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#player1 Jesse_Day Jesse Day
#player2 Mark_Kenas Mark Kenas
>Jesse_Day: BDFIOST 8G FOB +16 16
>Mark_Kenas: QSU J8 SUQ +41 41
>Jesse_Day: DEEIIST 11D DEITIES +79 95
>Mark_Kenas: AAJNN 10B JNANA +39 80
>Jesse_Day: AEIORTX H11 .XORA +60 155
#note nothing too hard so far
>Mark_Kenas: GORY 12A GYRO +28 108
>Jesse_Day: EEIOPTU 14B POUTIE. +22 177
>Mark_Kenas: EINV 15A VEIN +33 141
>Jesse_Day: DEEEMNO 9G EME. +23 200
#note proud of this play, which starts cutting down on his options and will hopefully force him to sacrifice points to open
>Mark_Kenas: HIRU 13G H.URI +22 163
#note very interested to learn after the game from Mark that he had the blank at this point, but was completely uninterested in opening the board because of how many good chances there were at 9s given the board! Besides the N on the C column he also has an NE to work with, an OM (for DOM bingos) and even the FE for LIFE bingos. It was pretty cool because it never occurred to me as something to worry about, but indeed there are 13 -DOM 9s, 11 -FE 9s and 18 9s ending in -BE, not to mention 329 (!) 9s ending in NE . Anyone who comes up with both of the 10s ending in -ADO without cheating will get a cookie at the next tournament that I go to. The closest I could get was BASTINADO.
>Jesse_Day: DENNOOZ E5 ENDZO.. +34 234
>Jesse_Day: DENNOOZ -- -34 200
#note Cranky that he didn't give me a W to play through, but happy to find another great play here that allows me to score and doesn't throw the board wide open to him. Only one problem...it's phony! British to be precise. I think that if Mark didn't play 'pods he would've had a much harder time challenging this one off, because it is indeed good in collins (wish I'd been wearing my t-shirt), and he very likely learned it as part of his sowpods bingo lists. It only took him about 5 seconds to challenge off, when it had never occurred to me that it might not be good (though if I'd thought about it I would've had my doubts). ENDZONE is clearly the best play if good, but beyond that quackle's favorite is pretty curious - NO at 7H, which it prefers to scoring and opening. Interestingly, playing a phony here actually doesn't sim that badly because of how closed the board is.
>Mark_Kenas: RUW 15G W.UR +16 179
>Jesse_Day: DENNOOZ 12K OOZED +36 236
#note as before, quackle likes NO at 7H to avoid having to open, but among the plays that do open it agrees with me about OOZED. I prefered that to OZONE just to avoid having to hang an E in the triple lane. NO is probably even better than the sim indicates given that he effectively just had a free turn to dump his worst tiles. Wish I'd thought of it.
>Mark_Kenas: ?ADMOPT N6 TAMPOn.D +66 245
#note Mark said he hisitated between this and MATZO, but didn't like where DP? was going.
>Jesse_Day: CEIKNNO O4 KOINE +58 294
#note fortunately he missed the D and I got a huge response in to his bingo.
>Mark_Kenas: IT M12 .IT +30 275
#note uhoh
>Jesse_Day: CGGHNNR -GGHNR +0 294
#note bad timing to have such an unfortunate draw. The C looked to me like a must-keep here with the potential of playing unti the K, but what else? I chose the R because of how few there were available, but quackle likes keeping the H, which makes lots of sense - if the spot at the bottom right stays open then by drawing an I and one other tile I draw a really big play, and otherwise I get to score at the top right by playing into the K. But most importantly, the CH synergy is just really powerful. I wish this had become more apparent at the time.
>Mark_Kenas: ACW 4L WAC. +26 301
>Jesse_Day: AACDERR 5H CARDER +25 319
#note well, shoot. If I'd made the right exchange I would've had CHARADE! That's disappointing, not that I could've known. CARDER is basically an attempt to draw any of the really important tiles out of the bag, but keeping the last R is definitely called for, so something like RACED or ACRED is better. But the best play is really cool - RAW at L2! The only unseen tile that goes in front is the B, and I hold both the C and the D as well as a great leave. It's not a 100% proposition, but with the threat of hooking the I at the bottom RAW would've provided a nice gambit. CARDER isn't too bad, but RAW would've been great.
>Mark_Kenas: ?EFIILS 15L FILE +46 347
>Jesse_Day: AEILLNT H1 LILA. +24 343
#note the situation didn't look too good, so I made my play with the thought of keeping a good enough leave that with a good draw, just maybe I could overcome him having the blank, or pull a bingo out of the pool, which looked decent. LILAC does that by forking the board nicely, and the timing is such that if he does bingo I will get to bingo out. Quackle likes plays like INLACE and LINTEL better, though, which I don't necessarily get. They both have the advantage of playing through more tiles to give a better shot of drawing the blank, but LINTEL looks best because it takes all the remaining scoring spots on the board - he scores 20 points per turn less after LINTEL than LILAC! I think LILAC and INLACE both put me in positions where I have to bingo, but LINTEL is more likely to keep me in close games.
>Mark_Kenas: ?AEGNST 1H .ANGuETS +74 421
>Jesse_Day: ABEGLNT 3K BAT +22 365
#note Completely out of time to play the endgame. What I should do is pretty straightforward: NAG at the same spot threatens two outs, BLITE and BLATE, which forces him to play SLY to block and then sticks him with the V. From there on out it's a matter of maximizing the stick - I think the endgame solver botches it, and just dropping the B is better than BE. Actually, I recommend trying to figure out the sequence of plays that should follow. It's not that easy, and it's good practice.
>Mark_Kenas: HSVY 4G H.Y +14 435
#note for the curious, the correct sequence of plays after NAG would've been - he plays SLY, I play BAN, he plays the H for 10 at 4G and passes for the rest of his moves. Here on out I play the E at 4I for 12, setting up the T for 7 (THAE) and then play off the L for 3. As it turns out this is one point better for him than if he drops the H somewhere innocuous, say at O14, because after that the sequence is dropping the E at 14L, then dropping the L at 14K, and then playing the T out for 5 at H7. You can do it yourself if you don't trust my math.
>Jesse_Day: EGLN 7K GLE.. +7 372
#note no time
>Mark_Kenas: SV 2G V.S +8 443
>Mark_Kenas: (N) +2 445
#note I think I enjoyed this game about as much as any at nationals. Mark was a fun opponent, and the progression of the game ended up being very interesting, with a lot of strategy going into the moves as opposed to just play-finding. I would've liked to have been able to pull this one out, but it was nonetheless a pretty fun encounter.
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