| Player 1 |
|
#player1 Kenji Kenji
#player2 Alec Alec
>Kenji: GGHIMSV -GGIMV +0 0
>Alec: ADIORTU 8B AUDITOR +70 70
#note Quackle picks 8C AUDITOR. #tacticssmall I guess
>Kenji: ?HMNORS E4 HaRM.ONS +98 98
>Kenji: ?HMNORS -- -98 0
#note I saw cHRISMON but this was "better positionally". I did not see RaMSHORN at all. It turns out this was on my phoneys list that was about 400 words long. Before the tournament, I made a list to try to get all of the phoneys list. It took me a month to compile this list. I played the phoney anyway. What's the point in spending time making a list of words that you think are good if you're gonna play them anyway? What's the point in trying to do anything advanced when you can't even get the basics right?
>Alec: ACOOPTU 9A CAPOT +26 96
#note 7F UPO sims best, and I probably would have played that if I had seen H8 RaMSHORN; Kenji's best play after UPO is B7 RAMSHOrN. CAPOT is bad even if RaMSHORN doesn't exist, because of Kenji's next play. #knowledgelarge
>Kenji: ?HMNORS 10B HOM +41 41
#note Before this turn, I went and got some trail mix and ate it, and really tried as hard as I could not to think about how utterly absurdly badly I was playing today. Did I even look at the R? Not really. Is this a find I should make basically every time? Yes, absolutely.
>Alec: AJNOSTU 7E TAJ +40 136
#note 7G JO is best; ANSTU > NOSU. #strategymedium
>Kenji: ?ENRRSU I5 NURSERy +67 108
#note What's the logic in this? If you figure it out, let me know, since I have no idea. It's probably tURNERS or something like that, but it's definitely not this.
>Alec: IINNOSU D8 ...INION +24 160
>Kenji: AABEEVZ 5G VE.AE +16 124
#note This is fancy. I wish I saw ABOVE and ZEBRA but in reality I only saw AZAN and chose this over it. Given that ABOVE and ZEBRA exist, and given my opponent I'm honestly not sure what I should be doing here. If I had this to do over again, I'm probably doing ZEBRA or ABOVE but I don't hate this line either. It's certainly a lot better than the rest of the awful moves I made this game.
>Alec: BDLQSUV 14B QU.D +28 188
#note QUODS is better: it scores 6 more points, and my rack is full of consonants, making the S less worth keeping. K4 VELD is interesting, setting up 8K SQUAB or SQUIB with the right draw. #strategysmall
>Kenji: ABEFORZ H1 FEAZ. +81 205
#note If I thought about this, I probably would've played FROZE instead. Alec's range is really, really consonant heavy, but it has a lot of Ds and Ss in it, so leaving 6h and the EA instead of the O is bad. In addition the B is good for NUB and BY plays.
>Alec: BEELSVY H11 BEVEL +36 224
#note Quackle picks 4K BEVY, but I still prefer this.
>Kenji: BILNORY 4J BRIONY +36 241
#note Did I see BLINY? Of course not. Is it better than BRIONY? Probably not, but it's close. Note that if I play FROZE I get ENVIABLY this turn, which is a fully justified punish. BAIRNLY also complicates the board better than this, though it's just a statistically worse play. Tough call.
>Alec: ?AAFISY E11 FA +22 246
#note I chose this over AY/YA plays because I hate F's and because AY/YA plays close bingo lanes. But ?AFIS > ?AISY, and 3M YA makes column O a bit harder to use. #strategymedium
>Kenji: EILLRWW O1 WIL. +30 271
#note This is literally the only play the entire game I'm confident is correct.
>Alec: ?AEIISY 3L AY +22 268
>Kenji: ELLMRTW 2G M.WL +11 282
#note I'm not sure what is best here. Just because you're ahead and know you're up against a stupid strong range against Alec doesn't mean you need to be doing something super-defensive. At the end of the day, you're up 3. I guess this isn't too bad on the equity side so it might be okay.
>Alec: ?AEIIOS 15A OI +17 285
>Kenji: EGLRTUX J11 EXULT +18 300
#note I don't really know here either. I think here I just need to take XI and be really, really sad about it. At the end of the day I have to win the game still and this just gets outrun way too often and doesn't really block enough. When you put in ES? into the inference engine Alec still bingos 42% of the time and the game is simply too long to try and deny a bingo, and the chances are that I often get outrun anyway seeing there's no scoring spots. EGLRTU isn't great but there's also evidently a 22% chance I bingo myself, and there's no reason for Quackle to be wrong about either of these numbers. I get that this blocks a lot, and any play I make down here is going to sacrifice a lot, but let's say I block and then he plays on 6h and now has a 15 point lead. Now what?
>Alec: ?AEGIIS K7 AEGIS +22 307
#note I have given up on fishing at this point, now that the board is almost dead. I saw that both AGI(L)I(T)iES and (L)I(T)IGAtES are near misses on row 15. Somehow Quackle likes this play.
>Kenji: EEGOPRR F6 P..ER +25 325
#note I don't know why I did this instead of GATER. I don't think it's good to do this. I am just a really bad player. Worth noting: If I play XU like I should have, Alec plays VEStIGIA and I have OUTGLARE and REGULATE 40% of the time, which is way better than my chances of winning now.
>Alec: ?CEHIST N4 .ITCHiES +66 373
#note Quackle slightly prefers to switch the blanks. I still prefer NITCHiES.
>Kenji: DEGGKOR 15J .ROKED +36 361
#note This play doesn't even try to win the game. It doesn't matter anyway. I pretty much want to crawl in a hole and never play another game of Scrabble again after these three games. It's pretty apparent to me I'm playing badly, and not just because of the phoney. Absolutely embarrassing.
>Alec: ADEINOT O8 OD +26 399
#note I missed O8 ENTIA. But at least I saw the other two places for AEINT. 14M OD and 6H DUN are also optimal. #endgamemedium (-8)
>Kenji: GGNS 6H S.N +30 391
#note Well, at least I got two plays right this game. This was just incredibly depressing. I don't know why my brain was just so spazzed out this morning, whether it was the people smoking weed in front of the venue or just a complete lack of mental energy due to not playing for a while. Quite possibly the worst game of Scrabble I've ever played at Nationals where I was actually trying to win. It's really frustrating trying to do higher level things when you obviously can't even do lower level things.
>Alec: AEINT 13H .A.NTIE +22 421
>Alec: (GG) +8 429
#note GG |
