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#character-encoding UTF-8
#player1 SB Susan Bertoni
#player2 JJB John J. Bulten
>SB: IQ 8G QI +22 22
#note 0:20 [24:40] This pairing has happened before in two North Carolina tourneys and is always welcome.
>JJB: AACEELO 7H ALOE +7 7
#note 1:38 [23:22] (ae 7h 5 +.9) Among several difficult choices, ACELO scores 5 and is worth +4.4 in the opening, while exchanging to ACEL is +7.9; JJB's play ranks between these with ACE +1.5.
>SB: DEOPT 8K DEPOT +30 52
#note 0:42 [23:58] Did JJB leave an easy row 8 play available in the opening again?
>JJB: AACEEVZ J5 AZ. +32 39
#note 1:13 [22:09] At least JJB can use his own opening up of j6.
>SB: ILRV 9F VIRL +24 76
#note 0:57 [23:01]
>JJB: ?ACEEEV K2 CAVE +22 61
#note 2:29 [19:40] (eave k2 18 +4.8) Double E with blank doesn't look so bad; it's +24.5. But CE with blank is much more, +33.3, making the play of eave counterintuitively an improvement. The diff is about the same without a blank too. Simulation gives a slight winning edge to other wide-open plays, eave 5i or peeve m8, or the closing vee k3. But scoring the top points in hand is always a considerable argument.
>SB: HINNT 6D NINTH +17 93
#note 1:57 [21:04] (hin 9l 19 +4.2) Really nice-looking play; there are points available with a triple overlap in row 9 too.
>JJB: ?EEEOOO 2K .OOEE +14 75
#note 0:20 [19:20] A lamentable rack gives one clear answer, 10 points ahead of exchanging to E?.
>SB: BEF O1 B.EF +39 132
#note 0:36 [20:28] And blowback was expected.
>JJB: ?AAEIOO -AAIOO +0 75
#note 0:32 [18:48] JJB has had enough of this and makes the top trade. Aeon d3 8 is one point behind, but 8 points in hand is not that much to fuss over when drawing to bingo tiles would yield the equivalent or more.
>SB: OPU 5D UPO +22 154
#note 2:35 [17:53] SB begins by playing pi as if going vertical, but then extends it horizontally into a good triple overlap.
>JJB: ?DEJNRS N7 J.iNDERS +84 159
#note 0:36 [18:12] This time JJB's draw makes for an easy bingo; now he leads by only 5 after that circuitous route.
>SB: FIN 3J N.IF +26 180
#note 0:54 [16:59] SB hits parallels again to keep up the lead and balance her rack optimally.
>JJB: AAEIILM 4B AIM +20 179
#note 2:40 [15:32] (email m11 27 +.7) Another bad rack from a cold draw, but one which yields email m11 with 4 overlaps or lamiae 7a with 3, within a point of JJB's play.
>SB: ?EINTTW 12H TWENTI.s +72 252
#note 0:55 [16:04] SB rockets ahead with the best play (tied with unwitted). You can score a lot with twenties!
>JJB: AEGILLR B3 G.LLERIA +63 242
#note 4:21 [11:11] JJB struggles for some time looking for a bingo: gally, to frighten, is a verb and not a comparing adjective. But wait, isn't there something familiar-looking about that A with this rack?
>SB: OX A8 OX +42 294
#note 1:24 [14:40] Of course blowback is to be expected with this forced bingo.
>JJB: AAEGRUY H12 .RAY +21 263
#note 3:05 [8:06] (yuga c10 21 +13.6) Now JJB is discouraged by another bad cold draw and waning time. He would like to keep AER and writes down yuga, but is not 100% sure of it in the deficit he faces and opts for the "safe" triple instead with much worse leave, the costliest error of the game for some time.
>SB: HU 3A U.H +24 318
#note 0:37 [14:03] Since column A is still high-risk, better to sway it in one's own direction than to leave it hanging.
>JJB: ABDEEGU C10 BEDU +18 281
#note 3:26 [4:40] (bungee k10 18 +3.5) JJB remembers that the bird is a budgie, and budge does not take an E (but DRST). Yet he doesn't want to play the wide-open play from behind without holding a hook. Better still or even are bungee, budger, and dauber, using tiles already on the board; but somehow JJB winds up keeping the G, which remains a drag. But then maybe SB doesn't remember that bedu (bedouins) is a mass noun that takes no hooks.
