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#player1 JJB John J. Bulten
#player2 EA Elspeth Abbate
>JJB: ADIKTUU 8G KUDU +18 18
#note ~2:00 [~23:00] JJB has now enjoyed winning three consecutive blowouts with over 600 spread. No dramatic opening draw shows up in the fourth game, but spot the right word and it's obvious it's indicated. Auk, audit, and exchanging are more than 9 points behind.
>EA: AENRT G6 TA.EN +11 11
#note ~2:00 [~23:00] EA wavers between taker and taken, but this is a prime opportunity for holding bingo tiles via parallelism. Top is ane 9g 18, 9.0 points ahead on partial rack; even neat 9e snags 3 extra points if EA's actual leave is so desirable.
>JJB: AEIOPRT 10A ATROPI.E +64 82
#note ~1:00 [~22:00] The only bingo is common enough (air-tone: clap hands at bazar), but there is no common mnemonic for the rack itself in his system (CLNRSX) and JJB doubts himself, only finding 3 of the 7 words that he has studied.
>EA: AFRV A7 FAV. +30 41
#note ~1:00 [~22:00] EA now shows her strength and makes the indicated play.
>JJB: ?IINNOT E7 pIN.OINT +68 150
#note ~2:00 [~20:00] Now JJB is really satisfied with his score but (incorrectly) really dissatisfied with his play choices, allowing EA another lucrative triple. His play actually scores best, tied with intronic c7, which is the only improvement because it is hookless. A plethora of bingos evade recognition because of the duplicates: he probably saw tenorini but did not consider it playable (it goes at c6), and he should have seen nitinol, munition, and ignitron. The other bingos for readers to locate are monition, nicotin twice, thionin twice, punition, and unionist.
>EA: AEEHIRS 15A HEARSE +40 81
#note ~1:00 [~21:00] EA responds with a whopper of points (contrary to JJB's guess, hearse takes no back extensions beyond its two hooks), but she knows there is no seven and says so. She too faces a 4-voweled rack that takes some hard-to-find anagram hooks (KPTV) with only one that leads to a bingo. After the game she shares the rack and JJB presently recommends hearties, which he explains he also used to have trouble finding under pressure. She sees that that would play through a T on the board (it only plays at 14a for 76, 38.1 diff over hearse) and announces that she had not been familiar enough with the word but will certainly remember it from now on!
>JJB: AAEILOQ D12 QI +46 196
#note ~0:34 [19:26] Remember, someone says three consecutive bingos is a pelican, four is an albatross, and five is a zyzzyva. JJB draws no pelican, but the strongest play by far is obvious and the leave (-13.9) might remain manageable.
>EA: ?ADGILO 11H LOADInG +68 149
#note ~0:30 [~20:30] EA is rewarded for her turnover with a wide choice of bingos, bringing the score back within striking distance. Like her opponent, she regrets leaving a triple line open when improvements are possible, but settles quickly because there is much game left and she might draw the next S herself. This rack has weird enough possibilities to be worthy of memorization (dialog: hers vents), and dialogs and dogtail play for more points, as does dialoger. Best (13 more than loading) is spotting the 4-voweled geoidal b2 81; even though it has mild triple exposure, it feels better than dialogs/kudus.
>JJB: AAELLOS 14A AAL +17 213
#note 3:32 [15:54] JJB has just picked up the S and successfully feels out the parallel with the best leave (even though he hates leaving the O, as well as spelling "lose" with his rack). Olea 10k 17 is slightly behind.
>EA: OW 14E .WO +27 176
#note ~0:35 [19:55]
>JJB: BELNOST O6 NOBLEST +89 302
#note 1:42 [14:12] JJB dawdles over finding the 7 and dawdles again over pluralizing loading, but his time is respectable enough and he is having a string of judging situations rightly in this game.
>EA: EHY 10J YEH +38 214
#note 0:46 [19:09] EA is quickly turning over middling tiles on premiums and still has good hopes despite JJB's bingo draws.
>JJB: DEGINTV N5 VIG +16 318
#note 3:36 [10:36] JJB makes his first real miscalculation, missing the extensions on hi. The top two plays are hiving 30 (11.1 diff) and hived, and edging n9 37 is worthy of mention too. The rack is really not that negative, but fighting about holding or breaking up -ing is distracting and misleading.
