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#player1 insidious insidious
#player2 axcertypo axcertypo
>insidious: FIOORRV 8F ROOF +14 14
#note Blitz game on ISC (3 + 1 minute with a ten point penalty per side) against Sid. I will rank these plays by best static play because blitz is much more of an aggressive variant of Scrabble where board vision is very important. The best way to win a blitz game is by exploiting your opponent, for example playing extremely quickly and giving him/her no time to think, playing a phony here and there and hoping he/she will not notice, or playing plausible words that may or may not be good, since your opponent has almost no time to debate challenging.
This is the top static play! 2:48 left, so this took 12 seconds for Sid.
>axcertypo: EGIINUU I8 .EUING +13 13
#note This scored and only kept two vowels, without giving up huge scoring spots, so I jumped on it. But exchanging IUU is the top static play. I probably should have played that in hindsight. I played this in 4 seconds. 2:56
>insidious: EGIIORV F4 VIGO. +13 27
#note -7.4 to 12D OVERI(N)G, which is 24 points.
2:30
>axcertypo: DHIKNOU G7 H.OK +25 38
#note -0.5 to 12H U(N)KIND. I missed that and didn't find anything that got rid of the U, which is a very good idea in blitz. 12I (N)UDNIK was also a miss. I took too long here, but also not long enough to see my options. 2:32.
>insidious: ABEEIRW H13 AWE +21 48
#note 4D WI(V)E is the top static play by 2.5 points, but even in blitz it's way too aggressive. 4D WA(V)IER or 4C WAI(V)ER have higher valuations than this. 2:24
>axcertypo: ADILNSU 12I .U +2 40
#note So it's important to note that it's even more difficult to determine what the best play is in blitz in contrast with regular Scrabble, due to time being very important, but in some instances, such as these, there is a glaring error. I missed INDUSIAL through the I in VIGOR here. Other plays scored here too, and this fish isn't that strong. All of this, coupled with me having 42 seconds of my remaining time to make a play, makes this close to an 100-point mistake in blitz. 1:50.
>insidious: BEIRRST 12I ..B +5 53
#note Interesting refish*. I imagine Sid didn't think I had an S here, which I did. 10G (K)R(U)BI and 5E B(I)TSIER are better static plays, as are a few others. 2:09
>axcertypo: AADILNS G7 ....A +12 52
#note Another bad miss, 5E S(I)ALIDAN. -54.4 on the static equity scale, and leaving that S hook untouched is a bad idea. 1:44, already time pressure is bad.
>insidious: EILRRST 13G R.. +5 58
#note top static play. 1:59
>axcertypo: ADILLNS L8 DILLS +28 80
#note L8 DIALS is .2 better than this on static. I imagined he had hit a bingo here so I needed to prevent him from scoring a lot. I still wasn't happy with it. 1:41
>insidious: EILRSTT J2 TILTERS +69 127
#note 5D SL(I)TTIER. 1:47
>axcertypo: AAEEFIN 8L .EAF +24 104
#note top static play. 1:27
>insidious: ?AEILRU O8 .ILAtURE +80 207
#note I deserved this. (F)RAULEIn and (F)AILUREs are 83. 1:40
>axcertypo: ADEINOY 4D EN.OY +30 134
#note 14J YONDE(R) and 11K A(L)IY(A) have better valuations than this. -1.8 and 1:20
>insidious: AABCEMO M3 BECOM. +30 237
#note We both missed that R in FILATURE as a hotspot. CAMBE(R) and COMBE(R) score 36. 1:04 left, so I caught a break!
>axcertypo: ?ADEIIO K1 OIDIA +23 157
#note But I fail once again to find a high-probability bingo in little time. 2D IODInA(T)E is 62, but only 10 static points better than this. This may even be a better play, who knows? I didn't take any time to see IODInA(T)E and jumped on the fact that I now had more time than my opponent. 1:13
>insidious: AADJTUW H1 WAD. +33 270
#note Top static play. 00:56
>axcertypo: ?EEPQXY 1K .XEYE +69 226
#note Whew! Top play! 1:10
>insidious: AEJNRTU 3B JUN +22 292
#note E2 JU(N)TA is 31 and 3.8 static points better than this. That, coupled with the fact that this play took 30 seconds to make, is a largish blunder. 00:26.
