| Player 1 |
|
#player1 RobRob RobRob
#player2 Dave Dave
>RobRob: AAEORRT 8C AERATOR +66 66
>Dave: AKQRSTW C7 Q.T +23 23
#note Not much to think about here.
>RobRob: CEGHN F6 CH.NGE +22 88
>Dave: AKNRSUW E11 WAUK +32 55
#note This play seems clearly best to me. Chasing after a few more points with WARK/CHANGER is not worth it as the NSU leave, while not terrible, is much less bingo prone than NRS. Early in the game is exactly when you want to play more aggressively for leave to get your bingos down quickly. AWK E10 is not a bad play and a little bit safer than this play, but my preference with the S in hand is not to play it safe in these situations, but instead to aggressively set up the triple line. In my opinion, if you draw an S in the early going it often makes sense to go for a setup like this as soon as you possibly can. Why is that? Good players manage their racks well and there is a good chance that if they have had a few turns to groom them, they may be sitting on an S or other good tiles. It is precisely as early in the game as possible that they are least likely to have the S.
>RobRob: AHNOS 15A NOAHS +48 136
#note Rob did have the S and cashed in on the spot. Does that mean that my choice was wrong? Not at all.
>Dave: DENRRST 12D R.D +22 77
#note Another fairly obvious play here. Clean up the rack a bit, beat him to the good scoring hook, and go aggressively for the bingo.
>RobRob: EIOV I6 VI.EO +10 146
>Dave: EENRRST J8 STERNER +75 152
#note Rob did what he could to make a blocking play after my RAD telegraphed a strong leave, but fortunately my bingo still fit.
>RobRob: ILNPT H7 P.NTIL +19 165
>Dave: CEGIJNT 13H EJ.CTING +111 263
#note Dumb luck that I drew this out of the bag and even more so that Rob's play failed to block it. We have had a sudden reversal after his opening bingo to me now being a heavy favorite.
>RobRob: DILO D4 OLDI. +23 188
#note I don't know what Rob's leave was, so I can't make an objective evaluation of this particular choice, but from a general strategic perspective I like the kind of play he is making here. When you are trailing by a lot and there are big lanes such as a triple-triple open, if you don't have a big play to take them, it often makes sense to open up new fronts on the board. Rob wants to keep the L through O columns open for comeback bingos, but he is also hamstrung by the fact that the C and V block off most of the top of the board, so that a closing play by me on the bottom right could leave him in dire straits. Therefore he does what he can to begin creating openings on the top.
>Dave: ?DERUUW O11 DU. +6 269
#note This is a tough but instructive moment when my play does not show up anywhere in Quackle's suggestions, but I think that playing for raw equity is not what is called for. Rob's previous play of all low point tiles and his decision to keep the lanes on the right wide open suggest that he might have been keeping strong bingo tiles and possibly a blank. I felt that taking out the triple line was paramount, but I did not have any good scoring ways to do so. As much as I wanted to use either the D or R to hook EJECTING, I thought that could wait until later. I did not love keeping a W and U, but I had no play that did what I needed defensively and cleaned up the rack better. In the end, I decided that my two best options were DUG and GUR, and it was a tough choice between them. GUR scores a bit better, and holding the D is slightly more profitable than the R for the EJECTING hook. However, the tiebreaker was that I was holding a blank. Even though I don't necessarily have a great chance of drawing a bingo on the next turn, keeping the R instead of the D makes that chance significantly higher.
>RobRob: AEINSTU N5 SINUATE +64 252
#note Rob would have had a triple-triple of UNITAGES if I had not taken out the line. My intuitive choice paid off. At the same time, if I had played GUR, his bingo would have been orphaned.
>Dave: ?EIORUW 14A OWE +26 295
#note Ouch, I made a very bad miss here on not playing my bingo OUTWRITE. There is a huge loss in winning percentage by not making that play, but at the same time the fact that I had the opportunity to play a bingo somewhat further validates the choice on the previous play. (Note that in this case keeping the D would still have allowed WIDEOUTS, if it had stayed open.)
>RobRob: MOV 8L OV.M +30 282
>Dave: ?EGIRUY G13 RYU +27 322
#note Quackle's other worthwhile suggestion here is M7 IVY. These are both good plays and IVY might have a somewhat higher chance of hitting a bingo, but I think I prefer mine slightly to take away the scoring hook before he possibly hits it with the D. Also, the extra turnover of one more tile is good here. The pool is mostly good, and I would be happy to draw any of the SXZ?. I don't necessarily need to bingo again if I can keep tempo on him and beat him to the scoring tiles.
>RobRob: AX 12L AX +31 313
>Dave: ?EFGIIM 5B MI.F +18 340
#note Not the friendliest of draws for me, but keeping cool is called for here. There is absolutely no need to force the board open for my blank. Instead I am happy to keep tempo and keep making the board tighter while hoping that he might open things up and allow me to bingo with my blank. I first laid down FILM but then changed it to MILF. Either way allows a two letter word hooking the Y at 6B or a Y ending play down B2-6, but I exposed the M instead of the F so that those plays would be slightly lower scoring.
>RobRob: ALOY B2 LOA.Y +36 349
>Dave: ?EEGILO A6 ObLIGEE +79 419
#note Not a trivial rack to bingo with. It only makes two sevens and doesn't bingo with any of the floaters, which are only duplicates of my letters. Fortunately, I found the only bingo which fit.
>RobRob: AADEISZ A1 DAZE +61 410
>Dave: ?BBEFIP C1 EFs +38 457
#note My eyes fooled me in time pressure into thinking that Rob had AIS in this spot, but just taking it out was the simplest way to win. I first laid down FES and then realized I could switch the order of tiles for a few more points. IFS would have been the same thing and FIBBED M1 would have won by one more spread point, after his AS for 31 followed by my UP for 15H, which would have been easy enough to work out if I had adequate time on my clock, which I did not here. In general, if I am short of time in the endgame and see a clear win, I opt for the one that ends the game in fewer turns, to minimize the chance of me going overtime or of missing a play that would change the result.
>RobRob: AIS 6I .IAS +9 419
>RobRob: (BBIP) +20 439
|