>SB: DMR A1 DR.M +41 359
#note 0:32 [13:31] SB knows bedu. She can now use her modification of the octuple spot to benefit, pressing hard on the accelerator.
>JJB: AAEGKST J11 T.AK +18 299
#note 2:58 [1:42] (agate d8 27 +9.0) Now the triple overlap is agate 27, but JJB is bingo-hunting (only tankages is available on this rack), and so he thinks AEGS is a better leave even though it's exactly the same as KS (+8.0).
>SB: OU 1A .UO +4 363
#note 3:45 [9:46] (duo 12c 8 +4) SB makes a hard and gutsy choice after careful thought from a 60-point lead, and judges that (given JJB's closure in the bottom board) rows 1-2 are the best bingo slots and the most desirable to block in terms of self-preservation: so she calls 4 points in all. She has no bingo herself, but probably at least one S. Without knowing the rest of her tiles for sure, duo 4 tops the list winning 93% of games; and second with 83% is do 3, a strong vindication of her winning idea. Other holdings might allow even stronger plays from 1a or 2c. If she holds guano(s) d8, isogon(y)/li/steak, (ougi)yas/teaks, or winy/ti/ay, these book 21-33 and might outrun the opponent as well.
>JJB: AEGIRST K10 GI. +12 311
#note 0:39 [1:03] (gadi 12a 16 +.8) And not a moment too soon, as SB has successfully blocked both aigrets and gaiters in row 2. JJB has such good letters he might still bingo with the Y or with 4 parallels, but that might get blocked too. Quackle likes fishing with muni 6, in hopes of staggery and of gyrates or garotes d9; or dis 8, which also allows category or negatory. JJB's fish permits gyrates, carates, ossetra d9; searest, nearest d8; ancestry, actressy, sternway 15a; but it earns only about 12% wins in simulation (drawing 11/55 bingos or 20%) compared to the more directed muni at 17% (drawing 3/11 bingos or 28%).
>SB: NOSW D11 WONS +27 390
#note 1:58 [7:48] (won d11 25 +3.0) And now SB wisely blocks the best 2 remaining lines, now that JJB has closed up column L from scoring any remaining 9s. Along with other plays that reach d14, as well as snowy 15d, this wins all remaining cases and has highest dynamic value. Good S usage.
>JJB: ACEERST E10 TEC +28 339
#note 0:49 [0:14] (cease 7a 31, yas 11f 14, ret b13 9+6 +4) It remains to calculate the lost endgame, but JJB has left little time and has mostly calculated on opponent's time. He has a fine setup, with tec 28 followed by the hidden aspire/maims 17 as well as sera 14; it is in opponent's interest to block with yagi 16, retaining the S for sewer/gallerias in case JJB declines to go out by playing the lucrative vars (her keeping the S forces sera 14+2). By contrast, the even more subtle pair is cease/cox/muns/pie 31, threatening ret 22 or 9, the greater of which must be blocked with the likes of yas 14.
>SB: AGISY F12 SAY +21 411
#note 4:57 [2:51] (yagi 4f 16, sera 15j 14+2 +2) SB does not spot the extra threat; after the game she mentions that JJB must have been considering versa* in column F, and indeed he was for awhile, and neither of them ruled it out as a phony outright. But the real threats there were sera, and vars without going out; and they were backup threats to aspire 17 as JJB noted.
>JJB: AERS E3 AS..RE +17 356
#note 0:03 [0:11] This fine outplay combo was only 4 behind optimal.
>JJB: (GI) +6 362
#note SB played a sterling game with Gibson-level defense, revealing no real weaknesses, though it is not known how long she wrestled with the blank. She outpointed JJB one bingo to two, and then just as his heavy-vowel phase was ending she shut down the board in precisely the necessary order and timing. He didn't draw that much worse, as shown by his lost spread exceeding his opportunity points, but never got the tempo back despite expert play on both sides. Known points available: JJB 4, SB 6. Overall points available: SB 13.2+, JJB 37.3.
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