>axcertypo: ?EENPQZ B3 .EEZ +40 266
#note Top static play by a good margin, and it doesn't give back free points. Still, I'm going to have trouble winning unless Sid messes up. 1:07
>insidious: ADEPRTV 14K PAVE. +20 312
#note Sid missed P(ROOFS) here most likely. E8 PAVED is 33, but 4J (LI)V(E) has the best valuation. I don't think that is the right play here though. 00:15
>axcertypo: ?CNPQRT 9K Q. +11 277
#note Hoping for an E here for PERCENT/PRECENT and P(ROOFS), but I failed to realize that there were none left. So I'm in trouble, since Sid will also try to block next turn. But this is the top static play nonetheless. 1:03
>insidious: ADHMRTT 15D HATT.D +14 326
#note Now we can help measure how good this play is with a sim, because Sid needs to make sure I don't bingo. This blocks a lot of P(ROOFS) bingos and bingos through the E, but words overlapping the EZ in JEEZ are still available. That being said no other spots on the board are as close to as dangerous as the two this blocks, although it still leaves the possibility of a bingo ending in C forming C(HATTED). So MATT(E)D might be an improvement here. Compared to the top static play, HAD(A)R(I)M, which is sick by the way, MATT(E)D and HATT(E)D sim around 6.5 win percentage points better. Since Q(I) seems quite fishy, I would think that reducing my bingo % the most is very important. Few plays do that as well as MATT(E)D. HATT(E)D gives me 3% more bingoing chances. Anyways, this was a good play all things considered!
Sid now has 9 regulation seconds left with an extra minute that will cost him 10 points if he goes overtime.
>axcertypo: ?CINPRT 8A RaINP..... +45 322
#note I missed a very good play here, J10 PT(U)I for 29! I couldn't find any scoring plays until I saw this, but C13 PIC/CHATTED is also good. I really didn't think this play was worth going overtime making, but I needed to see those two top static plays. They give me a good shot! But I saw this and couldn't resist the points and the possibility that it would be challenged as a perceived attempt to get free points in a time of desperation. If Sid challenges, my winning chances are very high! Up in the 80s even! So all things considered, depending on how sure I am that under pressure, Sid will challenge, this play looks right. I just need to make sure I don't go over, cause 10 points is a lot!
00:42
>insidious: AIMORSS - +0 326
#note He challenged!
>axcertypo: CGNNTT 5A C.NT +9 331
#note 42 seconds should be enough to solve this endgame. He is likely to go overtime now, so I should play quickly. But it took me all of my 42 seconds to find this! I'm now on the brink of losing if I go over, and maybe even if I don't! This is the best endgame play. But I need to play it more quickly!
>insidious: AIMORSS N6 MO.S +28 354
#note -2 to a beautiful (P)AROSMI(A), which I didn't know, and Sid might not have either. He went over to play this, like I hoped! The whole time his time was running I was spamming the command line (where you can make plays, challenges, write messages using specific language) with my play. It kept saying "It is not your turn" but I had to keep doing it!
>axcertypo: GNT C7 T.NG +7 338
#note But my timer was too low, and alas, I played this with 1 full extra minute to go, and 10 full points less. I end up losing by 8 instead of winning by 2. If Sid had seen PAROSMIA after going over, and I managed to play T(I)NG in time, we would have tied!
>axcertypo: (AIRS) +8 346
#note What a crazy game this was! I almost mounted an epic comeback after playing like the fool I am.
Final scores are 344 for Siddharth and 336 for me. He had 00:27 left and I had 1:00 left.
In a tournament blitz game (John Chew has those at his tournaments), every extra second would count as a lost point (I think), and I would also have won... Too bad for me, I'm too slow :P
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