| Player 1 |
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#player1 JD John Dalida
#player2 JJB John J. Bulten
>JD: DEHIIPW H4 WIPED +30 30
#note ~1:00 [~24:00] The regular Fort Myers tournament, usually quiet, today is marked with a large number of exciting high-spread games and unexpected runs of good (and bad) tiles. JJB is first seed and should retain table one "with good behavior"; he is psyched up but is also telling everyone he has been in a mental fog and unprepared the past month. Second seed is Ed Liebfried, who had a demonstrably bad run of draws in last month's two-day tourney, and who is angling for a change. Third is snowbird Pat Krohn, who has been hooked on the game since the fifties and has a high historic rating, but who now only gets in about one tournament a year: she is also well-positioned to advance. Who will be on which side of the tiles? JD (as lowest seed) starts against JJB on board one and both players are recording all racks, a first matchup of these two that has been awaited nearly a year. Here he begins well by finding the correct opening, the only 30-pointer: even though DEI (whip) is a stronger leave than HI, it's not 6 points stronger.
>JJB: ABBEERW 5D WEBB.ER +28 28
#note ~2:00 [~23:00] JJB also wants turnover, neglecting the synergistic leave of ABER (+6.6) which can be had with web 27 in two places; he turns down weber 29 (worse) without analyzing that web has the best leave. He spots webbier, 6.2 points behind in static valuation; but if he had been practicing more he would be more likely to spot the strongly preferable bawbee g7 30.
>JD: EGHINRS 4C HE +20 50
#note ~1:00 [~23:00] JD's tactical methods are (1) to play the first word vertically for disorientation, (2) to play quickly because JJB has often struggled with time trouble, and (3) to imitate the methodical play of Izak Bulten, who is currently rated close to JD and who has a notable 1-1 tourney record against JJB so far, in part due to taking advantage of similar opponent weaknesses. However, JD's rapid review is incomplete here: he finds hingers (86/79), but does not have 100% certainty, so selects the best leave combo instead, GINRS (EGINRS is 12.6 better but GINRS allows 25 points instead of 9). After the game he recognizes the -ing was too tempting to hold onto: it is often deceptive, especially with two consonants. Instead, a little anagramming with the open letters would yield several possibilities more certain (a mnemonic might be hingers: wreckful pad). Shrewing 86 or whingers rank first (up to 42.5 higher value); rehinges/sheering/greenish, herrings, and herdings all play. For JD's chosen leave, seeking to adjust the first play found would show that eh 4d is 5 over he 4c, much better than directing a redundant S hook.
>JJB: AIILQRU 8E QUI. +14 42
#note ~3:19 [19:41] JJB misses qua 3a 34, which is not too intuitive, but is also not that dangerous a hook nor that dangerous a leave; it severely outpoints everything else, evaluating 9.9 ahead of his choice (equal 7h 24 is the next Q premium). Quackle also likes keeping the synergy of (A)ILQU. JJB sees liquid 17, which immediately suggests the lucrative illiquid; on consideration, quid seems better to him because the leave looks better (it is, though not enough so) and he feels liquid would scream too easily for JD to play the IL alone himself. If he is actually to fish for illiquid, he should play liquid and take 5 tiles, but if fishing for a bingo then quid makes more sense than anything except maybe quire e1 20.
>JD: GINORRS F7 O.R +3 53
#note ~1:00 [~22:00] Continuing to apply clock pressure, JD seeks to make the best of the lost bingo situation. Quackle suggests either playing her 4c 8 (GINORS +30.1, 11.6 diff) or cashing the H with rosing 3b 34. JD's GINRS (+23.5) is almost as good, albeit the OR plays as rob g3 11 (8 more points).
>JJB: AIILLNR 8A ILLI.... +57 99
#note 0:19 [19:22] In one of the first amazing draws of the day, JJB picks up the requisite IL immediately as 2 of the 3 tiles drawn, and is immediate with the bingo equivalent. (It rates a crazy 35.7 above second place, anil 3c 24.)
