Finding Large
4L UNAI +20
I got very fixated on the N column lane now, but I think I can do better by just outrunning. I missed the 7I Z spot, AZ(I)NE is good there. I also have ZEIN(S)/MOWN, which is probably best to take out that marginal high scoring lane as well. UNAI has a bit of defensive merit and can still outrun if I find the BIZ spot, but I think ZEINS is wholly better cause I can outrun next turn. #findinglarge
Anna Miransky vs. Jackson Smylie (Game 35363)
Knowledge Large
3E P(I)XI +0 (Lost challenge)
I had no idea what to do here, but that's okay because I phoneyed instead like a n00b. Yes, I'm a dumbass. Yes, I'm aware of it. #knowledgesaddest
Nitya Chagti vs. Tim Weiss (Game 40038)
Finding Medium
5I (AG)HA +28
losing the wheels on the bus here. Missing G10 H(OW)F, but holding on to what I hope will be a closed board soon. Also missing 13I DASHI which is fine. #visionmedium #findingmedium
Joshua Sokol vs. Christopher Sykes (Game 33129)
Knowledge Small
14C SEXTAnT +77
N: I saw 5K EX but I wasn't sure if I should go for the bingo that I was sort of sure of or play EX and hope I could find a bingo next turn. I figured the game was close enough that I needed to just get the points. Also a #knowledgesad for the challenge
Nitya Chagti vs. Joshua Castellano (Game 40836)
Knowledge Large
14H AIDE +22
terrible word knowledge continues. I put down STINGE and AIDE, and then take it back, and put this down. Joel says "you weren't going to play that." UGH!!! #knowledgeSADDEST
Joel Horn vs. Joshua Sokol (Game 42468)
Knowledge Small
11G COXES +45
EXED much better, fewer points, but blocks Wendy's best chance at winning COXES making LORDINGS also good, didn't know that was valid. #endgameSAD #knowledgeSAD #strategySAD
Wendy McGrath vs. Danielle Barker (Game 35343)
Knowledge Large
B6 (D)OGCARTS +64
Joey: ESCARGOT
Josh: had I seen ESCARGOT during my thought process last turn or as a review of said thought process this turn, I would have challenged QUICKY* off the board and been ahead by 200. I should still challenge because how likely is he to block the D anyway? I don't need to worry pretty much at all about having a spot to bingo. Horrible #knowledgesaddest
Joshua Sokol vs. Joey Krafchick (Game 41016)
Knowledge Large
12B ARCO +21
I totally spaced that narco was good...until later. PREY G8 is best. SIm still likes arco better than narco but prey sims 5 poitns better
#Strategymedium #knowledgesaddest
Julia Bogle vs. Evan Yurko (Game 43180)
Strategy Large
L11 FETID +28
i need to keep fishing. 9G D(I)F is totally fine. mistake here. #strategylarge -10 (fetid at 13I is a lot better, i didn't even think of it because i was not focused and playing like garbage)
Winter vs. Cesar Del Solar (Game 32933)
Tactics Small
12A BARF(S) +26
My issues evaluating V-containing leaves continue. FAVES is the better option; it scores 4 more than BARFS and bingos approximately 1% more without yielding any higher opp. avg. score. #tacticssmall
Will Anderson vs. Joshua Sokol (Game 32895)
Vision Small
8L J(E)LL +57
wow didn't consider L1 JAWL(I)NE! it's nice to not open the O column. I think I prefer it by a bit, setting up the scoring spot is okay as well with my lead. #visionsmall
Darin True vs. Jackson Smylie (Game 33104)
Tactics Small
H11 (R)EVUE +27
a bit of a counterintuitive situation here. quackle says i bingo slighlty more next turn if i do ROVED, and it scores 3 more. it sure doesn't seem that way to me. -2.5 #tacticssmall
Thomas Reinke vs. Cesar Del Solar (Game 32668)
Vision Large
9K (T)IARA +17
now I am finally burned for missing ASCRIBES! ARIARY comes up for the second game in a row, but this time I'm more confident it's best. TIARA has defensive merit as well, but I will want to deal with ASCRIBES at some point, especially because he can use it to fork the board and open the top left. ARIARY given his EFIKN rack looks best. This play error looks medium in size but the mistake of missing the A hook is a huge error. #visionlarge
Jackson Smylie vs. Michael Fagen (Game 33098)
Endgame Large
6A AQUA(S) +41
quite a few plays with with blank draws, but it's highly unlikely I'll draw the blank after he played bemix. I didn't see any legit wins over the board so I went with AQUAS which put enough scoring pressure on to make his endgame fuckupable. I missed a win with the S though - QUANT wins with the S cause he can't play TiME cause I get STIME/BATS for the win! #endgamelarge
Jackson Smylie vs. Maxim Panitch (Game 35243)
Strategy Medium
O10 SOUND +24
Well, I missed URODELANS, so that's not good. But Quackle also hates my choice of SOUND over something like L10 DUO. My thinking was that on this board, the S isn't really a key tile; the key tiles are the I to play TINY or LINY hooking QI, the H to play HO/HUN, and the X just because it's the last power tile. Rather than play L10 DUO, I wanted to get more cracks at any of these three tiles to maintain tempo advantage. #findinglarge for sure and not sure if this is a #strategymedium as Quackle indicates it is.
