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#character-encoding UTF-8
#player1 JJB John J. Bulten
#player2 MG Mark Garrod
>JJB: AEGJLNS 8D JANGLES +96 96
#note 0:21 [24:39] JJB draws B to MG's E and takes the top tiles after both have shuffled. What a draw; but he knows that getting off to a giant early start can be deceptive.
>MG: DGO 7I DOG +14 14
#note 3:56 [21:04] (god 9c 19 +5) Good balance.
>JJB: ?ELOORU G3 pROLO.UE +60 156
#note 0:55 [23:44] So far, opening with two bingos is the same as JJB's previous game, which he won 532-389.
>MG: ?ACEKQS 4A QuACKE.S +116 130
#note 1:24 [19:40] MG's find fits so well that it seems there can be no question about it, though JJB still writes the score faintly to indicate some doubt. If JJB holds the play though, he does so only momentarily; but it's phony as the day is long. A colloquial variant of crackers meaning insane, this phony has some attestation behind it and not a simple route to prove its invalidity; it's way ahead of squeak/dogs 62 and ka/kos/ag 36 and sacque/es 59, and has little risk.
>JJB: EIIOOPR F10 POORI +25 181
#note 2:45 [20:59] (challenge +116) But a phony bamdinger* is still 100 points of opportunity cost. If JJB is so intent on not challenging he could at least improve his leave with poise 24.
>MG: EFO H1 FOE. +22 152
#note 3:07 [16:33] MG can use the triple to advantage.
>JJB: ADEHIPX C3 H.PAX +50 231
#note 0:21 [20:38] JJB has the happy choice between hapax 50 and hexapod 48 (though he doesn't spot hexapod/prologued 50). Hapax has the slight synergy edge.
>MG: ETV 9I VET +24 176
#note 2:19 [14:14] MG holds hapax briefly but decides to recognize it and finds a good parallel.
>JJB: CDEIRSW 12D CR.WDIES +82 313
#note 0:25 [20:13] And a third bingo arises from the C lists. JJB gets his greatest lead at 137.
>MG: ABM - +0 176
#note 2:00 [12:14] (bam b6 32 +32.1) MG has had enough and insists on challenging a word JJB has studied recently. This helps neither of them ultimately.
>JJB: EEIIILU 1H .ILI +7 320
>JJB: EEIIILU -- -7 313
#note 4:42 [15:31] (exchange EIIIU 0 +33.8) JJB decides to play cheaply given his opponent's challenge; but he should play really cheaply and trade to EL +2.2 instead. The vagaries of board and rack convince him that Fili*, a dwarf from The Hobbit, should have a place on the board. Of course it's hili and pili instead (hilus and pilus; pili also takes S).
>MG: ABM B6 BAM +32 208
#note 1:58 [10:16] Laddering will prove useful on this board for both players.
>JJB: EEIIILU 13J LIEU +12 325
#note 1:34 [13:57] (lei a7 31 +8.5) The rack is as dismal as before, but JJB should now claim 31 with the opening for lei or leu. Instead he wants to ditch another vowel, but the loss of 19 is a lot more than the rack value retained.
>MG: BEW A7 WEB +49 257
#note 0:32 [9:44] MG has the stronger tiles for this spot anyway, starting to pick up lost ground.
>JJB: AEIIIRT E2 TI.I +16 341
#note 0:42 [13:15] (tidier h10 26 +2.5) JJB draws another tripled I and manages well enough, though tidier/pet 26 would be a nice find.
>MG: EIINSTU L2 UNITIES +72 329
#note 1:57 [7:47] MG has a surplus of vowels too, but knows how to handle them, reducing his deficit to 12.
>JJB: AAEINOR K2 NAOI +18 359
#note 1:27 [11:48] JJB is helpless and can do little better than parallel and trust for a bingo; but there is no S or blank left and slots wear thin.
>MG: GHMNRY 14B RHYM.NG +32 361
#note 2:06 [5:41] A powerful play clears MG's rack and adds much specificity to remaining bingo lines.
>JJB: AEENRTU 13E U.EA +22 381
#note 2:53 [8:55] (urare 13c 42 +14.6) A little more visualization work would reveal that urare fits in this spot with four overlaps for 41, almost 15 ahead of second place.
>MG: AE H11 A...E +21 382
#note 2:08 [3:33] And MG can keep even using just vowels.
>JJB: ENRRTTZ 15G T.RN +11 392
#note 6:03 [2:52] Now JJB needs to shift to endgame analysis. Though he finds the best static value and leaves one in the bag, this is not enough: it's time to make a cheap opening directed to his E, namely ant 3k 6 or run m12 3, which win almost 70% of simulations. Run 3 also allows him the chance of cashing out with zero, zeta, or tiz, while ant yells out nertz/ante for a windfall. Playing off this synergy value with tern or terne wins only 55%: not doing him a good tern.
>MG: FOY 9C FOY +27 409
#note 0:59 [2:34] MG shows how to put on point pressure with his counters, threatening a simple V play. To JJB's consternation, this play also has one of the great benefits of the ladder: if opponent uses it, one can always keep using it on the next rung!
>JJB: DDENRTZ 10B NET +20 412
#note 2:07.6 [0:44.4] (do 11e 20, vat 10b 29, zander 3j 32, lira o1 15+4 +13) And now JJB suddenly sits on an unwinnable endgame: after a ladder! His top static play of zander, and alternatives dander, tanned, ranted, doited, tanner, all fall to MG's happy retention of either travail or datival to the triple. MG can also divide his tiles into vat/fa/joy (alternate is the sneaky avoset/ait) and sail (alternate lanai), so he is virtually unstoppable. JJB can do no better than to do: do/drum 20, using up a tempo to allow vat, which then lets him log zander 32 and get a net of 4, losing by only 13 points. Opponent will not block zander with lanai because the reply is dizen. But not seeing any premium for his Z at all, JJB decides to block the power play of vat, which only serves to reduce its value as it fits onto the next rung.
>MG: AAILTV 11A VAT +14 423
#note ~1:44 [~0:50] (avoset j5 22, fez c9 15, sial 8l 12+10 +11) MG's omission of avoset instead of the easy vat 14 sets his win spread back from 26 to 15.
>JJB: DDRZ 5J D..Z +14 426
#note 0:08.9 [0:35.5] Now the best play is clear, but not at all pleasant.
>MG: AIL 8L .AIL +12 435
#note ~0:07.1 [0:42.9] MG has come back from 137 behind to win by 15, a cool feat for the Three Rivers.
>MG: (DR) +6 441
#note It's clear that MG's one-time-only use of quackers* was enough to sustain him through the rough spots even as he decided to challenge a valid bingo later. But by keeping the pressure on with consistent strong play as opponent phonied and faced repeated vowel weights he was able to regain 152 points of spread. JJB also missed sneaky plays of urare, do/drum, and zander, and any small plays are theoretically enough to make the difference even if one decides to be gracious about giving one's opponent 116 points for a phony. Known points available: MG 16, JJB 129. Overall points available: MG 48.1+, JJB 188.4.
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