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#player1 Scott Scott
#player2 Jason Jason
>Scott: ABBDEIN 8G BIB +14 14
#note S: BABIED is a little better, at 8D or 8G, than BIB. I didn't open short on purpose, I'm just allergic to easy six-letter words, I guess. Q says -1.4.
>Jason: AEGHIPV 7F PAH +19 19
#note J: One of those with no great option. I'm surprised how much Q hates this play. Sims well down the list. VAGI at 9D leads. (-6.8)
>Scott: ADDENRY 9H DYNE +30 44
#note S: The Y is flexibile in this position; DYNE in the other spot wins the sum by a shade over ANY 9G and READY 9E. I always want to play DYNE because it makes me think of The Phantom Tollbooth, a wonderful children's book that had a character named "Dyne" in it (not a likeable character, but the book is a gem). See, that's the goofy stuff I'm thinking about at the table. Moving right along . . .
>Jason: AEEGITV 10F VIE +22 41
#note J: Q slightly prefers VEGI(E) at K5 or VEGIE in this spot. (-1.1)
>Scott: ??ADINN K3 INsNAr.D +64 108
#note J: Scott took a while looking for the double-double through the E. Only one available.
#note S: I missed NONIDEAL as the lone 2x2, which is fine. Not that easy to see in this combo with the two blanks. I can live with that. But I made two worse errors on this turn: 1. I flushed far too much time determined to find a 2x2. There comes a point where the extra score isn't worth the time spent; there's a value to the time itself. I can't remember ever spending more time on Turn 3 in any game, I was down to maybe 7-8 minutes left in when I finally cashed in my cheap bingo. I pretty much never make that sort of mistake, but here I either got stubborn or proud or something, and it led to poor judgment. Now I'm forced to play the rest of the game in hurry-up mode. Not smart, son. 2. Once I accepted I didn't see a 2x2, I didn't shift into making a play that hooked DYNE or HIDE. Nothing like throwing points and equity out the window. I think I've said enough about this blue-hair turn.
>Jason: AEGRTUV 6E VUG +21 62
>Scott: LLP 3J P.LL +12 120
#note S: So with time against me, I decided to not record any more racks. Of course I changed my mind one rack later. Decisiveness! I remembered having an S and a consonant-heavy rack, I think, here.
>Jason: AAEEORT 4J A.OA +18 80
#note J: A(V)O/O(PAH) is preferred, as per Duck. (-5.3)
>Scott: AEORSTU E5 A.O +21 141
#note S: This is a solid play but UDO 10J is probably a little better. Quackle likes the 10-point fish (-1.5).
>Jason: EELRSTW N4 SWELTER +69 149
#note S: I'll sneak in here since Jason took this annotation note off. WELTERS at 2D scores two more but is far more volatile; this is the better bingo. (Pardon the interruption ; )
>Scott: AEFRSTU M9 FEU +21 162
#note S: A reasonable choice, though the Duck prefers another heavy fish with FLU 7M and also playing long with FEUAR M9. The sim police, for what it's worth, tax me -1.7.
>Jason: ACDIIJN O7 AID +27 176
#note J: If I'd known the newly learned CNIDA takes an -E and not an -S, I'd have played it at 12J for baiting purposes. Pleased to see this sim best, as I considered AIN to keep the FEU-D hook available, but that seemed too much like FPS.
>Scott: AENRSST I8 ..S +15 177
#note J: Ruh-roh.
#note S: All dressed up, nowhere to go. Sim and CP both endorse my choice. That said, there's a bit of a blue-hair problem - I suddenly started doubting whether or not FEU took an S (I know, I know). No time for long internal debate, the clock is ticking. Okay, no problem I decide, he's unlikely to take that S-PA hook unless he has his own bingo. But there's a hole in that boat, too, because a D-column play is very likely, and that will eliminate playing a seven-letter bingo to that J2 spot. At the end of the day, if you don't know the fours cold (and constantly keep them locked in), you're gonna pay a price. Next turn, that happens.
