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#player1 Jim_Burlant Jim Burlant
#player2 Sidduth_Murali Sidduth Murali
>Jim_Burlant: EEGIPRT 8G PEG +12 12
>Sidduth_Murali: ?ADEENV 9B rAVENED +70 70
#note He told me post-mortem he saw AVENgED. I'm guessing he didn't like the vowel placement with that choice, so he put this down instead. I sure wish he'd put down AVENGED.
>Jim_Burlant: EEIIRTT D8 E.ITE +18 30
#note If only he'd floated the N... It took a while to find this because I had a mental block about unloading both my E's. That said, I don't have much choice. Q agrees - this is best. F9 NITE for 6 is also a strong choice in the duck's eyes.
>Sidduth_Murali: ADRY 8A RAY.D +36 106
>Jim_Burlant: IJLMORT H4 JOLT.. +22 52
#note Or JILTED. The sim says either is as good as the other. 19.2% to win...and that's about to fade fast.
>Sidduth_Murali: AIMRSTU J2 ATRIUMS +70 176
>Jim_Burlant: EEIMNOR 1F MERINO +34 86
#note The only 8's I could see in this rack were EMERSION, DOMINEER, and VOMERINE/OVERMINE, at which point I gave up. Good thing I did, as those are the only 8's in this rack. This is a very strong play. That said, MONIE 1H is slightly better, as it scores identically and leaves ER instead of E, and doesn't give back high-scoring 5's ending in Y. MONIE wins 7.9%, and this wins 6.8 and sims 4-1/2 ponits down. For this game, this turned out to be no more than a minor slip.
>Sidduth_Murali: BGOO 2C GOBO +15 191
>Jim_Burlant: AEHISTU C1 U.H +14 100
#note I saw 4H JURAT, but then I noticed that N is the most probable consonant in the pool and there were two good S hooks...so I figured I'd fish for a SATINE rack. Why this instead of UH 10F for 19? I wanted to keep the row 11 2x2 open and I didn't think of a whole lot that he could put down that would punish me at 1A. This is a strong choice, but JURAT is best in the sim's eyes. JURAT wins 8.8%; this wins 8 and sims 4 pts down. Given my next draw, i'm glad I didn't put down JURAT.
>Sidduth_Murali: BCL 1A CL.B +40 231
#note Payback for our first game, no doubt. Ouch!
>Jim_Burlant: AAEIQST 11B QA.S +26 126
#note Better may have been 7F QAT for 19; I never saw it. 7F QAT wins 3.3%; this wins 2.2 and sims 11 points down. That said, this worked out and, again, I came out ahead because of this mistake.
>Sidduth_Murali: AEKNW 6C KNAWE. +21 252
>Jim_Burlant: AEINRST L1 STAINER +76 202
#note Me: "The studying pays off." Chose this because (a) I needed volatility and (b) this outscored everything else. This also opens up another line so he can't just shut the board down. Q agrees with me - this choice is best. Back up to 10.5%. Woo hoo.
>Sidduth_Murali: HO 5E HO +25 277
>Jim_Burlant: EFINORZ 12A FIN. +24 226
#note I saw the obvious ZINE and felt, correctly or not, that it would give back too many easy points and I'd wind up getting nowhere. This was intended as a setup; hopefully he couldn't do much with the F and I could draw into FRIZ. Probably a bit of wishful thinking, but that was my thought process. Also - I thought an I for FRIZ was more likely than an A for ZARF, which was also a factor in my play selection. Q says this is my bronze medalist and that I should just man up and play ZINE. This only sacrifices 1-1/2% winning chances and only sims 4 points down.
>Sidduth_Murali: CEGLLNO A12 .LOG +24 301
#note Actual rack. Had I played ZINE, he'd have come back with ZONE.
>Jim_Burlant: AEEFORZ M6 FEAZE +36 262
#note I saw this, saw the open board and 36 points and didn't look much further. I (of course) realize this is extremely volatile, but I'm trailing by 75 points and I'm most likely going to need a bingo and an intermediate play in the neighborhood of 50 points. I need to create opportunities and hope I get lucky. If he hammers me? It's spread in a no-hope game to begin with. As for Quackle - the sim and championship player diverge. Championship Player agrees with this and says it's best. 14A OOZE gets high marks, and I can see why: it leaves me a balanced AEFR and sets me up for a high-scoring 15D play on the next turn. The sim *loves* M3 AFORE and thinks this is the bronze medalist. I'm biased here, but I agree more with Championship Player's assessment. While AFORE scores 34 and keeps the Z, the Z won't be worth a whole lot on this board. If I had this turn to do over it'd be a tossup between this and OOZE. 11.6% to win.
>Sidduth_Murali: CDEILNT 11I CITED +35 336
#note Actual rack. The play he couldn't find here was LINTED 11H. The vowel placement issues he had with this turn really cost him.
>Jim_Burlant: IIOPRVX 10J XI +52 314
#note If he had found LINTED, I'd be playing EX for 25 and the game would be more or less over. Instead I'm clawing my way back in. This is obviously best, but still bleak. Still only 9% to win.
>Sidduth_Murali: ALNSUUY N1 YULANS +30 366
#note Actual rack.
>Jim_Burlant: ?IOOPRV O1 OP +31 345
#note I spent way too much time trying to figure out a way to fish so that I could create a situation where two lines were open and he couldn't block both. I also briefly considered a V fish (V(OW) F4) but didn't see how I was going to get anywhere keeping IOOPR?, so at that point I gave up on the position and threw in the towel with this. The shame of it was that the V fish was the right play. Why? I'll answer that in a second.
>Sidduth_Murali: AEIRTUW 14A .UTWEAR +24 390
>Jim_Burlant: ?DIORV 4D VaR +21 366
#note Had I fished the V, my rack would now be DIOOPR?, which yields sPOROID and PaRODOI as potential 7's. (GROUPOID is also possible with the D or U, but I'd have never found that.) Since I drew the D, the onus would have been on him to make the correct play; if he made a mistake, I would have bingoed out and escaped with the win. In this hypothetical, correct play on Sid's end (ANTAE/ANEW C11, OUTER 14A, to name a few examples) makes it impossible for me to win. But what I did incorrectly on the previous turn was to not force him to make the right play. Maybe he would have found it, maybe he wouldn't have.
>Sidduth_Murali: I 3L .I. +6 396
>Sidduth_Murali: (DIO) +8 404
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