Strategy Medium
H1 ADAPT +35
Meh, I liked the 12 extra points over AUDIT in the same spot, but AUDIT keeps a much more flexible leave for this particular board. I can draw plays like 5K PARR or PAIR as well as 8L PAGE next turn. IU just isn't doing much. #strategymedium
Edward H Zurav vs. Samuel Kaplan (Game 37166)
Strategy Large
7D GAY +19
Since SUE was played quickly, I really thought he kept nicely. Still shouldn't have passed up M11 GYP for 10 more due to OPAH still being present with 8 Os left.. #strategylarge
Samuel Kaplan vs. Edward H Zurav (Game 37292)
Strategy Small
H1 AZ(a)N +39
I tunneled in on using the H column and didn't adequately consider J2 ZEN, which keeps a better leave and doesn't give back a bingo lane. Column H isn't too dangerous with the given pool. #strategysmall #zenstillshouldntbeawordlarge
Matt Graham vs. Mack Meller (Game 34723)
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)
Knowledge Large
E2 RAUNChY +77
I was unsure of TRUANCY and DURANCY*. TRUANCY plays for 90 at 13I. I forgot about UNCHARY, seeing it and not being sure. #knowledgelarge
Matt Graham vs. Joshua Sokol (Game 34819)
Knowledge Medium
O12 (F)EUS +32
This is when S(PORTERs) becomes relevant. I was not a fan of it at the start of the game, but I forgot about it when things started frowning upon me in this middlegame. It is absolutely relevant here and keeping my S is very important. #knowledgemedium
Joshua Sokol vs. Frank Tangredi (Game 35853)
Vision Medium
exch ABLQA +0
BALED 4A is the obvious move here. I saw BALED on my rack and just didn't look for a place for it. Also exchanging AQ is probably better too. #visionSADDER #strategy#SADDER
Danielle Barker vs. Maureen Clifford (Game 33545)
Tactics Medium
2D FOHN +31
Apparently FOX is better, but it seemed like it gave back sooo much and I can score with the X next turn, but DHNR can turn into something as well. I could hit INHOLDER or something #tacticsmedium
Joshua Sokol vs. Alec Sjoholm (Game 33070)
Strategy Large
N4 DIN +19
Quackle says N5 IN is the only winning play, but when I play out the games it loses to A1 FUNKiA, A1 FANKlE, and even A1 UNRAKE, so I'm not sure what's best here. #strategysaddest
Waseem Khatri vs. Joshua Castellano (Game 39216)
Finding Small
13C OAF +21
I completely failed to see the hyper-agressiive 9J OF here. What a play. Just decided to equity here and see what happened, since I wasn't ahead by enough to play defense at the expense of my rack with all the lanes on the board that weren't getting blocked and an unseen blank to boot. #findingsmall
Maxim Panitch vs. Joshua Sokol (Game 35783)
Finding Unspecified
B9 (U)PBIND +34
H1 BLIP is only 1 less but keeps much better. 4D D(u)PING is sick vision and keeps a comparably good BL leave, but DGIN is just much better than GL as a leave. #findingquestionable
Robin Lewis vs. Samuel Kaplan (Game 36412)
Strategy Large
exch PEG +0
I really did not like any of my options and I thought there was a good chance Jim would play at H1 again allowing me to bingo through the floaters. D7 (ABID)ER is probably fine. #strategylarge
Joshua Castellano vs. Jim Brennan (Game 38733)
Finding Medium
8L U(N)AI +15
F10 (Q)UOTA seems like a good idea here. I didn't like (Q)UAI despite it being more proactive than U(N)AI, since it could help Kevin a decent amount potentially. QUOTA is best by a lot #findingmedium
Joshua Sokol vs. Kevin Fraley (Game 37081)
Finding Medium
L8 CU(T)CH +30
when i choose to play all ugly i have to play as precisely as possible. maybe a robot can play perfectly after VIM, but i have to be able to find the somewhat hard to anagram CATGUT through the T and see that it's better than CUTCH. keeping the H is nice for the possibility at B10, and CH has good synergy as well. -4.5 #findingmedium
Cesar Del Solar vs. Bruce D Ambrosio (Game 35339)
Tactics Small
10I LIRI +8
LIRI is the equity play, but Quackle strongly favors 13C TIRL. The only reason I can think of is that Richard averages more next turn by playing through the R or I of LIRI, blocking my best lanes in the process. #tacticssmall