>JD: EGGINRS 7H .GG +7 60
#note ~1:00 [~21:00] JD gives up on the -ing and pursues the equally tempting siren, not a bad leave if no bingo is to develop. JD has been using Zyzzyva and Aerolith for good improvement of recognition of high-probability racks, but is still working out the hurdle of longer-term bingo retention, so the rack does not suggest a stronger play to him than the reasonable enough dump (gi 3 is even more doable, the highest non-bingo). Two S plurals exist but, for all the S hooks, none of them accommodate it as seventh letter now. However, the other two anagrams, serging/snigger, play for up to 82 (diff of 48.5 opportunity cost).
>JJB: ?AEHNRS A1 SHERwAN. +83 182
#note 0:55 [18:27] JJB is also economizing on time, after his Q exploits, and makes the hasty conclusion that column A is the best spot. Joel Wapnick suggests writing down a hook word (e.g., swiped) when spotted so it will serve as a reminder when it becomes available. Here, spotting the hook and then calibrating the H for hew might lead to rehangs/eh/hew/swiped 99. Instead JJB plays the flashiest bingo to or from the I.
>JD: EGINORS C8 .OG +5 65
#note ~2:37 [18:23] Now there are three S plurals that don't go, and signore (3h 80), which JD misses because he is too bemused to have drawn the last G after giving up on -ing. While log 5 also directs loge to himself, it's too easy for opponent to use and does not make best use of the tiles, which can be placed (after a quick search of hot premium squares) into ego 3a 18 (13 better). JD seems to avoid even log b8 8 for some reason. Oh/ho 10 (EGINRS) are still the better leave, though, and signore is the highest at 48.5 ahead of log 5.
>JJB: AAFOSUX B5 OX +51 233
#note 1:09 [17:18] JJB realizes he has inadvertently left open an old standard (6b) that is much better than faux or hoax despite the bad leave. He lays down the tiles grudging the fact that the best play is so hackneyed this time.
>JD: EFINORS B2 OF +25 90
#note 0:44 [17:39] Finally JD is vindicated that siren is the best leave, although at the cost of having no bingo available. He is only 4 points short of the best play this time: of 3c 29, to snag the W also.
>JJB: AADFOSU G3 FA. +17 250
#note 3:22 [13:56] JJB also misses a premium-square easily findable by search or hook query: 7c. He chooses the best leave combo from this poor rack but does not play fa at 7c 23 for 6 more instead, not even noting the front hook on the double. Happily, "fab"/"four" are both top moves here, and JJB likes both.
>JD: CEINRSY D2 CR.. +9 99
#note 0:36 [17:03] CEINRS (+32.3) is a very powerful leave and indicates hey/ye 14 (or the like, up to 30.9 ahead of the actual play). Hey/ye is a move considered by JD, but he wants to set up another, stronger S hook. (Otherwise he could take rec/her 11 for 2 more or add significant synergy by playing other tile combos.) The difficulty with this logic is the high likelihood that JJB wants to strike first upon this decent support opening.
>JJB: ADIORSU 1D SOUARI +32 282
#note 2:29 [11:27] The unplayable bingos are spotted too late (dinosaur, auditors), and the Q play in column E has not been bookmarked now that it's available (qaid/qadi 30 are the strongest by 2.9). JJB's play also puts more distance ahead of opponent, but at the cost of the S; it looks weak but rates fourth (audio b10 21 is also notable).
>JD: AEINSTY 4C ..Y +14 113
#note 0:11 [16:52] Finally JD draws a rack that he can be confident of making the best play from and proceeds to do so (albeit screwy 14 is tied for the honors).
>JJB: ?ADEMPY 11A PAYED +30 312
#note 1:52 [9:35] JJB surprisingly also makes the optimally-valued play, just ahead of mayed. His fears of missing a bingo have not yet materialized.
>JD: AEINNST K7 STANINE +70 183
#note 1:16 [15:36] Now playing the optimal bingo is straightforward (2i is tied in score and valuation but significantly more dangerous given JD's playing style).
>JJB: ?ILMNTV D7 V.M +12 324
#note 2:04 [7:31] JJB, stymied by the single vowel, takes awhile to realize that MV can be dumped handily for a very strong leave and is in fact best.
