| Player 1 |
|
#player1 Will Will Anderson
#player2 Joshua Joshua Sokol
#title 2019 NSC Round 8
#description Will Anderson plays Joshua Sokol in Round 8 at the 2019 NSC
>Will: EEEFGKR 8H GREEK +30 30
>Joshua: AACITTZ K6 AC.TA +7 7
#note A lot of what I did this Nationals was attempt to bring the metagame forward. Setups and getting players used to dealing with setups is an important step into improving the overall level of play. I didn't play this because I thought it was the right play. It isn't. Quackle even prefers 9K TIZ by a point or so. People need to learn to deal with this sort of play. After that, maybe fake setups will become a thing, or something I haven't even thought of, because the possibilities are pretty much endless. Scrabble's learning curve is as close to infinite as any game that involves variance. Poker's heuristics are too well-defined. In Scrabble you can make beautiful plays such as this one not even holding the Z. Your opponent might then play UN(R)OOF and you can bingo with RETAINS/S(UNROOF) and catch them completely off-guard.
>Will: AEFNOOU J10 FOU +27 57
#note I should do I6 UNROOF. I figured he always has a Z bomb with the second A of ACETA, but maybe sometimes whiffs the top one, but it draws into stuff enough on a four tile pull that I should be blocking both. Unfortunately, I looked through the R for only a little while for plays like that, figuring I had nothing worth playing, and didn't think of it as an option. #findingmedium
>Joshua: FINTTUZ J3 FUTZ +67 74
>Will: AEJNOOX 9G JOE +25 82
#note X is pretty good on this board even before JOE, which makes it even more flexible.
>Joshua: DEEIINT 3H DE.INITE +76 150
>Will: ANOSUWX 2M XU +31 113
#note Quackle likes N1 OUTSAW - no thanks. I appreciate that I often get ANNEX L2 in addition to some less likely plays in that spot after OUTSAW in addition to whatever I draw to either open TWS, but I'd rather be more careful and not offer quite so much back. To me it was either O1 ANEW or XU here; ANEW has a solid baseline in the immediate future with stuff like L2 UNSEX with just an E draw, but I felt like XU would get me to a bingo a little bit faster, and ANEW cuts off more of the board than XU, which lets me reopen by playing down column O if I need to. The plays sim neck and neck.
>Joshua: ?AAGMOT 10F GOA +21 171
#note this was absolutely terrifying. I saw that I didn't have DOGMA through the D in DEFINITE. I saw that I had GLIOMATA with an I or an L. I saw the -MATA suffix more than once. Yet, I miss dOGMATA. #findinglarge
>Will: AAANOSW H1 WA. +21 134
#note Getting a decent S hook on the board while the equity hit to do so is minimal - I say decent because it takes too many other hooks. Of course, the AANOS leave is pretty gross. It looks like H1 NADA is actually a fair bit better to create an S-specific hook and undouble the A's. #tacticsmedium
>Joshua: ?AHMQRT 12I Q.ART +28 199
#note 1N HM was just better. Too concerned with getting rid of the Q. #tacticsmedium
>Will: AANOSVY 4D SAVOY +45 179
#note Gave serious thought to N11 NOVA, but any volatility it removed by using up the QUART hook it gave right back with big NOVAE plays.
>Joshua: ?DHIIIM 13F MIDI +21 220
#note was interesting between this and 5B IMID. I figured this was better, since I should be closer to a bingo than Will and don't need to needlessly open up huge hooks.
>Will: ACDNRSU 3C CUD +17 196
#note Disappointing to not generate 14E CUD as an option instead of my inferior CUD. That being said, the difference in bingo% on my next turn is not particularly large (Quackle estimates are 47% to 43%). #visionsmall
>Joshua: ?EHINRT N6 HINTERs +83 303
#note not gonna lie, I was super nervous this game. I saw things making QUARTE, not all the things, but figured this was better defensively enough to sacrifice 4 points.
>Will: ABINORS 1B RAINBO.S +64 260
>Joshua: BINOPWY 11E BOW +32 335
#note RAINBOWS then BOW. Hoping for a nicer play making MY next turn.
>Will: DEEINRT O3 .NDITE +37 297
#note Need points to stay close, pool is quite bingo-prone so using a lot of tiles isn't as bad.
>Joshua: ?ILMNPY 14B IMPLY +55 390
#note this had its risks, but it was also 24 more points than PLY in the same spot. PLY runs in to problems if he hits 14H, and IMPLY runs into problems if he hits row A hard. It's actually really close. I should retain tempo in the endgame either way. PLY + bingo at I14 means 12 unseen. If I play at 15A which seems likely, I play 4 tiles leaving 8 unseen. Seems like it works out nicely. Otherwise IMPLY + A column bingo leaves 3 in the bag, and playing two tiles might be unideal. So I could play something longer, maybe starting in C from 15F, which blocks QIS and goes up a decent amount with relatively poor counterplay options for Will. Hm.
>Will: EEILLRV A8 EVILLER +96 393
>Will: EEILLRV -- -96 297
#note At various points on this turn, I was absolutely positive that RIMPLY* was good, and then absolutely positive that it wasn't good. Ultimately I decided that my winning percentage had to be low enough here that if there was even a little bit of a chance that it stayed on, I should try it. If I played the likely actual best option of A10 REVILE I just lose to NEONATE anyway, so that was comforting to know.
>Joshua: ?AEENNO 15A ONE +15 405
#note totally forever was the time it took to challenge RIMPLY* off. It's funny because immediately my gut reaction was like "NO THIS IS NOT A WORD HE IS DESPERATE" and then all the overthinking settled in and stuff. Lucky that I had courage, because if I hadn't been doing so well, I don't know if I would have been able to pull the trigger. I'm just being safe here, but everything wins.
>Will: EEILLRV 5A LEVEL +27 324
>Joshua: ?AEENPS 14I SNEAPEd +82 487
#note once again being safe, though I missed SPElEAN in the same spot which I would be sure of as opposed to SPEANEd, which I was not, given I always confused SNEAPED SPEANED with SNEAKED SKEANED*. #knowledgemedium #findingmedium
I suppose he could have S(E)RAGLIO, the only playable 7 on row 14, and nothing else. I should therefore play deP(L)ANES A2 or fish with E(ME).
>Will: GHIORRS 15L GIRO +35 359
>Joshua: AL M6 AL +13 500
>Joshua: (HRS) +12 512
|
