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#player1 Evans Evans
#player2 Chris Chris
>Evans: ABR 8G BAR +10 10
#note Round 18 of the 2018 Labor Day Oregon Coast Open (LOCO). After last round's loss, first place is almost certainly out of reach, but I'm still ahead of third place by one game with a small spread advantage. Staying in the money is all but assured, but I'll need at least one more victory (and probably two) to stay in second.
>Chris: EEELRUV J6 VEE +20 20
#note REVUE is also okay, but this has better defense and leaves the R for BARER.
>Evans: AAM 7F MAA +13 23
>Chris: BEELOPR K8 REBOP +25 45
#note I wondered if PROBE(AB)LE was good (it is), but I wasn't going to try it in a 5-point challenge game. I saw 9E ROBLE, which Quackle slightly prefers, but I was less than 100% sure if ABB is good (it is). I figured it didn't make a huge difference. 9F BOLE, keeping the R also sims well. To my surprise, Evans held on this (but did not challenge).
>Evans: AKP L11 PAK +30 53
>Chris: ?EILNRS M6 LIeRNES +68 113
#note Looked for parallel plays down column M but couldn't find the best play, LIENoRS# for 84. I considered M6 pILSNER for 76 - especially since Evans held REBOP and I had a chance of getting +5 for the challenge. However, I chose my play for defense and because I didn't want to have to worry about potential -S hooks on BARER later. (BARERS* is phony, but I wasn't too sure.)
>Evans: DG 7L D.G +5 58
#note Presumably Evans is holding a bingo-ish leave with at least one S.
>Chris: FHOU J11 HOUF +33 146
#note Didn't write down my leave, but this seemed obviously best. Fortunately, I had studied a list of useful 4's earlier in the morning, so I was pretty confident this was good. Now, if Evans takes one of the -S hooks, there might be another one for me later.
>Evans: ?LRSTTY 15D TRoTYLS +91 149
#note Nice play. TeTRYLS is a bit more defensive.
>Chris: FGI 14F GIF +27 173
#note I had wasted a lot of time deliberating on the last few turns and Evans had started to fast play me. As a result I stopped recording my racks. Fortunately, I was able to get speed through to the end game without making any major mistakes AFAIK. I knew had to keep the board at least somewhat open in case Evans bingoed on column O with the case S.
>Evans: ENW 13E NEW +23 172
>Chris: ACDIT D9 DICTA +23 196
>Evans: ENOV 11D .OVEN +20 192
>Chris: ADIOU 6B AUDIO +16 212
>Evans: AEGINSU O1 GUINEAS +83 275
>Chris: OOX 5D OXO +46 258
#note Despite Evans' second -S bingo, a timely X draw keeps me in the game. For the second point in the game I find myself unsure of a three (OOM), but I play it anyway because I can feel it gnawing at the back of my memory. Now that I'm behind, this sets up a bingo lane which will become important down the stretch.
>Evans: EHLM 4A HELM +38 313
>Chris: JZ 10C J.Z +30 288
#note Get your mind out of the gutter. This is simply another word for "wig".
>Evans: IQ N3 QI +24 337
>Chris: CEEINRU A1 RUC.E +30 318
#note Despite the fact that I am down by a bingo, this wins 23% of simulations because of its bingo-ish leave and the favorable tile pool. Importantly, this keeps the IN combo which could be useful for bingoing to the G.
>Evans: EOT L4 TOE. +12 349
#note Closing the bingo lane on row 4.
>Chris: AEILNNS K4 AN +10 328
#note Annoyingly, JIZ blocked my (A)LANINES on column B. However, I still have great winning chances since I have good tiles and there are three bingo lanes. I wondered if I should have opened a new area of the board by playing something like B6 (A)N, but this sims best.
>Evans: ETY J2 YET +17 366
>Chris: DEILNOS 2A .NSOILED +72 400
#note Luckily for me, I have bingos in three spots (UNSOILED, SIDELONG, and INDOLES/DOLINES), so there is nothing that Evans could have done. Now on to an advantaged best-of-two against Conrad Bassett-Bouchard for second place.
>Chris: (AIIRTW) +18 418
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