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#player1 Ross_Brown Ross Brown
#player2 Joshua_Sokol Joshua Sokol
>Ross_Brown: AJR H7 RAJ +20 20
#note Will I screw this game up to? Tune in later to find out!
>Joshua_Sokol: AINOOTT 7H .OTATION +60 60
>Ross_Brown: ?ADIIRS L4 DIS.RAIn +68 88
#note I don't think Ross spotted all of the options that scored more points than this. The best one is a 2x2. Nothing plays at the triple, crazily enough. He spent quite a while, understandably so. I like this play since it really does well at creating two relatively dangerous spots rather than leaving one for me to pounce on. But yeah, K5 gI(A)RDIAS is the play.
>Joshua_Sokol: EEGGLNP K10 PEG +18 78
#note There are so many plays I could make, and I could go on an on about them all. I wanted to keep a bingo-friendly leave since I couldn't really keep anything good for scoring. I missed 5H NEGL(I)GE as well as LEGGIN in the same spot. Those two options are good for future scoring. I prefer NEGLIGE because there's no need to keep the E with many many more to come, and playing one more tile slightly increases my chances of drawing a more important than usual tile, an S, and although it also allows for horrible draws, an open board like the one after NEGLIGE is perfect for that, as there are many options to dump and score with a different array of tiles. Still, I think there is a lot to be said about PEG, as I am likely enough to draw into a bingo in the coming turns, and I feel like Ross will play a bit paranoid with a slight lead, which I need, since, whatever I do, I'm at a good-sized disadvantage. I think NEGLIGE is the right play, though.
>Ross_Brown: AAGR O4 GRA.A +24 112
>Joshua_Sokol: AEGLNRT 6L .AG. +18 96
#note And now that my bingos were all blocked, I guess predicably, I was kind of stuck with the wrong stuff at the wrong time. This was something to consider, and I did, but still I felt like I should play PEG last turn. Anyhow, I flat out missed all of the 25-point options at M9, and I should have played one of them, or even M9 REGNAL! I made this move cause I was comfortable playing with a slight deficit against Ross, and wanted to minimize variance, and also cause it was the most points I saw, due to blank blindness on the N of DISTRAIN. This was a pretty significant error, though, given the other options.
>Ross_Brown: Q 5K Q. +22 134
#note Whoa! DISTRAINOR is a valid word! That seems like a great play.
>Joshua_Sokol: EFLNORT I9 OFT +17 113
#note Since this was pretty long ago I don't exactly remember what I intended to accomplish with this play. Perhaps I didn't notice the early lack of A's in the pool. which would slightly dissuade me from feeling the need to block things that would hurt, which would normally be a play under RAJ forming RAJA. I don't think QI necessarily implies a strong leave here, but it makes it a tad more likely that usual that Ross does not hold AT and therefore an A, which again, should dissuade me from playing where I played if there are other options. And other options there are! DISTRAINOR is a word! I had no idea. That looks like the right play. But not knowing that word, N6 (GO)NOF looks strong. I also considered playing N(O)LO or (O)NO at I6/I7, and I'm not sure why I decided to play OFT instead, as keeping the F is much better than usual here, due to the bingo-unfriendly nature of the board with leaves containing no S.
>Ross_Brown: EO J7 .OE +13 147
>Joshua_Sokol: ELLMNRY N6 ..LLY +19 132
>Ross_Brown: EEFNOST 11B OFTENES. +72 219
#note ooh did this burn
>Joshua_Sokol: EEIMNRS 13E ERMINES +70 202
#note I saw all of the bingos here except one important one, D6 MISEN(T)ER. There's nothing special about ERMINES or MISENTER. Both plays keep the board relatively open for my catching up to Ross. ERMINES seems to keep the board more conducive to comebacks later on in the game whereas MISENTER seems good for immediate or short-term comebacks, since has me drawing into a second bingo in a row more often than ERMINES does, which is also the case for Ross' immediate bingo potential, and also for scoring potential on both sides. I think I am more comfortable on the board after ERMINES vs after MISENTER but perhaps Ross is also less comfortable after MISENTER, in which case that would have been the play to make. In the end maybe the 2 points mattered and I should have ceded to the REINSMEN of offense here. A thoughtful turn, but obviously since I missed MISENTER I had wasted little time to play this.
>Ross_Brown: ENW H11 .W.NE +36 255
>Joshua_Sokol: ?CHOUUV B10 V.UCH +42 244
#note I considered OUTVOUCH* very quickly.
>Ross_Brown: AX A14 AX +32 287
>Joshua_Sokol: ?ENORUV D8 VER.U +24 268
#note it looks like I didn't even search for bingos here. I missed 2. Back to the initial query I posed before the game started! The answer is already a resounding "yes". At least in Scrabble there is another party that can also screw up.
>Ross_Brown: CINPR 15D PINC.R +13 300
#note The bingos I missed last turn were very easy if only I had looked for them, OVERhUN(T) and UNpROVE(N)
>Joshua_Sokol: ?EIKNOT O10 EIKONs +47 315
#note It's a good thing I chose to make the blank an S. I had no idea that EIKONE* was invalid, and perhaps Ross would have known to challenge. Quackle suggests an interesting route, by playing M1 TIKE. I am confident that I can win at this point, even if I knew that in theory the winner of this game was a toss-up. Maybe TIKE is the right play though...
>Ross_Brown: ABEL 9B AB.LE +24 324
>Joshua_Sokol: BDDIOTZ M11 DITZ +31 346
#note I was very confident at this point. I jumped on this although it gives cheap comeback plays, when F6 BIZ(E) may in fact be the right play. I don't want to keep the Z here unless I open up the board, which I'm not going to do in what I perceive to be the driver's seat. I didn't see one of the potential comeback plays Ross could have after this play though, which changes some things. There are a few key spots to score on this board that it's important to be able to hit. More on that later.
>Ross_Brown: I 14M .I. +24 348
>Joshua_Sokol: BDHIOOS 14H .OH +30 376
#note Wow, quite the draw I was hoping for. Now I am very much in the lead.
>Ross_Brown: DEY 15K DEY +26 374
#note Aha, that is what I had missed. Still OK, though.
>Joshua_Sokol: BDIOSUW F6 WID. +16 392
#note I had a good amount of time left. I took it to recount all of the plays. I noticed that DEY was misscored as 28 when it scored 26. I fixed that error. And now I had to figure out the endgame. I immediately see that Ross can go out with EMULAT(E). I have to block that possibility. And how do I do that and still win? I look at his rack, retrack a few times, and I see that he has AMULET. I don't see anything else. I see WID(E) I keep that play in my mind since it looks like it will win. I also see that if I try to slowplay it looks like his more flexible rack will overcome mine, but since WID(E) looks like it wins unless I'm missing a 6, I should be good. There must have been some evil spirit forcing me to blow games or something. I had no wins.
>Ross_Brown: AELMTU E2 ULEMA +19 393
#note Ross has a win and a tie. How did we both miss MULETA? E4 UTA ties. This is over 20 points worse than anything, but Ross gave up and he had no time left.
>Joshua_Sokol: BOSU D4 BUS +28 420
#note I was 99% sure of BOLUS and BOUSE but I played it safe.
>Ross_Brown: T 4D ..T +5 398
#note As I said, I was lucky that this time, the other party was there to protect my losses.
>Ross_Brown: (O) +2 400
#note If I played the endgame quickly and confidently, perhaps a play that lost to Ross' best endgame would still have won. I can't believe I didn't see MULETA. Something was choking me during this whole tournament.
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