Will Anderson vs. Sue Tremblay (Game 34594)
Finding Large
13A Pe(R)IANTH +63
This is my first big mistake this game missing the superior 14B A(N)TIPHoN. It is a word that I knew, and although I also saw 13B T(R)ANsHIP, I like the play I made over T(R)ANsHIP with the Z still unseen. #findinglarge
Samuel Kaplan vs. David Engelhardt (Game 42386)
Tactics Small
6B IN(D)IE +10
COR(R)IDAS still plays after this but this is the best I can do to block bingos. However, if he has the X I could possibly still lose, if he plays (M)AXI and threatens 5-letter words to go out or plays a 5 and gets AXI as his last rack, for example. So it might be better to play I(M)INE down low or something
#tacticssmall
Joshua Sokol vs. Scott Appel (Game 33141)
Strategy Large
6J B(U)RP +14
H7 VERB for 9 would have allowed the X spot to be open, although that's not a move I want to make against Mitchell. Against most other players, I might have done that as the opponent would have had to deal with the X hotspot allowing me the VERBS hook. #strategylarge
Mitchell Brook vs. Samuel Kaplan (Game 36290)
Strategy Small
H4 CLUNG +22
I honestly didn't think too much about this opening. I thought this was clear given that it was a lot more defensive than other stuff. Quackle doesn't like it, at all. Surprising, and I'm not often surprised. -4? #strategysmall
Joshua Sokol vs. Noah Walton (Game 37035)
Finding Unspecified
O8 CLIP(T) +27
LIBEL 11I is actually simming better; i suppose there's the dangerous hotspot i'm creating, plus it's relatively easy for him to score a bunch at 11K as well with the right letters. -2 #strategysmall #finding
Matt Graham vs. Cesar Del Solar (Game 35136)
Knowledge Large
15L KIDS +50
I am terrible. I thought it was only KNAIDELS and that I had phonied with SANDLIKE before, but it was DIRTLIKE* against Vera in 2013 where I had TIDELIKE available and chose wrong. Stupid stupid, this is the perfect time to phony anyway. Dahhhhh also KADI and KINDA..... #knowledgesaddest #findingsaddest
Joshua Sokol vs. Karl Higby (Game 37374)
Knowledge Small
13K PITOT +19
Wow. I didn't know HOVERPOrT. It's not a big mistake, but it looks worth it especially since it takes out HOVER hooks. #knowledgesmall #nineslarge
Matt Graham vs. Mack Meller (Game 34739)
Knowledge Medium
N9 DILUTE +25
N5 DUELLI is beautiful. DILUTE isn't that great. it actually slightly raises his bingo percentage, even though i'm trying to block an easy 7 lane. -3 #findingmedium #knowledgemedium #strategymedium
Cesar Del Solar vs. Bruce D Ambrosio (Game 32699)
Strategy Large
10F J(E)T +26
big error, and I didn't properly find my options here. My thought process was very much focused on JET, and I really remember kinda pretending to myself that I was looking for other options when I was really just excited to play JET cause it felt so good. I want to not make these sort of excitement errors in the future, and truly look for other options. I think I was temporarily unaware of the SEGO threat or something, because once I notice that longterm threat I should be less satisfied with JET. JIB(E)R is absolutely the play here. Not only cause PLT is better than BILPR on this board (more flexibility, not as many problem consonant racks), JIBER takes out the SEGO spot which will be a bitch to block, and the recursive threat will let joey wait for a big play there. #strategylarge even though I didn't find the play, it was based on being unaware of the threat, and JIBER isn't hard to come up with once the threat is noticed
