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#character-encoding UTF-8
#player1 MN Mara Nelson
#player2 JJB John J. Bulten
>MN: Q -Q +0 0
#note ~0:50 [~24:10] MN, a relative newcomer, has reached fourth place with 2-2 and plays JJB (third) in the king of the hill round. Nancy Bowen 3-0 and Mark Owens vie for first, and if Mark wins his game then the winner of the present game will need a ton of spread to catch second place and a prize. MN draws first but sees some bingo tiles and some worth exchanging.
>JJB: CHNNPVW -CHNNPVW +0 0
#note ~0:10 [~24:50] (exchange NNPVW 0 +5.6) JJB instantly sees nothing worth keeping and trades all as soon as he knows MN's choice; two zeros is no problem for him. Quackle would keep CH.
>MN: ?ADERST 8D DiASTER +68 68
#note ~2:05 [22:05] (addrest 8d 66 +2.1) Quackle finds addrest 8d 66 to be higher value than the 68-point plays. MN opts for a safe list word, but disrate (among many other commoner words) would not line up the vowel so easily.
>JJB: AAAADER 9H AREA +12 12
#note ~2:07 [22:43] (exchange AAA 0 +4.6) Faced with a quadruple in a cold draw, Quackle would throw back three. JJB wants the 12 points, but typically a trade is indicated if the best play doesn't do much better than 10-15. He also likes the look of "di(s)aster area".
>MN: DQU F6 QU.D +34 102
#note 0:53 [21:12] Easy path to the first hundred.
>JJB: AADLOTW 10H WAD +28 40
#note 2:15 [20:28] (woad 10g 26 +.6) Best slot. If JJB had more animus toward the O he could play it off for two less and have a safer leave. Instead he's trying to fit 9s on this board.
>MN: ABE D5 BEA. +7 109
#note 1:45 [19:37] (bared j6 14 +7.3; beau 7c 13 +6) Now MN is following a simplified rack-balancing method in search of the next bingo. The first thing to keep in mind is searching premiums, such as the extension ba/red for 14. The second thing to keep in mind is searching for parallels, such as beau/ed/ai for 13. When those board vision steps are better mastered, one can move on to questioning whether another leave would be better.
>JJB: AFLOPTT L8 FLATTOP +87 127
#note 0:28 [20:00] JJB is very doubtful of the natural bingo on his rack, but it plays in exactly one place and he needs the points, so it's going down to seize the lead.
>MN: EE 14L .EE +10 119
#note 1:39 [17:58] MN doesn't like either word but lets them go and dismisses doubled vowels instead with a broadly opening play.
>JJB: CDLORVW O12 WORD +42 169
#note 1:26 [18:34] (wold o12 42 +1.8) JJB misses another round of the L-versus-R debate when he could play wold instead. Otherwise he was ready for MN's opening.
>MN: EY M12 EY. +24 143
#note 3:05 [14:53] MN is keeping up by finding the premium this time, but still is not seeing plays with more turnover.
>JJB: BCIKLUV 8L .UCK +39 208
#note 0:35 [17:59] JJB prefaces his play by warning, "Sometimes you just need to make the best play." MN nods in understanding upon seeing the play; and it is, in fact, 10 ahead of everything else. Kubie, krubi, and kufi, and kevil and vakil don't go down. This may be the first time JJB has played this word in a tournament.
>MN: AJ 6B JA. +26 169
>MN: AJ -- -26 143
#note 3:08 [11:45] (joy 13k 13 +14.2) MN has no clear premium for the J and is convinced that Jae* should be a word, but this is wishful thinking directed by the board and rack. Joy 13 and jab 12 top the list for these tiles.
>JJB: ABEILOV N6 VO.AB +26 234
#note 0:25 [17:34] (via 7i 26 +1.5) JJB challenges after 3 seconds and then shows off his own vocab with a closing play. Better leave: via/vera/ired, also 26.
>MN: AJ 13K J.. +13 156
#note 0:39 [11:06] MN finds the J play the second time, albeit the unknown tiles are likely to have better plays as well.
>JJB: EGIILNR E4 LI +12 246
#note 3:35 [13:59] (qi 6f 11 +1.3; li g5 13 +1) The board is now so closed that lingier and its many ana-hooks will not go down anywhere. Top fishes are all close together; qi 11 probably gives the best opening. Beadle is a noun and has no gerund!
