Endgame Large
2I FA +18
Sim winner is STUPA 5F, blocking LE(TUP). Ok, I'm sleep-deprived and all, and I have no time left, but I'm just saying: even on a good day, I'm never finding that. (-13) #endgamelarge #timemanagementlarge
Leesa Berahovich vs. Carl Johnson (Game 34482)
Knowledge Small
8D COnGREE +74
Just flat out missed CORTEGE, which doesn't take the zillion hooks CONGREE does - I actually forgot about the D hook and hoped perhaps I would be likelier to remember the T hook than Benjy. #findingsmall #knowledgesmall
Will Anderson vs. Ben Schoenbrun (Game 34592)
Strategy Small
E2 CONE +27
HONE is better because it just bingos more and scores more. CONE also takes an S hook and I didn't see it. ONE also might be the play because it doesn't create the S hook #strategysmall
Keith Savage vs. Joshua Sokol (Game 37662)
Knowledge Small
N2 PECTiN(E)S +72
Can't make myself pull the trigger on PoTENCES for 4 more. No 9s available but I spent way too much time looking and trying to talk myself out of SERPENTIC* #knowledgesad
Matt Canik vs. Jeff Fiszbein (Game 32963)
Strategy Large
O10 TUBINg +32
definitely need to play NUBIlE instead of TUBINg considering last play. Still loses just barely. Maybe I fish a U for an A. I thought I could win if I drew the S. #strategysaddest
Marcela Kadanka vs. Joshua Sokol (Game 38137)
Vision Medium
K6 MORULAS +74
I might take out Column K seeing how easy PEE is to hook, but there's a better bingo that I missed either way- D8 (C)LAMOURS for 2 more. Not to mention, Libero isn't out of this one yet with how easy it is to hook this board. #visionmedium
Samuel Kaplan vs. Libero Paolella (Game 37170)
Finding Large
O12 MUSO +35
I missed E2 MISSOUN(D). I looked through all the other letters, never shuffled or put in MIS- as a prefix. Sorry Tunnicliffe for I have failed you once more, bingo finding with prefixes and suffixes is still hard for me. #findinglarge
Darrell Day vs. Joshua Sokol (Game 33130)
Endgame Small
F3 DEITY +24
With 90s left, I played this quickly, having noted it as the best out-in-two that I saw. I had been looking for out-in-twos because I figured Joey was going to bingo. There's actually one better sequence: DOSED J14, threatening TIDY N12 and TYIN J1. (-2) #endgamesmall #timemanagementmedium
Joey Mallick vs. Carl Johnson (Game 34481)
Finding Small
F7 U(G)LY +16
This game is going to be interesting. Too bad I missed a key option here, E5 LAY(O)UTS, so perhaps things would have been different if I had seen that. I liked this over (G)UY because the leave was less bingo-dependent and slightly less variant. I probably missed LAY(O)UTS because I spent the first minute or so of my time lamenting that SALUTORY* was the word I think Nigel Peltier played against Conrad at 2014 Nationals which Conrad accepted. #findingsmall
Matthew Tunnicliffe vs. Joshua Sokol (Game 33638)
Tactics Small
N10 FID +28
i did not want to burn the last S with FIDOS. perhaps it just scores too much. i thought i needed to score and then bingo next turn making IFS. the main issue is that FID is too easy to overlap downwards. so FIDO > FID (besides having the better leave). i was playing most of this game on autopilot to protect myself i think; i realized my win % was very low, so i didn't want to spend too much time stressing about it. -2.5 #tacticssmall
Thomas Reinke vs. Cesar Del Solar (Game 32668)
Knowledge Large
K5 BA(T)S +32
And here I am. Again. For the third fucking time, shitting my pants trying to block shit when I should be playing equity. This is total ASS and I chickened out of L2 COBIAS. #STRATEGYSADDEST #KNOWLEDGESADDEST
Joshua Castellano vs. Bradley Whitmarsh (Game 34973)
Finding Large
11H (N)OVA +14
I saw QUEYS this turn but didn't see AVIONS, and doubted AVIANS. This is why I lose so many games [against Joey] #findinglarge #knowledgelarge
Joey Mallick vs. Joshua Sokol (Game 34569)
Knowledge Small
B6 QU(E)UED +38
i should have played QUEUER (i wasn't 101% on it). i didn't want to give up an easy high scoring S hook. but it's important to balance my rack. -5.5 #tacticsmedium #knowledgesmall
Cesar Del Solar vs. Rafi Stern (Game 32705)
Knowledge Large
13B DO(N)G +12
I saw DOGDOMS and him having blocked DOGEDOMS, but I couldn't convince myself that the 7 was valid. CATDOMS* is no good, how could DOGDOMS be? But I'm pretty sure I had checked this recently. #knowledgelarge
David Boys vs. Joshua Sokol (Game 35755)
Tactics Medium
10M TYE +33
