would have worked out better for me, probably.
>Joshua_Sokol: AELORVZ J9 OVA +16 371
#note Now Jeremy was within a huge bingo's reach of me. Therefore I did not want to give him the possibility of a double-double with any of the standard plays here, 6H A(D)Z, J9 AZO or AZOLE, and I did not want to allow him to score 40+ with 2A ZOR(I). So I opted once again to keep my Z and play some defense. Setting up my case L was also an advantage, as well as blocking H9 (O)UT bingos and 12F bingos, the two things I feared most. If he bingos hooking (CAW)S, he is using up the blank, which is fine with me. L3 (W)OLVER and (W)AREZ score better, though, so they are probably fine here.
>Jeremy_Hall: FO 5B OF +21 275
>Joshua_Sokol: ABEGLRZ 12H BELGA +29 400
#note Still holding on to the Z for dear life! GR(A)ZABLE is available here for 90, and wins around as many games as BELGA does, since it opens another 3x3. I did not know GRAZABLE, and would have played it if I had.
>Jeremy_Hall: DEO 4L ODE +31 306
>Joshua_Sokol: EEFIRRZ H12 .IZE +45 445
#note Finally getting rid of my Z. The game is basically won at this point, not without a few overthoughts.
>Jeremy_Hall: PU 5K UP +16 322
>Joshua_Sokol: AEFRRRT L12 .R +2 447
#note The pool was pretty ugly from my perspective, but he could have URINOUS/RUINOUS, or URINOSE. That's actually it! I saw all of the possibilities! Anyways, this play was going for a U for the possibility of F(E)ATURER*, which I was unsure of. It was also to leave one in the bag and not open anything new for him to play. If he fishes, he will not be able to hit, so one-in-the-bag seemed preferable to a bag-emptier. O4 AFTER is an obvious bag-emptying play, but if I am going to empty the bag here, I should block all of Jeremy's possible bingos with something play L10 FR(A)TER. That's probably what I should have done, actually. Jeremy's next play, actually, was apparently an attempt to block 8s he saw through the E. And he hoped to draw the F. Sim's favourite play here is G8 (G)RR, that allows me to hit as many out-bingos as possible and unloads the triplicate R's.
>Jeremy_Hall: EINORUY 15F OY.R +7 329
#note K12 (G)OY is the best of the absolutely horrible options Jeremy has here.
>Joshua_Sokol: ?AEFRRT O4 sTRAFER +81 528
#note Even if this wasn't valid, which I was pretty sure it was, he probably couldn't really block my out-bingos at M6 very easily, if at all. But yeah, I drew the blank out of the bag. Fun stuff...
>Joshua_Sokol: (EINUU) +10 538
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