>EA: DEST H10 ..DEST +34 248
#note 0:27 [18:42] EA is much more alert to extensions and this pretty play lowers her deficit to only 70, pretty good after being two bingos down. JJB is about to strike back though.
>JJB: DEGNRTU B2 GRUNTED +80 398
#note 0:32 [10:04] JJB is so distracted by the 7s appearing on his rack that he does not take time to remember the anagram, trudgen, which plays in the same spot for 3 more.
>EA: IX A4 XI +36 284
#note 1:06 [17:36]
>JJB: CIJOPRY D4 PYRO +19 417
#note 3:08 [6:56] J throws JJB's calculations way off. Deceptively, its best play is only jo/go 12; jird 13 is even worse on leave. He fails to bring himself to believe the reality, that J will not play at 13g for anything (nor even double anywhere). Ironically, the best two plays are again extensions, chirpy 32 and orphic 28, and this premium should have been noted before this point in the game. While all the top leaves are negative unless the J is cast aside, pyro is a weak scorer too, rating 9.3 behind.
>EA: MW L9 W..M +24 308
#note 0:31 [17:05] EA again makes efficient work of the valuable extension.
>JJB: CIJMNUZ 13G J.U +36 453
#note 1:32 [5:24] Finally the J plays for score and the funny-looking leave is positive too; the last power tile is likely to bring JJB over 500 now. This play is 23.7 ahead of second-best, yum 5d 16, entirely on its points and J dumping.
>EA: BO M11 .OB +12 320
#note 1:52 [15:13] EA is reputed to enjoy herself more than anyone else at a tournament, and she is taking it in stride and smiling about the plays that are succeeding. Here she still has bingo hopes and misses only yob 16, which would get 4 more points for her fish.
>JJB: ACIMNRZ A1 ZA +36 489
#note 0:34 [4:50] Low on time but not swamped, JJB settles for the old standby, which does look best on a couple glances. Analysis of EA's last would allow recognition of a surprise fit: griz/mort/bi n11 38, which rates 3.2 better and improves bingo chances quite a bit.
>EA: ACELOS H1 SOLACE +29 349
#note 1:58 [13:15] EA does not have the bingo (even if she is holding celosia). Quackle would make one more try, playing off the O and one more tile; many playable 8s are available. But there's always the moral victory possible if you can play 6 and then go out in one, so she jumps at the chance to play solace 29 (rated behind oe e4 or of n13 by between 20.7 and 23.8).
>JJB: CEIMNRR 4G C.RMINE +22 511
#note 3:36 [1:14] This classic out-in-two opportunity has no real alternative to merely trying many possibilities until time runs out or the best one clicks. JJB tries a few lines but keeps returning to the obvious carmine (still not noting column N). Getting all the points on the first play of two is not usually best but it's often good enough: actual plays after carmine are optimal, so as per game score it nets 4 to JJB. However, column N should be worked out over the board. One option is micron 16 (blocking twice), fee 18, erg 12+2, net of 12. Even better is grim 24, fee 26, crone 15+2, net of 15. Grim threatens rec 15 as a backup, and crone can also net 15 points as first play because it threatens rim/re 10 as a backup. In virtually all cases (and several other interesting ones can be found that net 4 or more), EA loses too many points to block JJB's best out.
>EA: EEFI E3 FIE +26 375
#note 0:33 [12:42] EA may be more in the mood to say fie than fee, but her attitude is still as sweet as ever.
>JJB: R 5D ..R +6 517
#note 0:47 [0:27] JJB chooses between rah, yar, and yer, and opts for the newest. With this round he becomes the only undefeated player, but two tough games remain for board one today, and the other two top seeds (Ed Liebfried and Pat Krohn) are only one game behind.
>JJB: (E) +2 519
#note While EA has the highest score so far today against JJB, he also has his high game of 519, having found respectable bingos on 4 turns and made 6 consecutive plays that are full-rack optimal. True to form, neither player sacrifices many points, although EA misses one bingo and then faces a closed board when her rack is ready to yield her second one. Known points available: JJB 14, EA 20. Overall points available: JJB 38.6, EA 84.8+.
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