| Player 1 |
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#player1 JD JD
#player2 Josh_Sokol Josh Sokol
>JD: AAEEOQU 8D AQUAE +30 30
#note should play it at 8H to lessen score of overlaps.
>Josh_Sokol: ?ELRSUY E7 S.UaRELY +88 88
#note he had SQUARELY for 90 at the other AQUAE placement
Josh: I wasn't 100% on SQUIRELY, which is definitely better in terms of reducing the amount of possible overlaps he could have, but actually after SQUARELY, overlaps create similarly strong reoverlaps for me and block the bottom half of the board, so I'm fine with this decision. As long as he doesn't have XENIA or XENIAL...
>JD: EEOOSSU 13E .OUSE +7 37
#note Ouch, hate this type of rack. I now have almost perfect rack info. It's almost gotta be OSE.
>Josh_Sokol: AAEHKNN F5 KAH.NA +27 115
#note he was trying to block up, but KASHA is 39
Wow, I was really close to playing KAHUNE* instead. I thought those were a pair! COHUNE and KAHUNA. I wasn't sure of KA(S)HA here, which seems like the right play. I was debating this and KHAN 7G for 6 more. Given that he had just implied he had a second S, KAHUNA now seemed clearly better in that it didn't give him a hook. Blocking the R was nice too, but the E in AQUAE might have been a slight problem, despite Jesse being vowel-heavy.
>JD: ?AEIOSV 12I OVArIES +72 109
#note missed AVERSION/KAHUNAS.
>Josh_Sokol: EEGNTWY O8 WYTE. +33 148
#note I may have preferred to play N9 TWE(E)NY for 7 more here. This is better for board control, but his rack is random and TWEENY may work out better for me.
>JD: ABJPRTZ 11K ZAP +55 164
>Josh_Sokol: ADEEGNX 13L EX +44 192
#note he laid down XED/ZAX/ARE/PID*
I was super excited to put XED down at K13, realizing that it made PID* once it was on the board. Now I had to play my X, GEAN or GEED at 13K were off limits if he knows I'm keeping an X. Those are better because they get rid of the G. Needless to say he was much lower on time than I was, so perhaps giving him more information about my rack might have worked out better and he would have spent too much time thinking about my possible responses
>JD: BDIJORT 12B JIB.D +33 197
>Josh_Sokol: ADEFGLN 7H FLANGED +69 261
>JD: GOOORTU 5C GOO. +18 215
#note I can open top-left quadrant next turn hopefully.
>Josh_Sokol: AIMNOTW 14B WOM.N +36 297
#note This move was really the game-changer. Why didn't he play JOG for 22? Was he vowel-heavy? I inferred that his rack wasn't really good, but that GOOK kept as well as he could. It also allows for the top left to be reopened, so there was that. But I just didn't feel like he was more likely than average to have a bingo rack. JIBED and ZAP are clear candidate plays with so many different racks, especially unbalanced ones. So I figured he was pretty weak. That's why I went for the two-turn finisher here. WOMYN seems very crazy at first, setting up a big bingo lane for Jesse. But AEGS are the only letters that hook DON, and not only are there only 8 hooks left in the pool, but those letters don't tend to find themselves at the start of a word. As such, I'm actually only increasing his chances of a bingo by around 2% over (J)OW, (J)AW or 13A WON/WOT. I'm also only increasing his average score by around 2 points. I was most worried about the 5 I's that remained in the pool, as it seemed like he would be more likely to keep the G if he had one of the I's, for bingos down column K. Even disregarding that, WOMYN leaves me with AIT, which could go pretty wrong, but I'm ahead by a lot after my play, and I can at least play AIT at 15F next turn. So I just went ahead with it. 6J MOAT seems strong as well. It cuts his bingo chances to a minimum and scores well, leaving me with WIN(Y) 14B for next turn. But Jesse is a grandmaster. He can continue to score while remaining within striking distance, and he can easily fork the board to his advantage or make probabilistic setups that I will struggle to block. MOAT is not foolproof. Still, I might have done that if I had to choose again. I chose the outrunning route.
>JD: ENORTUV C3 VU. +14 229
#note I ain't gonna block my lane for him by playing ERUV!
>Josh_Sokol: AIIIIOT 15F AIT +14 311
#note his rack was apparently trash
Josh: Wow, his rack must suck! But it really seemed to me there was a good chance he was aiming for the bottom row here, leaving it open on purpose, and so post-gutsy paranoia settled in and forced me to make a suboptimal play. Who knows, maybe I was right to play this. IIIO was so awful to draw, but I sort of saw it coming. L4 ATI(G)I is the more balanced option, but should I really get rid of my only hook to DON? Should I exchange? Probably exchange and keep A. Where is Bnjy's wolf meme when you need it?
>JD: ENNORRT 4A NO.N +14 243
#note I'm down a lot and need a big threat so he doesn't close off the right side permanently. I saw TZAR at K10 but row 3 is not a significant enough threat right now.
>Josh_Sokol: AII A3 I.IA +4 315
#note what a draw! I get overly concerned with dumping more I's here I think. I should just score with (N)ORIA, which I also considered. I wanted to keep the O for the 15A spot. Jesse didn't fail to show me the two CSW-only 3x3 INIA sandwich plays, which I knew pretty certainly there were none of in this dictionary. Do you know the two CSW ones?
>JD: EEHIRRT 15A HERE +36 279
#note couldn't say no to the points anymore. maybe I can chase him down.
>Josh_Sokol: CIOOPRS 6J PO +22 337
#note Now holding the last O for O(PA) once I play PO, I am ready to block down the board within two turns. Just please don't bingo now!
>JD: DEIRRTT K10 T..R +23 302
#note close, but no cigar
>Josh_Sokol: CDILORS 5J ODIC +27 364
#note I couldn't be sure that nothing played overtop C(ON) plays. D(OPA), I(CON) etc. were possible crazy overlaps he might have, so I played it safer with ODIC. But as we have seen, I should not be leaving myself vowelless at the pre-pre-endgame stage of a game. I should have learned from last game against Michael Willis!
>JD: DEIIRTT M3 TI. +10 312
#note the pool is so consonant-heavy that this might actually work.
>Josh_Sokol: BCFLMRS 4L L.MB +26 390
#note Ack! I thought I couldn't block and just played this instantly. I might lose if he has a bingo with 3 or 4 vowels making E(TIC), and I fail to draw the other two!! But I could have blocked! SC(OPA) for 9 at J3 might seal the deal, although he still might have some creative setup potential. Hmmm....
>JD: DEEILRT 2H RETILED +76 388
#note I have to bingo and pray that his rack is trash. there are some very reasonable draws for me that would win me the game, especially since he evidently didn't have a vowel last turn.
>Josh_Sokol: CEFIRST 1F TREF +32 422
#note And I lucked into a two-vowel draw. Just the tournament Jesse was having... If I draw RIN or all three of the remaining consonants, I lose.
>JD: GNR 9D R..G +14 402
>Josh_Sokol: CIS G3 CIS +18 440
#note Would have said best endgame all around, but I failed here, missing H10 SIC(S) and C(OVARIES)! Figures. I didn't think TREF was right because I missed my better outplay, but actually it's still the right play.
>Josh_Sokol: (N) +2 442
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