>Jason: CEIJKNR D2 JINK +36 212
#note J: I debated between the E9 placement and this. Duck says I chose wrong, even giving Scott an S in sim. It also says if I wanted to play here, that JERK was better. (-5.1)
>Scott: AENRSTW 8A STRAW +37 214
#note S: So here's where I blow the game. I actually debated playing WANTERS/FEUS anyway, but given where I am scorewise and timewise, I felt it was pretty close to game-over if it comes off. You hack, you. If I'm going to blow the rack up, TREWS at 8A is better than STRAW.
>Jason: CEEGILR 2B RE.IG +34 246
#note J: My losing play. Scott was in bad shape timewise and didn't want him thinking too much on my time. I knew this rack had missed bingo potential, but saw nothing right away and figured RE(J)IG had to be my best play. I'm not very good as playing opponents in time trouble. I play slow enough to not let them go over and fast enough to make mistakes myself. It's a fine line, and I'm still learning how to walk it. Oh, and the word, as neighbor Pete Zeigler pointed out to me after the game, was CLERGIE(S). (-48.5)
>Scott: AENRTUX 3C X. +36 250
#note S: When you're time-stuck, an easy/brainless play like this is your best friend. Of course playing just one tile in theory extends the game, but with a leave this good (and some excellent floaters), you do it happily. My five-tile draw was very fortunate after the terrible miss I just had.
>Jason: ACELMNZ 1E MAZE +52 298
#note J: "OK," I think, "now we start taking control of this game."
>Scott: AENORTU D8 .ERONAUT +68 318
#note J: Or not.
#note S: Luck, that's all that is.
>Jason: CFILNOT 15A COF. +27 325
#note J: A lot of plays simming closely here. Mine's at the top, but you can make an argument for a handful of plays here.
>Scott: EHM E11 HEM +32 350
#note S: I wish I had recorded this rack because I remember it had some interesting options, but there's no time to be picky. I'm super low on time now, maybe 2 minutes and change? This looks good, down it goes.
>Jason: ILNOQTU C11 NOT +25 350
#note J: Even though I make the Q-approved play to pull even, I'm less than 30% to win.
>Scott: COR 1A COR +27 377
#note S: I wasn't mad for the leave here and I'm virtually certain I didn't have the D yet. So, obviously, I was very lucky I drew it on the next 3-pull, especially since I wasn't positive on the S playing at 12M. Had Jason drawn his S one turn earlier, I'm almost certainly going to lose.
>Jason: EILQTUY C7 T.Y +20 370
#note J: Hemorrhages equity to plays like QUEY(S) or QUIT(S), but it's on CP's radar. I'm not exactly thrilled with the plays ranking ahead of it, either. I'd play it again. (-14.5)
#note S: I ran a CP query on this and got some bizarre results, to the point that I'm not even sure I'm using the tool right. I'm curious what other people would do from this position.
>Scott: DEGIIOO 12J GOODIE +26 403
#note S: Another example of how lucky I was in this game; I have no time to play a proper endgame and my tracking is not fully completed, and this just jumps off my rack and plays itself. Had my position been more complex, I'm almost assured to make an error because I don't have time to analyze it. Obviously I have to hope the Q isn't left in the bag; while I could still threaten QIS at A6, that's an easy block for him and he'll go on to win without much trouble. Because of his prior play (TRY, two tiles), I did think there was a reasonble chance the Q was one of the last four in the bag (as it turns out I was wrong, but from my perspective it seems like a reasonable guess).
>Jason: EEILQSU B5 QUI.E +24 394
#note J: Missing (U)SQUE at 14D. (-14.0)
>Scott: IRT J12 .RIT +7 410
#note J: Have fun trying to spot Scott's 10-pointer ... it's a toughy to see. A frustrating game, but I can't mind losing to Scott too much.
#note S: That's classy of Jason to say. I don't think this game showed either of us at our best, but I was definitely luckier. Jason's skills, of course, showed themselves nicely over the rest of the tourmament - well done. Seeing some good friends of mine do so well at this event (GV, JI, BB, KM) was the highlight of the weekend.
>Scott: (ELS) +6 416
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