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#player1 Rob_Robinsky Rob Robinsky
#player2 Austin_Shin Austin Shin
>Rob_Robinsky: AIIJPQT -IIJPQ +0 0
#note Quackle really likes playing QI here. Against many players I would agree and feel comfortable in my ability to play through the junk over the next couple of turns, but against someone for whom scoring never stops? I didn't want to get stuck at the gate.
>Austin_Shin: DHNUZ 8H NUDZH +44 44
>Rob_Robinsky: ABERSTW J6 BE.STRAW +72 72
#note And so it begins! Slightly favored over 9C WABSTER.
>Austin_Shin: CDEF 12I F.CED +22 66
>Rob_Robinsky: EEEEGHP K5 GEE. +34 106
>Austin_Shin: DIIKV M10 KI.VID +30 96
>Rob_Robinsky: EEEHMNP 15H HEMPE. +45 151
#note Today was apparently the day of phony sixes for me. PEENED is the best valid option, but both Austin and I evidently had the same recollection of HEMPING being a word.
>Austin_Shin: IIII -IIII +0 96
>Rob_Robinsky: CEGGNSY 10E CYGNE. +20 171
#note Bit of a weird position. I think I allowed myself to get overly entranced with the potential for the NUDZHING extension in this game, so most of my racks were viewed through the lens of getting the -ING extension. I've now drawn NG, and so I spent a fair amount of time looking for reasonable plays that retain the N but couldn't come up with anything. CYGNET doesn't do so, though it's reasonably defensive and there are still N's unseen to me. I saw and disregarded N7 EGGY, which is the clear sim winner, due to concerns of opening up the O column to Austin and then being unable to utilize my S coming down column M in response. The extra points for EGGY and the accessibility of the left half of the board seem to account for that possibility, though.
>Austin_Shin: ?ABDINS 14B INDABaS +85 181
#note Even without the G, Austin has beaten me to the extension...but INDABAS scores too much to justify playing it.
>Rob_Robinsky: EGILRSW L4 WIG +23 194
#note 14L WIG is a tempting fish which I almost went for, but I feared completely losing control of the board if Austin drew a strong rack. I was also growing concerned with the threat of the unseen I's in the pool, which would potentially be equally as crippling as a bingo for Austin. I didn't see any defensible way to play off the L and/or W to try once more for the NUDZHING fish, and finally started recognizing that I was fixating on the spot too much.
>Austin_Shin: ?AEINOR E4 vERONI.A +86 267
#note Once more Austin drew IN? and had the indignity of being forced to play a high-scoring bingo. I don't know how he deals with it.
>Rob_Robinsky: AELLRSU 3F LAURELS +67 261
#note Fortunate that this plays - it seems quite possible that I would have missed my fish at 14L last turn, though Austin would not have had a bingo to play there so it would have still been available.
>Austin_Shin: AOTU 8A TAUO. +18 285
>Rob_Robinsky: ELOPQVY N8 VLY +34 295
#note Quackle prefers playing the Q now with C7 QUOP and retaining the Y for another time, which is eminently reasonable. Given that he telegraphed a vowel-heavy leave, though, I was concerned about potentially drawing more consonants after QUOP and struggling in turns after cashing in the Y on column N. I will still be able to play the Q after VLY, possibly 37 at 13B with an I draw, and it's pretty difficult for Austin to do significant damage with an E on column O. The V placement also limits Austin's ability to catch me with an awkward rack after making a setup to open the upper right quadrant - I am well aware of how creative a player he is. In short, I understand why Quackle considers VLY a mistake but it's a mistake I am willing to accept to give myself what I consider to be my best chance against one of the strongest players in the world.
>Austin_Shin: AANO 15A ANOA +23 308
>Rob_Robinsky: AEEOPQX H1 EA.X +57 352
#note That was an incredible draw in the face of Austin's continued vowel-heavy racks! I am still guaranteed to be able to play the Q next turn after EAUX, but there is the risk of ceding momentum while doing so if I am forced to play at 13B. Still, the U is relatively likely to stay open.
>Austin_Shin: JO 13B JO +34 342
>Rob_Robinsky: EFLOPQR C7 Q.OP +26 378
>Austin_Shin: AIMO 13E MOAI +23 365
>Rob_Robinsky: EFLRRTT 5B FRE.T +8 386
#note Quackle strongly disagrees with my play, but I think it is erroneously doing so - at least to the number of dying sun intensities it hates it with. At this point I am relatively certain that Austin has the S and possibly the E on his rack, given that he has consistently avoided complicating the T at 8A even as he's scored with vowels elsewhere - the pool unseen to him, though perhaps a bit rife with vowels and duplicates, would still be quite threatening to him if he doesn't already have the S. Given my rack, my goals for this play are to 1. unduplicate as many of my letters as I can, given that there are still unseen R's and T's, 2. block the T for bingos, 3. minimize Austin's ability to try to further groom his rack by leaving one in the bag (any opportunity he has to improve his rack while not emptying the bag is bad for me), 4. try not to provide any new scoring opportunities for Austin, especially ones that allow him to play a lot of tiles and be able to go out first, and 5. try to give myself the most flexibility I can to try to outrun something like K10 SEC for 27. I think that FREET does most of these things pretty well; at least, I think that it accomplishes some things very well and others less so, but I haven't identified any plays that do as well on balance. This runs the risk of being too consonant heavy in the endgame, but I should be able to respond to most draws. The T is now dead, and there is only one tile left in the bag - if Austin has 2 or even 3 I's on his rack, he is going to struggle in the endgame. Austin can score a bit with the F if he is vowel heavy, but I don't think he has any significant scoring potential with it that doesn't come at the expense of scoring opportunities elsewhere on the board. Maybe I'm performing the sim wrong for this to be rated so badly, but I don't think that this is a bad play at all. Hindsight can give confirmation bias, of course, but I'm actually quite pleased with it - I chose it for specific reasons, and it ended up working out because of those reasons. There might be something that does even better for those reasons than does FREET, but on balance I stand by my analysis.
>Austin_Shin: IOS 11A IOS +19 384
#note I think Austin said that he did indeed have three I's on his rack.
>Rob_Robinsky: ELNRTTU 14K UN.T +14 400
#note I didn't expect to draw the E, but it sure helped! The best sequence is 14L NIT setting up an unblockable LUTER. I was looking for that type of possibility, but spent most of my remaining time on the previous turn and simply wanted to make sure that I would go out first and/or outrun if Austin blocked an outplay. UNIT does so, but I wish I'd had more time to look for something better. What a challenging game!
>Austin_Shin: IIORT 6D T.IOR +13 397
>Rob_Robinsky: ELRT 1G R.LET +5 405
>Rob_Robinsky: (I) +2 407
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