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#player1 Ben_Schoenbrun Ben Schoenbrun
#player2 Jim_Burlant Jim Burlant
>Ben_Schoenbrun: AAJNRTX 8H JAR +20 20
#note B: I was hoping Jim would underlap the r so i could make a huge rex play. Sim like this positioning best but it prefers raj F8 by a small margin.
>Jim_Burlant: EENOPRW 9G POWER +37 37
#note J: Context: KOTH game. I'm 18-12 with spread in the neighborhood of -200. Win this game and I finish 11th and win a class prize. Lose and come up empty, as I don't have enough spread to even contend for a class prize. As for this: I saw the odd placement of JAR, and all that registered with me was that he had LS in his rack and he wanted to hook those down the K column. After remembering that I had seen WEAPONER* swatted off of someone else's board somewhere many year ago, I put this down feeling so proudthat I'd snuffed out his plan. Against a random rack, this is best. That said, I should have recognized what he had coming and played OW 9F instead:
B: If I had an L I probably would've just played jarl though :)
>Ben_Schoenbrun: ANRTTXY 10H TAX +68 88
>Jim_Burlant: ??EFNRS 11B FRiNgES +77 114
#note I only considered this word placed here and at L3. With points more or less equal to the L3 placement, I liked the defense: easy JOTA back hooks taken away and it will be impossible to hit a 7 without an S. Q prefers L3 eNsERFS for 85.
>Ben_Schoenbrun: ENRRTTY D8 ENT.TY +18 106
#note B: I know this looks awful, but I had my reasons for playing it over te(r)ry. I didn't want the upper left side of the board to get closed down, and with only 1 R still unseen I thought some of the risk gets mitigated. This still gets crushed in a sim, but the best play is clearly n(i)tery, which I didn't know.
>Jim_Burlant: ACIRSWZ 8A WAR.Z +51 165
#note J: After this play I felt like I was on the verge of blowing this open: drawing 4 to CIS with a bunch of A's and E's unseen could yield a play that would put this game out of reach for Ben. As of right now, I'm 77% to win.
B: Alright I guess that's fair. I deserved that.
>Ben_Schoenbrun: OPRRTTU E5 PUT. +30 136
#note B: It would be nice to open the other side of the board with a prex play but this is too much equity to pass up.
>Jim_Burlant: CIKLLST B11 .LICK +28 193
#note Considered two plays: 6D LUCK 16 and this. With all the I's unseen I felt like LUCK gave away too much on the scoreboard to justify it. And this is a K, not an E or an A that I'm slotting in the triple. This is best. Just shy of 80% to win.
>Ben_Schoenbrun: OORRTUU D1 OUTRO +16 152
>Jim_Burlant: BHLNNST 2B BL.NT +18 211
#note This is a mild miss, but it's a miss I can live with. I had been planning to exchange 4 keeping NST until Ben's last play. I didn't look closely at the whole board and fixated on adding resistance to row 1. Once I saw this, I saw 4 tiles turned, a balanced rack, and that was that. While this isn't bad, F4 NTH scored 32 and is better. And BLUSH would have scored 36, but I would have rejected that in favor of this. NTH if I see it, otherwise this. This is still a strong choice, but it's not best.
>Ben_Schoenbrun: ABEGNRY 1F ABYE +29 181
#note B: This opens an easier lane to hit than aby, and there are still 8 E's unseen so I didn't mind burning it here and leaving my fate up to RNG. Sims about a point and a percent above aby.
>Jim_Burlant: ADHINSV 15A A.IN +27 238
#note J: FAIL. I never saw the star play (KNAVISH) and still hadn't woken up to F6 overlaps. I considered plays like RAVIN K9 but, with memories of the round 3 debacle still percolating in my mind, I wanted to eliminate row 15. The pool didn't look especially bingo prone to me, so I gave up on the notion of playing for the bingo. Obviously KNAVISH for 54 is the play I need.
B: Bullet = Dodged.
>Ben_Schoenbrun: EEGIORU K9 .IGOUR +25 206
#note B: Sim prefers g(l)ue C1 by about 1%. My plan since his bingo had been to open as many quadrants as possible, but the board is plenty open for bingoes already, and if he hooks rigours for enough points I might not be able to catch him even with a bingo. I should change gears here and just play glue.
