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#player1 David_Koenig David Koenig
#player2 Matthew_O'Connor Matthew O'Connor
>David_Koenig: ABEGKLO 8H BLEAK +32 32
#note I suspected there was a five letter word with the K and G that I couldn't remember here, and that word is KOGAL, which looks slightly better than BLEAK.
>Matthew_O'Connor: VY I7 V.Y +17 17
#note His play blocked my spot for OUTGOER on row 7.
>David_Koenig: EGOORTU L5 GOU. +9 41
#note I debated between GOUK and 9K GOO, and in the end I decided on GOUK not because I thought keeping the O instead of the U was worth a five point sacrifice (it isn't) but because I thought that his scoring opportunities on the next turn might be severely hindered by GOUK. Quackle sim prefers GOO by about 3.5 points, but there is a surprising play that Quackle likes better than either of them: just dropping an O at H9 is favored by 3 points over GOO. I'm a bit baffled by this, because the leave isn't that bingo prone.
>Matthew_O'Connor: HOPT M4 TOPH +29 46
>David_Koenig: ?AEORRT H8 .ARRETOr +85 126
#note I forgot to include the points for the two letter word and underscored this as 80 at the time. Fortunately, Matthew caught the error before the end of the game, but not until the bag was empty.
>Matthew_O'Connor: FRY K3 FRY +32 78
>David_Koenig: EGINRTU 14G R.UTEING +72 198
#note There's not a huge difference between this and UTTERING for the same score, but I chose this to avoid giving the front hooks of UTTERING.
>Matthew_O'Connor: ACENOPT 11D COPA.ENT +98 176
>David_Koenig: BDEEEIR N2 BRIE +22 220
#note I did consider N5 EE, which is one of static evaluator's highly ranked plays, but I decided I didn't like a play that fishy that gave him easy shots at the O6 lane with many hook tiles remaining. I wasn't totally happy with my play, but I had trouble generating other alternatives. BREE in the same spot seems more natural, but with more than half the E's already played or in my hand and seven I's unseen, I figured it was better to dump the I. All of that said, Quackle's static analyzer doesn't even suggest BREE or BRIE and finds several better plays, such as CEBID, which should have been obvious enough. But the star play is BEADER G9, which scores more than any other option and manages the rack better, while giving nothing back to him.
>Matthew_O'Connor: AILX D11 .ALIX +44 220
>David_Koenig: ADEEGIT O1 GIED +36 256
>Matthew_O'Connor: IQ 13L QI +37 257
>David_Koenig: ?AAEIMT 4D AnIMATE. +70 326
>Matthew_O'Connor: ENV H1 VEN. +21 278
>David_Koenig: DHLNOUW 3C WHO +24 350
#note I missed the same spot as before, as I didn't consider the high scoring WOAH G9 with the same tiles. That said, I was intentionally sacrificing equity to block the E on row 2, as it looked like by far the best bingo lane for him. My choice is reasonable, but Matthew found a miraculously way to get his bingo down anyway.
>Matthew_O'Connor: AERSSTW F2 WA.TRESS +81 359
#note Whoa!
>David_Koenig: DILNOSU 15A DOU. +36 386
>Matthew_O'Connor: AJ C12 JA +31 390
>David_Koenig: EILNOSS 5E S.ILE +28 414
#note Static evaluator is useless here, as it tries to fish for bingos, which is absolutely the wrong way to play this position. But Quackle's Championship Player comes up with the exact same play of STILE as I did, which it thinks wins more than 61% of the time, a more than 4% edge over any other move. STILE is better than STOLE for a subtle reason. It's not just about avoiding duplicate I's. With two D's remaining, I have a decent shot of drawing the word I played on the next turn. Yes, I was already thinking about that play when I chose STILE.
>Matthew_O'Connor: DZ B13 DZ. +30 420
>David_Koenig: DEINNOS 15L SNOD +37 451
#note I took my high scoring play of SNOD, but Quackle doesn't like it, and it's entirely an issue of endgame timing. Going into the 6 vs. 7 endgame means he is likely to go out first and win a close game. There is a different play here which gives me much higher winning chances, but I can't tell you what it is yet, because it will ruin some of the suspense of the endgame. I will disclose it at the end of the game.
>Matthew_O'Connor: CEFLMNO E10 N.ME +23 443
#note It was only now that Matthew noticed I had underscored BARRETOR and that we corrected my score from 446 to 451. I had been thinking I was lost in this endgame, but suddenly I realized I had new life. I had only about two minutes left, but Matthew spent a lot of time on this play, while holding me on SNOD, and I was fortunately able to figure out several things about this endgame during that stretch. Apparently, Matthew had the right idea here but not quite the right execution. According to Championship player OMEN in the same spot ties the game and all other plays lose for him.
>David_Koenig: AEIINU 2C EA +13 464
#note I need to block FLOC A2. FLOCS will not score enough to win for him, so he needs to stretch the game out to an extra turn.
>Matthew_O'Connor: CFLO 1A COL +21 464
#note Note that if he had the extra two points from OMEN instead of NOME, FLOCS would be the way to tie here. But given this score, it is absolutely right not to play it, even though in the end COL is one point worse on spread with best play. He forces me to find a difficult winning play.
>David_Koenig: IINU N12 IN.. +17 481
#note The only way to win. Fortunately, I found it while he was thinking about COL. For a little while I thought I was going to lose after NIE or INNIT.
>Matthew_O'Connor: F I11 .F +10 474
>Matthew_O'Connor: (IU) +4 478
#note Instead of SNOD immediately, Championship Player favored ING N12, which kept one in the bag and importantly did *not* block SNOD at the bottom right. It thought that move won over 60% of the time, while everything else was 35% or less to win.
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