Quackle heavily favors 13J ETIC. I suppose it reduces Kenji's scoring potential by blocking 15J plays making ZA, and 10N YE is likely to stay open. #tacticsmedium
Alec Sjoholm vs. Kenji Matsumoto (Game 33089)
Strategy Large
10I (W)HANG +20
9H (ZA)G actually sims best here. Really cool fish. I was unsure of THANGS and would rather have played THANGS or (T)HANG over this. #strategylarge #knowledgesaddest
Noah Walton vs. Joshua Sokol (Game 48346)
Endgame Large
G13 JI(N) +29
This was an echo of the MUL(ATT)O/MO(G)UL position against Kevin Fraley at California Open 2018. JEW 4J is way better because FIDS M1 is unblockable. And I even saw it too! But I worried that I had mistracked and thought that Josh might play out and win if I was wrong. After JEW I'd be up 41 points but he'd get 16 from me, and his tiles look like they could score 25 points if there's a spot for them. With more time, I would have retracked the game to be dead certain that Josh can't play out, because that being the case, JEW/FIDS is best by a large margin. (-29) #endgamelarge #trackinglarge #timemanagementmedium
Carl Johnson vs. Joshua Sokol (Game 34489)
Tactics Small
12C O(L)EO +4
probably a #tacticssmall for 11B PA(R)EO which only raises his avg. by 2 points over this. AEPR is nice though and I'm opening the 11 and 13 lane, so it's a small difference.
Jackson Smylie vs. Maxim Panitch (Game 35246)
Strategy Small
exch EGOQ +0
RandomRacer says I exchange too much, and if so, this could be an example, as OGEE 11h isn't such a terrible candidate. But I just really don't like playing through with QCR behind on this board when there's plenty of floaters and a perfectly good leave. Quackle has OGEE winning slightly but I just don't agree, but it also has CEOR as a trifle better which I think I agree with: I jettisoned this because of the O floater at b8, but after analysis I think the O is barely worth it, so this is #strategysmall
Norases Vesdapunt vs. Kenji Matsumoto (Game 38980)
Strategy Large
M8 (E)VZONE +44
This would be close with C9 ZO except that she put down an S on the board before playing 15A KIN(G) the turn before, making this very sad. #strategysaddest
Becky Dyer vs. Joshua Castellano (Game 37136)
Finding Large
13C S(W)INGY +55
not sure why I missed TYING A11. Was debating fishing the Y, but saw it only seemed to hit 27/37 or something not so good. I realized that this wasn't right after I played it. Jason insta-challenged IGNORANTS#, which I hadn't even thought about. Just another reason I am the luckiest player ever. TYING is still significantly better than SWINGY+5, which I should have realized. #findinglarge
Joshua Sokol vs. Jason Keller (Game 42566)
Strategy Large
O10 SPIRIT +36
had no clue there were 6 in the bag here, just played this without checking. Disastrous. Thought it was close between SPIRIT and SPAIT and hadn't tracked TEASELs so wanted to go for the blank. #strategysaddest
David Spargo vs. Joshua Sokol (Game 40597)
Tactics Medium
C12 YEAH +40
once I actually realized my misplay in this position I assumed YEAH was probably an 18-point mistake. I mistracked a U instead of a D, so I thought my Q had a better chance of not getting stuck. I also didn't notice that INSNARE played under DIF which I was not blocking. So I should play QA(T) 8C and just brace for impact I think.
#tacticsmedium
Joshua Sokol vs. Leesa Berahovich (Game 33134)
Strategy Medium
13H (E)CAD +30
Took a stupidly long time here and still didn't even think to look for a play like B1 OCEANID for 38. I did ECAD over other plays like DECANI in the same spot (my other primary choice) to keep IN together for -ING words down to the G of TROMPING. But the AINO leave is just too imbalanced and the pool not bingo prone enough. Just EOAN in the same spot is Quackle's pick, and if I want to keep IN together something like 2B ODA looks like a much better way to do it. #strategymedium 11:17
Will Anderson vs. Robert Linn (Game 33173)
Finding Small
I6 FEME +28
FEM looks very solid because the leave is much better and I'm much likelier to hit PIEZO H1, can also hit ZERO and stuff 12A. The E is a good tile part 1209830935. #findingsmall
Joshua Sokol vs. Noah Walton (Game 48347)
Strategy Medium
H12 (L)ULU +12
yeah, i need to consider equity a bit more robotically. WAUR/WAUL at 13G score too much to disregard. i know they keep ILU or IRU, but that's 11 pts better than keeping a W, and giving back slightly more bingos. -7.5 #strategymedium. it's funny, two fairly significant strategic errors in a row, but i did think it through at least.
