| Player 1 |
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#player1 James James
#player2 Dielle Dielle
>James: BLLRUWW -BLLRUWW +0 0
#note I'm of a very loose school for exchanging - if I don't see immediate strong value to it, I am likely to exchange it (that means the S and blank are almost definite, and everything else is up for debate). Quackle likes holding onto an R or an L, which is fair because you're likely to draw an A, E or O, which an L or R works fairly well with. That being said, there's really almost no difference in what either myself or the computer picked.
>Dielle: AEEILPR 8D ZOEAE +48 48
>James: DDNRRST F6 TR.ND +12 12
#note Tricky. I'm hoping that I'm going to draw vowels, since it's somewhat likely. An exchange isn't that good an idea becaues I have at least two plays which leave good leaves and give me a good chance to develop the board: TREND and REDD F7.
What's better? REDD holds the better overall leave of consonants (NRST) but you have to likely draw two vowels to make a bingo, or use the E in the middle (since after it, the best scoring place is through the Z for the most part, dependent on what Dielle drew). TREND lets me draw one more tile but DRS may be that much weaker to offset it, and the 2 points I gain are probably negligible at this stage.
Quackle likes REDD (which I didn't really think on), I like TREND still.
>Dielle: EILPRRU 11C BOXY +42 90
>James: ADMORRS 7H RAMRODS +65 77
#note And I get the bingo I was looking for, though perhaps the -Y hook for TREND was something to slightly consider. Quackle puts playing RAMRODS 9H quite closely, which makes sense - I am still down points, it's her turn, and the best way to get into the game is to play along to the O8 triple. I thought she would likely do that even if it didn't score too well (since it results in a fairly difficult closed board), so I picked the harder one for her to work with.
>Dielle: EILPRRU 12A COIF +38 128
>James: ?DGMNPR L5 PR.M +11 88
#note What a strange game so far - not that many vowels at all for me! I liked not exchanging again because of the openings left from PROM, the openings are fairly decent - an S, an M, an RE-, and a C. Having DGN? is a decent chance as well, because the -NG ending is fairly likely to draw to given that only one I has been played on the board.
Quackle likes PROM or ROMP about equally, and along with them PRONG L5 (leaving DM, but letting me draw more tiles) and even DOM or MOD L6 (PR- also works well to start a lot of words as well as appears fairly often together in the middle of a word). I think PRONG is wrong since one of the openings left is an M, and it's usually not easier to double up on a letter to get a bingo. That being said, an MM parallel play is an easy 20-25 if I don't get a bingo so I can see some value in holding onto it. Then again, there's so many other places on the board to score, so what's the point of holding that back? DOM... too many consonants for my liking again. But I can see the merit in it.
>Dielle: ELPRRSU D3 LIONI.E +32 160
>James: ?ADGHIN N7 .HADINGs +82 170
#note This play is tricky. SHADINGs leaves me open to easy counterplays by Dielle along the triple word for good points, and the other bingos score at least 16 less points.
The other major play to raelly consider is AH 6I. Holding onto DGIN?, especially on this board, is likely to give me a bingo the next turn, given the openness and the actual usefulness of all the opening tiles (RE-, C, S, L, I). I might have played AH 6I had I really thought more on it, though the bingo was worth it to me since I just needed to catch up. Had I gotten lucky the next turn, I would've been able to play PROM-ENADING, which I actually saw this turn. But, points are points and I thought that even if she plays for a triple on the O-column I still have the other triples along the A-column to use.
Neither SHADINGs nor AH is that much better than the other. The point is the journey one takes to arrive at a decision and the justification. Much like PROM or TREND in the past.
>Dielle: LPRRSSU O8 OY +35 195
>James: AEGHNSV A12 .AVE +27 197
#note I missed SCHAV A11, which is 39 to CAVE's 27 and leaves ENG v GHNS. Both are decently strong leaves but I think SCHAV gives me more flexibility for bad draws. That being said, having the H may make it easy to score using the HM possilibilty at J6. Quackle likes VANG 12L better even for that purpose, which I can't disagree with - while it's 7 less, it gives me an E to definitely work with for the next turn. I played a weak play this time.
>Dielle: LPRRSSU 13J CLUN. +16 211
>James: EEGHNST 6I THE.E +38 235
#note AI think I played a decent play, though ETHER 6H may be better because it makes the RE- spot less likely to see bingos from her whilst I grab a small lead. I think I like ETHER though I didn't see it at the time. Then again, holding -GNS with a bunch of Is in the bag... I potentially have an advantage at getting that 9, anyway, given how nice my tiles are looking.
>Dielle: IKPRRSS L12 G.V +14 225
>James: DEGKNSS 15H SKEGS +42 277
#note I'm pretty sure this is best - it and DESKS 15H are the only ways to get to the triple and they outscore their counterparts by at least 18 points. BISK C11 gives me decent chances to bingo again but I think I'd be best trying to grab a lead. also, SKEGS has the added advantage of blocking up the RE and the E and making the V harder to bingo with (DESKS allows for a 7-letter bingo from 14C, still). Bingos along the I score little and along the L will likely give me good counterplays.
>Dielle: LO 10B LO +9 234
>James: ?AADENT 4C D.AmANTE +59 336
#note Okay, at this point I saw VANADATE 14A, I knew what VANADATE was, I just didn't pull the trigger because I was afraid the dictionary didn't like it (which I had some grounds for - vanadate is a chemical, and the dictionary is notoriously famous for not being very good in recognizing them in a consistent manner). Aside from it, I think DIAMANTE is good because it just blocks a lot of lanes again and makes the chances of her coming back very low. Quackle also likes ANA 13A or AT 13C to score points, basically setting me up well for anything she does. INDAGATE 4D it also suggests, but I thought INDAGATE's position actually lends itself slightly more to bingos since the pattern for parallel plays is consonant-vowel-consonant, whilst DIAMANTE's requires a vowel start of a consonant-vowel-vowel-consonant start.
>Dielle: AAINRRT 13C AT +22 256
>James: BIILNPT M9 BIT +24 360
#note I missed LIPIN M9, which scores 2 more. It's also nice because it takes one more tile out of the bag. Basically, the point of playing BIT is to make sure a big play with the J is limited in damage, as at this point a J-play or a Q play and a bingo with me having absolutely no reply in return is about the only way she'll win.
>Dielle: AIJORRS H1 QUI. +39 295
>James: AEIILNP 2F NA.PLII +13 373
#note Quackle likes IN I1 (which blocks the lanes) or PLIED M3 (which gives me a fairly good leave if I draw a U, so I can Q-bingo, and it also blocks up the U). Being impatient like I am, I played NAUPLII to draw tiles out of the bag and block the lanes. The only raeson I did was because I tracked and noticed nothing majorly damaging could come out at that point. Even if AJEE was played at 1L, it wouldn't be enough to catch up, since she wouldn't have enough tiles to bingo.
>Dielle: AJORRST 6B JU. +26 321
>James: EEEITWW 1L TWEE +27 400
#note So I won, but I get lazy and don't look to maximize spread. Given that all I had to do was keep winning to get to the best of 3 final, I just took it and tried to conserve energy for the tough games I anticipated.
>Dielle: AEFORRS E3 O.F +24 345
>James: EIUW N1 .WE +12 412
>Dielle: AERRS 15A .RASER +7 352
>Dielle: (IU) +4 356
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