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#player1 Puneet_Sharma Puneet Sharma
#player2 Mina Mina
>Puneet_Sharma: IIII -IIII +0 0
#note Let me set the scene for you. It is the twentieth and last game of the 2017 California Open. After two dreadful days of fail, I have finally hit my stride on this final morning. I have started this day 3-0, scoring 472 and 482 and 528, averaging 3.0 bingos per game. This is what I am capable of, I think happily. Although Puneet is rated nearly two hundred points higher than me, my lifetime record against him is a shining, shimmering 5-0. I wonder if this gives me any psychological advantage. I smile inwardly as he opens with an exchange.
>Mina: AACEIIU -AACIIU +0 0
#note Weirdly, Quackle favors keeping ACE, by nearly 3 points of valuation, even though I have recently been taught that you shouldn't keep two vowels and a consonant.
>Puneet_Sharma: ?ANORST 8G cARTONS +64 64
>Mina: EEKLORW J8 .ELEWORK +69 69
>Mina: DILNPTY (challenge) +5 74
#note One of my best finds of the tournament. Later I will brag about it, but in the moment, I just glow as I think, "My bingo is SO much cooler than yours." And I wonder, does this give me any psychological advantage?
>Puneet_Sharma: ABER 15H BA.ER +36 100
>Mina: DILNPTY M13 PLY +31 105
#note Yup, best play. Rocking and rolling.
>Puneet_Sharma: ACFINS 11E FIANC.S +48 148
>Mina: DGIINTT L3 DINTI.G +18 123
#note This is the kind of rack I fail the most at: low-pointers with duplicates. Quackle says I should have played ID or TID above the F, and the valuation of those plays is about 15 points more than that of mine. I guess when I'm behind I should be keeping the -S column open and preserving the -ING synergy.
>Puneet_Sharma: NQ F10 Q.N +32 180
>Mina: BHIIRTT G5 BIT.H +14 137
#note Another difficult rack, again with those duplicated one-pointers that are my Achilles' heel. Quackle favors the clever 9J (E)I(G)HT for 24 points leaving BIRT, which I would just never have seen, followed by 3J TI(D)BIT which has the virtue of forking the board.
>Puneet_Sharma: AOPTY H1 ATOPY +46 226
#note Puneet doesn't bingo again, but he doesn't need to, because he keeps the scoring pressure ON.
>Mina: EGIORST 13A GORIEST +81 218
#note Keeps me afloat.
>Puneet_Sharma: EJNT B10 JET.N +56 282
#note The big scores just keep coming. Puneet don't need no stinkin' bingos.
>Mina: AEIOOOX 12B .OXI. +50 268
#note I'm in trouble because I've been hit with a "bingo tax." Gratifyingly, the play I chose sims the highest, despite its sad leave.
>Puneet_Sharma: HMW 3F WH.M +19 301
>Mina: AAEIOOO -AAIOOO +0 268
#note I fall farther behind and am forced to spend a turn on an exchange. The board is closing like a door in my face. But don't lose faith, reader, it's about to get exciting.
>Puneet_Sharma: EFIRZ 4B FRIZE +39 340
>Mina: ?ACDDEU D1 DEC.DUAl +63 331
#note And just like that, my fortunes turn around, because I have drawn a blank and there are now multiple bingo lanes to choose from. I write "caudated?" on my scoresheet, then decide to go with a bingo whose validity I'm sure of. Quackle favors not bingoing immediately here, but playing 5D DA for 31 and keeping CDEU?. I don't agree at all, since he would only shut down the top bingo lane through the A on his next turn.
>Puneet_Sharma: DENO E4 .ENDO +42 382
#note Amazingly high score for an E, N, D, and O. He is not gonna let me catch up.
>Mina: EEEGILR I3 .EE +17 348
#note After his last play, there are nine in the bag, and I notice that the unseen tile pool is overwhelmingly vowel-heavy. I hold on to all of my consonants; I can only hope for a bingo through the A. Quackle favors 2B LI(E)GE for 24 leaving EER, but my play sims second-best.
>Puneet_Sharma: ALMOO K1 MOOLA +23 405
>Mina: EGILRSU 6L .UG +8 356
#note Okay, so of course he blocked the bingo lane through the A. However, I notice that I have a balanced and almost-good rack, while the nine unseen tiles are AAAEIUUVV. Can it be that I have a chance?!!??!!? Giddy with excitement, I write down the bingos that I could possibly hit by fishing off my two ugliest tiles: EILRS + AV = REVISAL, EILRS + AA = AERIALS, EILRS + AE = REALISE. I see that if I play 6L TUG, I will be able to fit a bingo down the O column that has S as its fifth letter (REVISAL) or its sixth letter (REALISE). Now it turns out that Quackle doesn't like this at all, I guess because it's so blockable. But why is Quackle suggesting 1K (M)U for 5, leaving EGILRS, assigning it a 31.84% win percentage on a many-ply sim? Doesn't it see that such a fish leaves me no bingo lanes? And yeah, I saw that there was a terrible lane on column B, but fishing to EGILRS never hits anything there.
>Puneet_Sharma: AAEIUVV 5N AI +5 410
#note I'm now holding the exact REVISAL that I fished for. Quackle Championship Player likes 1K (M)AUVE or (M)AVIE, which blocks REVISAL just fine. I think to myself that at least I tried.
>Mina: AEILRSV O2 REV.SAL +47 403
#note I ask myself whether REVISAL makes anything through an I, and I can only see VIRELAIS. (It turns out there's one more, since I haven't studied this eight-letter combination yet, but thank god it doesn't play.)
>Puneet_Sharma: AEUUV N11 UVEA +22 432
#note Oh well, my 5-0 lifetime record against Puneet had to end eventually.
>Mina: I M8 .I +7 410
#note Still averaged 3.0 bingos per game through my last four games!
>Mina: (U) +2 412
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