>Jim_Burlant: ADHOQSV 13J Q.OD +28 266
#note J: At least I get this one right. The Q, unfortunately, rears its head. Between insuffient turnover on my last turn and a somewhat unlucky draw on this turn, I don't have the tiles to defend what he's just opened on row 15. Best I can do here is unload the Q for 28 points. I'm still in good shape at 88% to win.
B: I catch a major break here as Jim is forced to take a turn off to unload the Q and I draw an S.
>Ben_Schoenbrun: AEEEOSV 15K SOAVE +35 241
>Jim_Burlant: ADHIISV N10 VIDS +31 297
#note J: I played this for defense to shut down 8's down the O column whle I scored 31 points. And on a tighter board what I'm doing here might make sense. But theres's still row 2, an S is still unseen, and any number of 7's play down the L column. I need to recognize that this board really can't be defended and I should just go on offense. I need to recognize that I've got 34 points available for AHI F6 that allow me to keep the S. And if he hits somewhere, that's life. I'm still 79% to win
B: Agreed. There are too many lines to effectively block here, so outrunning seems like the best plan.
>Ben_Schoenbrun: DEEILNS 2H ENISLED +77 318
#note J: A deuce game - this is Ben's best bingo, and he's winning 50% with it.
>Jim_Burlant: AAEHHII 1M HAE +26 323
#note J: The pool struck me as being decidedly un bingo prone (especially with the S's gone) and I chose thise to keep one of my counters. And with 4 E's unseen I figured I would probably get one back, which is why I chose this. HAHA 3K is best statically and the play I kept missing, F5 AHI, is best yet again.
>Ben_Schoenbrun: CEEENOO 3L ONO +24 342
#note B: This sims in dead heat with (r)ec. I wanted to save that for a later turn or perhaps a surprise endgame play though.
>Jim_Burlant: ADFGHIU F5 AHI +34 357
#note J: And I finally see the spot. Back to 50% to win. Play incorrectly scored as 36.
B: Viewers make note of the scoring error.
>Ben_Schoenbrun: CEEEEGM C11 .EC +29 371
#note Championship player likes g(l)ee here. I don't think I saw glee, and even if i did I might have just went with this anyways. It leaves a tile in the bag and puts pressure on Jim to solve a tough preendgame with not much time on his clock.
>Jim_Burlant: ADFGIMU 4J FUG +22 379
#note J: Spent way too long here looking for the longer play from 4H that wasn't there. This is best, and it puts me back in the driver's seat at 85% to win.
>Ben_Schoenbrun: EEEGILM 5K MEG +25 396
#note B: Major, Major fail here. The only play that wins is (G)lime f11, blocking midai(r) and threatening g(l)ee. Problem is, i still didn't see glee and even if I did, I had Jim's score 2 points higher than it actually was! If I actually solved this endgame and saw that glime tied, I would have just played this and hoped he didn't see midair, since a tie does me no good at all.
All of that is fine. What's not fine is my sequencing. If i'm going to concede to midair, I should play belie. I didn't see realize that any play he makes at I5 gives me a huge out play of meg. This loses to ai(t) b3 as well as midair. I hope that at this time next year I'm a better player so I can do this well at a nationals again. Before I hit my clock I took a deep breath and prepared to keep my composure should Jim find his win(s).
>Jim_Burlant: ADIIM J6 MI... +20 399
#note J: Despite my earlier mistakes, it's my game to win...and I blow it. This was failure on all ends on my part: failure to look at the board to find his out play; failure to recognize his strategy; failure to use as much of my allotted time as possible; all of the above leading to my ultimate failure to fijnd my winning play. I need to recognize he has an out play with BELIE at B2 (that end of the board looked closed off and I didn't pay enough attention), which means I need to find my out play. What's ironic is that I had looked at plays like AIR and AMIR/etc underlapping the Q on row 14...and just never recognized MIDAI(R), which scores 30 and is my only win. So, instead, I thought I would be able to outrun with MI(REX) followed by AIR on row 14.
B: I remember taking a huge sigh of relief here. I wasn't expecting to win this game and I hope I wasn't unsportsmanlike.
>Ben_Schoenbrun: EEIL B2 .ELIE +9 405
>Ben_Schoenbrun: (ADI) +8 413
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