| Player 1 |
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#player1 Carl Carl
#player2 Joey_M Joey M
>Carl: ABEGINU 8F BEAU +12 12
#note Tough rack here. Several options sim very close together, including Exch. U and BUG 8G. My placement of BEAU sims about a point behind. (-1)
>Joey_M: AEIOTTV J6 VITAE +25 25
>Carl: GINPSTU I8 .P +14 26
#note It's worth it to dump the U here with PUB. (-4)
>Joey_M: DOORTWX 9F OX +38 63
>Carl: GINSSTU E9 GUT +19 45
#note These tiles seemed nightmarish during the game, and they still seem that way. Looks like GUN E9 is a little better. (-1)
>Joey_M: ADORTTW 10D W.D +21 84
#note I really felt the removal of ABO* here.
>Carl: IILNOSS D10 .IN +14 59
#note Here I played WIN, keeping LOSS. The sim winner here is ILEX G6, which I saw, but I hated opening a big spot for Joey at this score; he'll just close the board down again. I suppose it forks the board-- he can't deal with both row 5 and Row 12. (-10)
>Joey_M: ACLORTT 13C TORC +19 103
>Carl: EILMOSS K10 MILO +16 75
#note Sim-winner here is LEX G7 or OS G12. Of the plays at K10, the shorter ones like MO and MOI do better. (-3)
>Joey_M: AILNOOT 7G LAT.NO +27 130
#note I thought about LOTI L9 to continue driving him crazy, but I opted for points and turnover with both blanks unseen.
>Carl: DEINRSS L4 IND.RSES +77 152
#note This is the first play I haven't gotten wrong. But if the prior mistakes made you cringe, please don't look at the endgame.
>Joey_M: ?AIORUV K3 VAU +18 148
#note I'd really be in the driver's seat had he not blocked SAVIOUR.
>Carl: DEGHORR M2 GOR +11 163
#note I wasn't too keen on forming TORCH with both Ys unseen, and Quackle almost agrees. RHO G12 wins the sim, with GOR a few points back. (-2.5)
>Joey_M: ?IKORUZ 13J Z.UK +34 182
>Carl: BDEFHMR 6E DEF +23 186
#note Again, as juicy as the TORCH spot is, it's also perilous. DEF wins the sim here.
>Joey_M: ?EIOPRT N8 ROPIEsT +95 277
>Carl: BEHLMRY O4 RHYME +48 234
#note Ugh, and now I draw the Y but have to burn both H and Y here. What a horrible game!
>Joey_M: AEIIISY F12 I.Y +16 293
>Carl: ABEEEHL G13 HAE +29 263
>Joey_M: AEIIISS 14J AS +24 317
>Carl: BEEFLTW N3 FEEB +43 306
>Joey_M: ?AEIIIS C11 AI. +8 325
#note Funny that this scored that amount.
>Carl: ACDJLTW 5D JAW +37 343
#note And just like that, I've come back from the dead.
>Joey_M: ?EGIIOS 15G .GIS +27 352
>Carl: ACDELNT E5 ..D +5 348
#note And this, ultimately, was my weakness this year. My word knowledge was worse than it was in 2019, but I had made up a lot of ground. One area where I was especially rusty was in finding plays over the board. I simply don't play live games that often, and my board vision is full of holes. Here I fail to notice that there is actually a second spot for QIs at 14A. It's only a few turns later, when Joey plays it, that I realize that the spot exists. You can see this same blindness in my game against Joey Krafchick in Phoenix, where I missed my winning outplay of YO, forming (RAT)O. The correct play here is apparently something like CAN 4E, hoping Joey drew the Q, or the blank is in the bag. (-13)
>Joey_M: ?EIOOQR 12M O. +8 360
>Carl: ACELNNT 11N .N +2 350
#note O14 AN; better to empty the bag and hope to draw the blank. (-14) If I'm going to play one tile, THAE G12 is better. That being said, given the number of duplicate Ns I drew at this event, I had every reason to think I'd have 3 of them after THAE.
>Joey_M: ?EILOQR O4 .....R +16 376
>Carl: ACELNNT D7 EL +6 356
#note Isn't that cute? I still think he's Q-stuck and I'm going to win. (-7)
>Joey_M: ?EEILOQ 14A QIs +25 401
>Carl: ACNNT D3 TA. +20 376
#note Apparently the sequence beginning with IT 12F nets me 10 more points. (-10)
>Joey_M: EELO M12 ..E +9 410
>Carl: CNN B14 .N +2 378
>Joey_M: ELO C6 OLE +11 421
#note I'm supposed to slow play, but decided to get it over with. I can even block his only remaining N spot.
>Joey_M: (CN) +8 429 |
