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#player1 Peter_Barkman Peter Barkman
#player2 Joshua_Sokol Joshua Sokol
>Peter_Barkman: ?EHPRST 8D HiPSTER +80 80
>Joshua_Sokol: ELNORWY J6 WO.RY +27 27
#note Seemed between this and 7I YOWL. YOW provided the best leave, and set up my L, but it takes an E, so it gives too much back to Peter to be worth playing. YOWL seemed to allow Peter to score easily and more than WO(R)RY did, and otherwise seemed to keep the board open a bit longer-term. I did not worry too much about this board and decided to take the more defensive option. I should have gone with YOWL, but I would take WORRY again if I had to choose.
>Peter_Barkman: ?ADIOTT I1 AnTIDOT. +68 148
#note D6 AT(H)eTOID, a tougher find, although this is only one of two playables! I wonder if Peter would have found ATHETOID or MATTOID had I played YOWL. This was underscored by 1.
>Joshua_Sokol: ELMNRTU 1H L.RUM +30 57
#note I missed H1 NEUM here. That keeps decently for a near-future bingo, and doesn't block the K lane like L(A)RUM does. It also scores 13 more points. This is a bad mistake.
>Peter_Barkman: ACMR D4 MARC. +24 172
>Joshua_Sokol: EEHKNST 4H K.THE +34 91
#note I could be better off playing H4 KEN. That allows me to hit a bingo around as often as KITHE, with the downside of not really doing anything to keep the board more open for a comeback. But once again I am not worried about that. I just missed the play.
>Peter_Barkman: AEQRU E2 QUARE +38 210
#note depending on whaat Peter kept here, he might be better off playing 10F QUER(Y) and blocking the vertical lanes that access the bottom quadrants.
>Joshua_Sokol: BCEENSU 1A CUBES +45 136
#note now I can open another big lane for 8s that is hard to block given the other bingo spots on the board. And I can score. This game is far from out of reach yet.
I was otherwise very close to playing G5 SUB(S)CENE*, but the chances of that getting challenged seemed to steep, and I wasn't all that desperate yet. Perhaps this time I should have gone for it.
>Peter_Barkman: EFO F6 FO. +30 240
#note Peter overdraws, I turn over OED, throw the D back.
>Joshua_Sokol: AEELNPV K4 .ELP +29 165
#note The first extension of MARCH has come up! I was wondering what those were, and (MARCH)PANE is not a word I am familiar with! That is the best play here, scoring 36 and reaching down into the quadrants that my first play of WORRY has left unscathed. Also given that I threw a D away, I might want to play 2K PAVE to set myself up. Unlikely to work, but I am more unlikely to win this game than that, so it's a gambit worth taking. This sets up another lane for 7s and scores well, leaving a balanced rack.
>Peter_Barkman: EYZ 3L YEZ +35 275
>Joshua_Sokol: AAEILNV N1 NA.I +26 191
#note I was not sure if I should take the Z here, since doing so required opening up a better spot than the one through the Z. My first instinct was to play A(Z)INE for 6 more, but that left the triple much more accessible for Peter (a 3-letter word can attain it rather than a 5-letter word). I hoped that his rack was unbalanced enough that he couldn't make away with the hotspot.
>Peter_Barkman: AG O1 AG +18 293
>Joshua_Sokol: AEJLOVV C3 VAV +29 220
#note My hotspot potshot failed to produce dividends, and now the game is the furthest out of reach it's been. I did not need that second V, and that J just completely halts me from shooting for a bingo. Yet the only sensible play with the J is H6 JA(T)O, which I saw and discounted. I need to protect the C lane now and hope for someting like CAJOLERS. Otherwise the J is problematic, but hopefully I can score with it. The double Vs though, are even worse than the J for future playability and bingo chances, although I can hit a few more things immediately with ELVV than I can with JOLE as a leave
>Peter_Barkman: AEGSW O4 SWAGE +33 326
#note ouch
>Joshua_Sokol: EIIJLNO 2G JI. +11 231
#note I am clearly in despicable shape now. My best play seems to be 7M JI(G) for 19, but actually it might be this for 8 fewer! Why? Because I figure I need absolutely all of the premium bingo lanes I can hope for here, and JI(G) blocks two of them. Still, perhaps I should have just taken the extra points now and hoped for a big bingo from the C or T that will lead to another in the other spot or in a spot they have created. 5G LI(D) is an interesting idea I did not consider even at this dire and desperate stage. That is a hope for (C)OJOINED or REJOINS as a 7 next turn, or something equally lucky and improbable. I believe I overthought this position, and I should take the unhappy 8 extra points since I'm so desperate for a bingo next turn anyway. I might have won had I played JI(G).
>Peter_Barkman: DEINX N8 NIXED +31 357
#note now there is not a chance I can come back, is there?
>Joshua_Sokol: EEILNNO O11 LEONE +24 255
#note I was just crushed here. I decided this was my best bet. Take away as much of the scoring I can from Peter (he can still overlap NIXED on the other side, which is why NIXED was such a great play). Also, it gave me a third hail mary bingo lane to work with at 15H-15O. And it scored as much as this pitiful rack could score.
>Peter_Barkman: BEOO M8 OBOE +31 388
#note another very nice play, great fit-in by Peter and it's all but won
>Joshua_Sokol: GIIINOU -IIOU +0 255
#note Sorry to bore you with analysis for the bottomless pit of agony this rack was, but I really had to think about what leave hit the most bingos here. I don't want to lose this game by 200, so I had to really grind my gears between keeping ING, OING, just I, just NG, IN (IN was my leave last turn so I was definitely turned off by the idea of a repeated action). All in all I came to the right conclusion and kept the bingo-iest leave of GIN. Took a couple minutes of staring at the remaining pool and trying to magically form words with that, the letters on the board, and my possible tile leaves.
>Peter_Barkman: FILORST 10C FROSTIL. +66 454
#note oh. oh no.
>Joshua_Sokol: AEGINNT 15H ANTIGEN. +83 338
#note and this, folks, is success at its finest! I did not lose by 200!
>Peter_Barkman: DDIIIOU C10 .IDO +16 470
#note Could you imagine if Peter bingo-ed out with OIDIOID here? What an ugly rack! 14D IODID is 4 points better than this.
>Joshua_Sokol: AN 14M NA. +12 350
#note Definitely wanted to go crying to my nan after this one.
>Joshua_Sokol: (IIDU) +10 360
#note Final score 469-360, should have been one more for Peter. That's +9 spread for me so far in the games I've analyzed accounting for various scoring and adding mistakes.
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