Jackson Smylie vs. Joey Krafchick (Game 34915)
Finding Small
11H SHOVE +33
although SHOVE opens the board for a comeback, it increases his average by a ton since the board is otherwise dead. VE(N)OSE is nice for that, but I also like keeping the I column open for better opening plays later. GO(N)E is interesting to open the board and keep the S. I probably don't need to panic here and should play VENOSE. #findingsmall
Jackson Smylie vs. Charles Reinke (Game 33126)
Knowledge Large
O6 TAU(T) +12
O4 ACTUA(T)E OOF #KNOWLEDGESADDEST the funny thing is that I SAW O6 ACU(T)E and it would have still been better than O6 TAU(T). WHY didn't I just play it? Some mysteries shall haunt us forever, friends
Felix Kwok vs. Nitya Chagti (Game 40873)
Strategy Medium
D2 CRU(C)IAL +24
there's a bunch of plays that sim better again, but i thought it very important to go for the X. there are at least two large spots for it, and it seemed like this was the way to win. macondo likes being more measured with F2 CUI(N)G or 7C AULIC, 7D URIC, etc. am i deluding myself and just getting super lucky? #strategymedium
Jared Cappel vs. Cesar Del Solar (Game 39995)
Strategy Medium
A1 TR(O)P +27
RURP and URP on row 6 look best here; they score as well or better than TROP and yield fewer bingos in response, especially RURP. The A1 scoring spot is tough for Ayo to hit with this pool. #strategymedium 4:39
Will Anderson vs. Ayotunde Adeyeri (Game 33406)
Endgame Large
14C SENT +22
I had no time. There's two in the bag, so The Duck *should* be able to figure this one out and it's saying E11 (MAW)N at 16.67% win. Maybe I have to play that and hope to draw the other S, I'm not sure. Anyway, #endgamelarge I'm sure.
Joshua Castellano vs. Marty Gold (Game 34776)
Tactics Large
M3 AG +22
Blocking 2F CAZIQUES 106. Quackle hates this and prefers N6 BI, which blocks the hotspot at N6 (the Q and X are unseen) and outruns CAZIQUES with every possible draw. If I draw the X, I threaten A5 COAX 66! #tacticslarge
Alec Sjoholm vs. Will Anderson (Game 32892)
Tactics Medium
H1 WA(D) +21
Getting a decent S hook on the board while the equity hit to do so is minimal - I say decent because it takes too many other hooks. Of course, the AANOS leave is pretty gross. It looks like H1 NADA is actually a fair bit better to create an S-specific hook and undouble the A's. #tacticsmedium
Will Anderson vs. Joshua Sokol (Game 32878)
Knowledge Small
8H JIAO +22
Briefly got confused about JIAOS and CIAOS* and made a bad placement. I was sure of JIAOS and CIAOS* as soon as I played this. #knowledgesad
Joshua Castellano vs. Mina Le (Game 41908)
Strategy Large
N13 PA(N) +26
This absolutely needs to be something at 3E or 3F using up more tiles. I liked the annoying O column lane that PAN created, especially with the possibility of a huge ZE/OX/NO hooking play coming down and crushing me, but something like GAMBA also creates lanes while avoiding being saddled with 5 consonants. #strategylarge
Vince Castellano vs. Will Anderson (Game 34375)
Tactics Small
8G AUTO +8
i was trying to be a little bit clever and not keep IU or ITU or EITU. i thought this might sim slightly below but it seems like a stylistic choice. -1 #tacticssmall
Cesar Del Solar vs. Frank Tangredi (Game 33679)