Cesar Del Solar vs. Frank Tangredi (Game 33679)
Tactics Small
J12 MOW +35
tough call here. I liked TWO(S)OME some but the S hook is more risk than I'd like to take here. LOW, MOW, and LOWE are all interesting. She averages a bit more after LOW cause of the E hook, but it's close. I average most after LOW, ELOT isn't very good generally or here. LOWE might be the best medium between them, I score more on average next turn than after MOW and only sacrifice one point. Her average is about the same after each play. #tacticssmall
Anna Miransky vs. Jackson Smylie (Game 35363)
Endgame Medium
A3 (U)P +7
I have to block A3 UNTANNEd, but there are better ways. Best is 9A OWE, leaving J4 ZIP 32 while setting up A8 ZORI 39. Best of the plays I saw was 4A PE, but the optimal sequence includes 7C ZOA, which I missed. #endgamemedium (-13)
Jeff Fiszbein vs. Alec Sjoholm (Game 32987)
Finding Small
M9 KRAIT +39
considered dropping the K and this or TRAIK. I didn't consider KI or KA. KI is clearly better than KA because it allows so much less counterplay at N10. TRAIK might also be better than KRAIT because is slows Steven down more than it slows me down, I don't really want to bingo at M1 despite it being the most fortuitous lane on the board. M9 KI is the play. #findingsmall
Steven DiNapoli vs. Joshua Sokol (Game 35814)
Strategy Small
G13 ZO +48
CP likes this, saying it wins 95%, but it's surely dependent on full confidence in CASTLINGS. Given that I did not have that confidence, a great option is 11D VOW/VAW, setting up SOZ/SAZ to follow up in the endgame, also winning 95% because the bingos Bradley does get down score so much less. Unfortunately, I burned a huge amount of time grappling with this position and somehow still didn't generate VOW/VAW, leaving me vulnerable to time pressure on my next move. #strategysmall #timelarge
Bradley Whitmarsh vs. Will Anderson (Game 34977)
Strategy Small
L9 (T)EAM +27
I thought the S was pretty valuable on this board but Quackle is saying to play L9 (T)EAMS. J12 A(U)F is also worth considering, but her last few plays seem kinda fishy. #strategysmall
Laura Ketay vs. Joshua Castellano (Game 41905)
Strategy Small
K5 MIS +23
Tough move here. My hope was that reparalleling MIS with ISO would help me open more of the board on subsequent turns, but particularly blocky AMIS hooks like the one Vince played are bad news. Sim actually prefers LIS slightly over MIS on that basis, allowing many fewer points per turn to Vince by allowing fewer hooks and less lucrative plays down the L column. #strategysmall
Vince Castellano vs. Will Anderson (Game 34595)
Strategy Small
13B BODICE +30
i strongly considered C2 BRO, which sims best, but i feel like i should stop screwing around. i'm holding on to a bit of a tenuous lead, both blanks and X are unseen, etc. it seemed good to kill a few lanes here and score and stuff. #strategysmall ?
Cesar Del Solar vs. Lou Cornelis (Game 39990)
Strategy Small
C9 H(A)LER +33
C9 H(A)LIER sims best, but I don't know why I would open the triple for the S and give up my I keeping LQ when the similar C9 H(A)LER is available. #strategysad
Joshua Castellano vs. Austin Shin (Game 38898)
Strategy Medium
K10 T(O)T +9
obviously L(A)TTER here, which i was about to lay down, but i don't seemingly understand the concept of "cut your losses". now i am absolutely putting all my eggs in the AELRT basket. this one is definitely a significant mistake, simming almost 8 pts back. #strategymedium #tilt?
Jared Cappel vs. Cesar Del Solar (Game 39995)
Finding Large
7F GEODE +27
7F NOODGE scores 1 more than GEODE, keeps a better leave, and does not set up a Z bomb. While I agree with Quackle that NOODGE is better than GEODE, I don't see how it's a 10-point mistake. #findinglarge
BriAnna McKissen vs. Alec Sjoholm (Game 37355)
Strategy Small
3I ELATED +34
nothing great dig for here, or rather, too much bad versus only some good. Better to just score a few lesss and keep a bit better with OLDE 3J. #strategysmall #findingsmall
Joshua Sokol vs. Don Finkey (Game 33872)
Finding Medium
K9 HILT +28
I missed 15J TAHSIL! What a wicked play #knowledgemedium #findingmedium
compared HALT and HILT, decided that yes there were more A's out, but the ZI combo is still much worse than ZA, although I get NAZI with an A, so hmm.
Joshua Sokol vs. Thomas Reinke (Game 33142)
Strategy Small
1H PEON +38
My leave is so bad that N11 POYOU may be better. Although I didn't know the hooks to pAtHOGEN, so I thought 1H was the only hotspot. #strategysmall
Alec Sjoholm vs. Joey Mallick (Game 32723)