>MN: AGIP G5 GIP. +28 184
#note 0:50 [10:16] MN works out a good parallel play and clears the rack well. Huzzah! If the tiles do not spell parings, tapings, pignora, graplin(s), or asp(era)ting, this is one of the best plays.
>JJB: EGIINRV 5G .IVING +22 268
#note 1:06 [12:53] (vie 7i 26 +11.8) JJB holds reiving (spell it right, because riever is a word but not a hook); it plays through a few consonants, but it still doesn't go and vie is once again the best play via overlap. JJB has had enough of -ing and slots it for 22 in hopes of the blank that MN has probably already snapped up; JJB's relatively weak leave is ER +3.9. (Does giving take an S?)
>MN: Z 7C Z. +21 205
#note 3:49 [6:37] MN has no bingo and goes for the simple score. It's possible ghazi 78 may be on this rack, given a blank; other scorers here are column J (tiz 32, ziti 33) and column L.
>JJB: EILOORU 11J OU. +11 279
#note 1:18 [11:35] JJB drew poorly and finds the best static value, but he is not proof against a bingo and is opening a new line.
>MN: ?AHINRT 12D THeRIAN +76 281
#note 2:23 [4:14] MN did not have a bingo before, but JJB opened up the necessary line with a usable hook and now there is another list word that MN knows well (therian, a mammal; inearth, hairnet). The lead changes hands again.
>JJB: EEILMOR H1 ELEM. +30 309
#note 0:32 [11:03] (emo 11e 25 +5.8) JJB pauses to count after 2 seconds, but the lead is confirmed and JJB is stuck reading Moliere*. There may be more immediate value in playing parallel, giving a leer 11c to the therian; oriel 13b, moire 13c, and oil 13d are also a few simulation points ahead of elemi, which is right at 50% win odds.
>MN: ENO 11E ONE +19 300
#note 1:53 [2:21] As time runs low, MN seizes the parallel to keep up.
>JJB: AILNORS 1E ALI.NORS +59 368
#note 1:10 [9:53] JJB has drawn a list bingo too, but it's under 60 and he will need to play the endgame just right too.
>MN: EX 2H .EX +53 353
#note 0:36 [1:45] Easy choice. Either of JJB's bingos would have yielded this. MN is only 15 behind with two Ss still in the running.
>JJB: EEHISTY 15H YETIS +41 409
#note 4:34 [5:19] JJB can finally use row 15 and gives it all he's got (better leave than tyees); he debates, but correctly remembers that hyte is an adjective that takes no S, and best not play a phony against MN.
>MN: FOO 6J FOO +32 385
#note 0:23 [1:22] Another good parallel that also comments on one's thoughts about having no bingo: foo/if/no/go. Win odds rate around 3%, compared to 11% for if/flex (and the disparity is greater given JJB's actual rack), because flex allows the possibility of a bingo threat still (like sunroom or monuron), and striking distance is still available.
>JJB: CEGHIIT 2B ITCH +23 432
#note 4:50 [0:29] (etic 4l 26, sum 3l 23, ghi 2d 18+6 +2) JJB has another capitalized word that doesn't play, Gitchie*. He spots a very able out in two in the time allotted. Only one combo scores better, namely etic/ego followed by ghi/ah/li (backup ghi/ti).
>MN: MNNRSU M2 RUNS +20 405
#note 1:12 [0:10] (muns 10b 18, gie a2 16+4 +2) MN takes one last risk pluralizing giving to get 2 extra points (but giving up more rack points to opponent). Better would be to play off the M, e.g. muns/beads 18. Muns/givings* is even better but is the phony worth the risk?
>JJB: EGI 13B GIE +10 442
#note 0:11 [0:18] (challenge, gie a2 16+16 +34) JJB not only misses the opportunity to challenge, as this play has taken him in completely, but he also neglects his own hooks: g/itch. Since he is unlikely to take second place with a game spread under 100, points don't matter, and "safety" is advisable; but he could have added 34 to his record on this turn.
>JJB: (MN) +8 450
#note MN does well to clock a 400 loss in this crowd, getting both blanks for solid bingos and using three power tiles; the big issues were phonies and reliance on low-scoring fishes. JJB had to fight to stay in, but found two natural bingos and didn't miss much besides not worrying about the endgame and some suboptimal overlap situations. MN might write down racks each turn to improve analysis and spot hidden opportunities. The early-bird win goes to Nancy Bowen, in her own home, who lost to Mark Owens but retained enough spread to give him second and JJB third. Known points available: MN 8, JJB 37. Overall points available: MN 25.6+, JJB 69.0.
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