>JD: CEEIJLO J2 JEE. +27 210
#note 0:17 [15:19] JD makes the third consecutive optimal play, correctly jumping on the triple letter rather than the triple word (piece 30).
>JJB: ?DILNTT 13E INTiTL.D +60 384
#note 1:29 [6:02] JJB also sees another optimal spot, the only bingo location, perversely slotting the blank in column H (otherwise the first letter could be any of EIU).
>JD: CILNOOU K1 COL +16 226
#note 1:11 [14:08] This vowel-leaning rack calls for a longer word so as to improve leave: the triple yields upcoil 39 (34.3 ahead of actual), poilu, picul, and polio, and the J yields junco 28. Slightly behind these is the 2-vowel dump udo l12 12. JD's play (INOU -12.4) wipes out most of its value in its limping leave, and also offers opponent another triple.
>JJB: AEEKMOT A11 .EKOE +36 420
#note 3:14 [2:48] With a decent leave, JJB can afford a little time to experiment with bingos; he finds the only one (yokemate), and then goes on to find the best actual play as well.
>JD: AINNORU 10J U.ION +9 235
#note 0:53 [13:15] At this point, JD could also take extra time to try to lessen the deficit, if he can spare the vocabulary. The highest play is the tricky journo 26, while the best triples in order are cornu, curio, tauon, curia/cauri, conin, coria, cairn, canon, union 15. Union 9 has respectable bingo hopes and better leave than the triples, but not points; it rates some 12.6 behind.
>JJB: AAEIMTT B13 AM +22 442
#note 1:40 [1:08] JJB's bingo strategy aligns with Quackle's here. Best leave/points combo, with kat 14 almost equal.
>JD: ANRTUVZ M8 AZ. +22 257
#note 0:22 [12:53] JD continues to speed through the endgame at the loss of both spread and leave. With a great bag from which to choose his last tile, he does not need to gravitate toward the double and unbalance his rack when a triple can be found using the 4-letter Z list: ritz 39 (15.1 diff). Adz/na 30 also nets 8 more, and if opponent has the only 7 (aetatis/satiate) the slight increase from adze wouldn't matter because it's already playable in column O. Quackle's backup strategy is to play the V instead and hold the Z (better in simulation if ritz 39 is conserved, such as with nav 12k 18), and this might be an improvement on ritz in some or many scenarios.
>JJB: ADEISTT 2J ..TAS +24 466
#note 0:56 [0:12] JJB has once again not left enough time to find a strong out in two. He has only time to note that cited will play above jotas, but not enough time to consider reversing the order, which would be an inspiration; instead he can only hope that JD will not block (which he promptly does). The best play, noted by JD immediately after the game, is cited 27, leading to tav c13 31, jotas 32+6, net of 34; JJB's choice, the blockable move-order swap, is jotas 24, leading to velar 30, teiid 18+6, net of 18 (16 behind). Also, if cited 27 is blocked with velar 24, tas c13 25+6 gets the same margin, so the block is ineffective. An elegant endgame out, missed primarily due to time considerations.
>JD: ANRTUV 1M TAV +22 279
#note 0:32 [12:21] Now the block is velar 30 over tav 22, but the triple is playing a siren song again.
>JJB: DEIT 14L EDIT +13 479
#note 0:11 [0:01] JJB saves clock face with the second-best play, 5 behind teiid 18.
>JJB: (NRU) +6 485
#note Both players recoil from a 206-point spread, made more enjoyable because neither player really drew bad synergy and in fact both made a series of optimal moves in the midgame. (Four out of five games are won handily this first round, where "blowout" is defined as a spread over 150: Sam Rothbart's spread is +158, Elspeth Abbate's is +163, and Greg Thornburg's is +176.) JD was hampered by missing 3 bingo options that called for more recherche anagramming and a couple turns calling for stronger 4- to 6-letter vocab; JJB neglected to spot the multiple-overlap line in row 3 and to allow enough time for the proper endgame play that was easily recognized afterward by JD (JJB's poor choosing is roughly equal to any of the other errors), and he missed chances to show off with bawbee and teiid. Known points available: JJB 43, JD 48. Overall points available: JJB 62.0, JD 256.0. |
