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#player1 Joshua_Sokol Joshua Sokol
#player2 Kenneth_Rubin Kenneth Rubin
>Joshua_Sokol: FGORX H6 FROG +16 16
#note I forgot to record my racks this game, but the beginning of the game was completely inane. I had two more consonants, so I allotted to play FROG here to minimize the chance of consonant trouble. The leave after GOX or FOX was pretty horrible.
>Kenneth_Rubin: GUU 6H .UGU +12 12
>Joshua_Sokol: ABCERRX K4 BR.X +26 42
#note I really hated basically everything about 5J AX. It scores well and leaves badly, and opens a big lane up that will not get closed 19 out of 20 games by something other than a bingo. I missed L4 ACERB for 33, which is a good play as it allows me nice scores with the X next turn. I missed L3 CAREX for 37 which is relatively defensive and scores well and leaves fairly well. I got caught up with CRUX and BRUX. BRUX had a much better leave but much worse scoring defense. But the leave complemented the lack of scoring defense, since it allows me to jab at Kenneth if he takes the L1 hotspot, often with a bingo. I think I should have still played CRUX to keep things tight. BARE was decent for bingos as well on this board since it overlapped FROG, but it's also just a nice, balanced, flexible leave.
>Kenneth_Rubin: EHOP L1 HOPE +34 46
>Joshua_Sokol: ACEKORU 1K C.OKE +42 84
#note HAKU was obvious, but I could not resist going for the extension, and it seemed like the 9 extra points for CHOKE would already do well to counteract the better leave that HAKU provided.
>Kenneth_Rubin: DNP 8G P.ND +7 53
#note Kenneth's next plays really perturbed me.
>Joshua_Sokol: AAEORRU L6 EURO +23 107
#note first he randomly blocked AURORAE that I drew right out of the bag. So I'm still happy to keep AR on my rack, but unhappy I couldn't just dump my 5 vowel-rack for 60
>Kenneth_Rubin: DNO M4 NOD +20 73
>Joshua_Sokol: AARVY J8 .AVY +19 126
#note I believe that I might have had the Q at this point. I mean, there were 9 I's out and 6 T's out when I played Choke. Where are they?
>Kenneth_Rubin: IN 11J .IN +12 85
#note still extremely confused about what Kenneth might have had in these last turns.
>Joshua_Sokol: AQRST -Q +0 126
#note believe that I left STAR on my rack. Where are those I's, man?! I have been noticing quite the bizarre trend in many of my recent games, where the I's don't come out until very late in the game, and I always assume I'll draw duplicates or triplicates, or that surely my opponent has too many I's, but they just come out very equilibrated in the end... I know, cool story
>Kenneth_Rubin: EIT N1 .ITE +22 107
>Joshua_Sokol: AIRST 1G ARTI..... +54 180
#note FINALLY. Apparently Kolton Koehler has beaten me to playing this word, and I'm sure others have as well. Still, 4 turns of fishing for this could have cost me the game and spread, but Kenneth had troubles of his own.
>Kenneth_Rubin: AEEL I11 ALEE +12 119
#note wow, what garbage he must have had.
>Joshua_Sokol: ADEGJSZ 2C GADJE +32 212
#note I was happy enough with this Z setup, but I'm laughing at what I missed on this rack. I'll give you a hint. It's 73 points of grandfathers.
>Kenneth_Rubin: IQ 3B QI +28 147
>Joshua_Sokol: EIINSTZ 4A ZITI +61 273
#note And again blocking my bingos. I couldn't allow myself to be frustrated in such a winning position, but it was just so weird how many times my opponents randomly blocked bingos of mine. I guess this time it was quite likely, but it was the second time of the game, that's what almost got to me.
>Kenneth_Rubin: HOW H13 WHO +37 184
>Joshua_Sokol: EMNSTWY O4 STEWY +44 317
#note I decided this was more likely to win than A4 (Z)YMES was, which was stupid of me. This was a bad play and a complete overlook.
>Kenneth_Rubin: EFILORS 10B FOILERS +79 263
#note As Kenneth started to lay down his letters, F, O, I, my eyes started to light up in shock! Right before our game, I was walking around the playing room and witnessed Kristian Dietz challenge (F)OILER. I saw the word and figured that it was one of those infamous phonies that you only learn about through inductive reasoning or experience. I did not stay to see the result, which is extremely off-character for me, as I am quite curious to check out challenges and if the word comes off. Usually I know whether it's a word or not, but not this time. Yet, I walked away to find my opponent. In doing so, I created a timeline in which Kenneth masterfully phonies me with the same word that I saw get challenged. I couldn't believe my eyes. I held, and was really close to challenging, until I realized that I had to be 100% sure FOILERS* was not valid before challenging. I knew that Kristian's word knowledge was pretty good for the high-prob stuff, but I needed to put all of my trust in him if I decided to challenge. And after 3 minutes of psychological torture and agony and beyond disbelief, I decide that I am in very good shape to win if I let the word go, and in pretty rough shape if I challenged unsuccessfully. And I do what I always laugh at others for doing, letting an outrageous phony go for the benefit of winning a game.
>Joshua_Sokol: ADEEMNV D8 VE.NED +28 345
#note And as Kenneth draws tiles and I'm shaking my head, I hear an "Oh...". And what do you know, he drew 8 tiles instead of 7. I turn three over, EL?.
At this point Joe Edley and Joey Mallick had finished their respective games and were sitting next to mine, waiting for their opponents. Joe opens his mouth and I listen intently, knowing that there is a large chance he's going to say something that will really bother me.
He says, addressing Joey: "Do you know when it is the right play to let your opponent keep a blank on an overdraw?"
I immediately retort sharply "Can you NOT?"
He apologizes, but the damage was done. He was almost definitely projecting what he was saying from Kenneth's now 7-letter rack. He would have been much less likely to bring this idea up if Kenneth didn't have either the other blank or another bingo on his rack. He basically spoiled the entire game then and there, by accident of course. But this is why some form of coffeehousing should be banned from Scrabble tournaments. Look what happens here. I miss VEN(O)MED, which might not even be better because I'm ahead more than a bingo after anything and it only scores 8 more than my play without blocking the L, which is a good lane for a double-double. I want to block as many lanes as possible here. But VENOMED is probably too good to give up for those reasons. 8 points and one extra tile, as well as facilitated access to the 8A triple word square are important.
>Kenneth_Rubin: AELRSST N8 ARTLESS +73 336
#note When Kenneth played this I got so angry at Joe, but I held back, luckily.
>Joshua_Sokol: AILMMNT 9A MIM. +23 368
#note TIM(E) seems just about as good as MIME to leave the M for scoring later. But so long as I avoid a crazy double-blank bingo, I should be OK.
>Kenneth_Rubin: ??AACNU A7 CA. +21 357
#note fishing off the A goes for COURANT(O) 15A with an O or T draw, which I would then have to block, complicating things for me. I would probably block with any rack, even if he doesn't have it, for fear that he drew something I didn't see. But I would have played (L)ANAI E10 anyway and won.
>Joshua_Sokol: AAILNOT O11 ALOIN +27 395
#note G12 OAT is 4 points better than this.
>Kenneth_Rubin: ??ABNU 6A sUBmAN +17 374
>Kenneth_Rubin: ??ABNU -- -17 357
#note And that's because it blocks all of his out plays. this one is invalid.
>Joshua_Sokol: AT G13 AT +16 411
>Joshua_Sokol: (ABNU??) +12 423
#note I mean, does it get any crazier than that?
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