| Player 1 |
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#player1 Mack_Meller Mack Meller
#player2 Jim_Burlant Jim Burlant
>Mack_Meller: AFIQRU H4 FAQUIR +44 44
>Jim_Burlant: DHIMNOX I5 HIM +34 34
#note After taking a while, I finally find it. This is best.
>Mack_Meller: OTY G3 TOY +21 65
>Jim_Burlant: DEGNORX 4D GON.. +18 52
#note And the new words are still not reflexive. Better would proabably be XED G7. I played this to set up the X on row 5. This is a minor miss, but it did work out.
>Mack_Meller: DETY E3 T.YED +18 83
>Jim_Burlant: DERSTVX 6D V.X +29 81
#note And once again, I fail to recognize the new words. XED F6 55!!!
>Mack_Meller: EINOOT G7 TOONIE +19 102
>Jim_Burlant: ADEORST 13D ROASTED +68 149
#note Tough call here: ROASTED? or TORSADE in the same location for 1 more? My problem with TORSADE was the multiple vowel placement issues it created at 12H. ROASTED admittedly has lesser vowel placement issues at 14F and a front B hook at 13C, but I weighed that as being slightly less troublesome than the problems with TORSADE, so I went with ROASTED. A sim really can't distinguish between the two; approaching 5000 iterations, they are within 0.1 points and 0.05% winning chances of each other. Pick your poison.
>Mack_Meller: AGIV 12A VIGA +28 130
>Jim_Burlant: AAJOORU H13 .AJ +30 179
#note This is where the game started getting away from me. This is a gross rack and I couldn't see any of the obvious plays. B11 JIAO certainly looks a lot better to get rid of the extra vowel and take away the A column. This transgression probably cost me any chance at winning this game. 30 points makes this a reasonable choice, but JIAO would have been much better.
>Mack_Meller: EELNPRS 11F P.LSENER +70 200
>Jim_Burlant: AEEOORU 14A ROUE +11 190
#note Still obsessed with adding some sort of interference to the A column. As you'll see in a couple of turns, my mishandling of this sequence led to my downfall. Best is apparently 10I EAU or exchanging EOOU. That said, this a minor slip, not even 1 point in a sim at 3000 iterations.
>Mack_Meller: ADGNRU M9 GU.NARD +22 222
>Jim_Burlant: ABEEIOP 15K PO.IA +27 217
#note I finally get a play right. It's this or OPE 10I. Why not OBE? Mack's upcoming play makes clear why keeping the B is so important here:
>Mack_Meller: ABHT C10 HA.B.T +46 268
#note If you want an illustration of why Mack rates 2100 and the only question is *when* he will win a Nationals, look no further than this play. This is just amazing -a beautiful play. I held for a few seconds and released when I was sure that ROASTED took the front B.
>Jim_Burlant: ABEEFWZ 10L F.ZE +41 258
#note Three things led me to make an incorrect choice here. First - I'm *still* not aways reflexively recognizing the new words, and that includes the threes like XED and WUZ. God help me in a couple of years when the next update inevitably occurs. Anyway - Secondly - to this point, even though I had a fair allotment of blanks, way too many of them had not appeared until the game was already decided, so I wanted to unload one of my E's, both for turnover and rack balance. Third - E was the most probable tile in the bag so I wantef to dump my E. In this case that's a huge mistake. Why? Because, other than the K and W, the unseen pool is a bingo waiting to happen. WUZ in the same location scores 40 and is a much smarter choice. As many mistakes as I have made to this point, this is the one that sealed the deal for Mack:
>Mack_Meller: EIILMNT O3 ILMENIT. +83 351
#note Best bingo for Mack.
>Jim_Burlant: ABEIKOW N1 WOKE +30 288
#note Played this to open a threat and make sure that the B column and row 1 were both viable threats. This isn't one of the original choices and a sim confirms it's a very strong play.. That said, WOK N6 accomplishes the same thing by opening the M column for wide open 7's and scores 9 more while it does so. WOK should have been the play.
>Mack_Meller: EELS A10 LE.E.S +27 378
>Jim_Burlant: ?ABDIIN N6 BI +22 310
#note I get one right. With 3 in the bag and me in possession of a blank, I still have an outside shot at a win despite all my blundering. I need some luck from the tile bag, and with multiple threats available, I have to hope he misses the one that winds up in my rack.
>Mack_Meller: ?CELRU 1I CURLE.s +36 414
#note He was about to block ScANDIA down the B column when he double-checked and realized that, if the C was in my rack, I could hit CHAINSAW and win. He felt his best play was to score on row 1 and concede the out bingo.
>Jim_Burlant: ?AADINS K1 .ADIANtS +66 376
#note B4 ScANDIA 69, L1 LANIArDS 68
>Jim_Burlant: (CW) +14 390
#note Proud of myself for forcing him into conceding the out bingo...but very disappointed on so many levels in how I played the rest of this game. You only get so many chances to play someone of Mack's caliber, and you have to bring your A game. While I could live with GON(OF), I otherwise made 4 major mistakes in 11 turns (VEX instead of XED, TAJ instead of JIAO, FUZE instead of WUZ, and WOKE instead of WOK) and, frankly, didn't deserve to only lose by 25. I should have lost by 100 playing this poorly. |