Alec Sjoholm vs. Richard Stein (Game 34237)
Strategy Small
9G P(U)L +19
I8 SPOOL looks a little better. NORSS doesn't even bingo more than NRS and is much higher variance, plus SPOOL creates another S hook I can use. #strategysmall
Mack Meller vs. Matt Graham (Game 34743)
Strategy Large
14G B(E)NJ +33
Will: Close, but there are more than enough bingoes that still go down along column L that I absolutely need to play BENJES here instead; I probably also do a bit better in endgames by going out in one. #strategylarge
Joshua Castellano vs. Will Anderson (Game 34385)
Tactics Medium
H7 ZED +26
I was a bit wary of opening all the nice floaters, but I still gotta just do ZOSTER here. if it was ERST instead of ORST then we might be talking. He only bingoes 5% more after zoster? interesting #tacticsmedium
Jackson Smylie vs. Arie Sinke (Game 35244)
Tactics Small
2L (T)IVY +23
surprisingly, she averages 6 more after TIVY than MARBLY, and 8 more than after E10 lays. I didni't think the Y there was such a dangerous spot, but it seems to be. OYEZ sucks but are there a lot of plays like that? Q prefers MARBLY here, I don't see a reason not to trust the sim, besides my slight preference towards the less risky ABEL leave. #tacticssmall
Jackson Smylie vs. Anita Rackham (Game 35364)
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 Medium
1H TOE +21
When will I learn that I should never keep two I's? H1 TOONIE is best. Although I think I would have played TOONIE if I had seen it. #findingmedium
Alec Sjoholm vs. Jack Peters (Game 32992)
Strategy Small
C11 (Z)OON +28
now this is a mistake. playing ZOO would just work out better. i didn't want to keep two Ns but i have a good chance of using one the next turn if not bingoing outright. ugh! -2 #strategysmall
Jay Levin vs. Cesar Del Solar (Game 32939)
Strategy Small
13F WAAH +34
I considered all three of the top plays here, the other two of which are HUP M1 and HAW 13G. I could see that WAAH made it trickier to fully take out Rows 10 and 14, relative to HAW, and made it easier to score there besides, but figured that most of those scoring plays figured to muck up that part of the board. The case for HUP was that Row 1 is dangerous, and HUP neutralizes it forever. But it didn't seem worth it to sacrifice 10+ points. In the end, HAW G13 wins the sim. The immediate three points are worth it, and it might be better positionally too. -2 #strategysmall
Peter Sargious vs. Carl Johnson (Game 34477)
Vision Small
8A VAG(A)L +27
Maybe 8A DEV(A) is a little less blocky, or even 9C V(I)G is probably slightly better leavewise, but my win % is still around 8% either way. #visionsmall
Judy Rosenthal vs. Samuel Kaplan (Game 36870)
Strategy Large
1A S(U)LFO +36
Tanked down to next to nothing here, just could not find anything I liked. However, SULFO is obviously very wrong and hemorrhages any win% I have here. I probably should've done the other move I was considering of N10 FUERO and hope to draw unblockable bingos in different areas of the board, of which there are a handful. #strategylarge
Ben Schoenbrun vs. Will Anderson (Game 33416)
Strategy Large
6A (Z)OEA +15
bingoing here is wrong, at least i got that part right. paesanos never wins. i didn't have too much time left, but i figured that the spot at L4 was potentially worth a lot of points, and any bingo i made would be negated by that spot. so i should try to fish and go there, right? i saw ANOA but it empties the bag and i did not estimate my chances of having an out in two spots very highly (it seems to be higher than i thought). i didn't see L4 EON, and i might not have liked it for its AAS? leave. turns out EILO was in the bag so i win many games with a lot of those draws. i should have reasoned it out better. if i leave one in the bag, he can just score a lot and my bingo out won't be enough. why did i get it correct that i needed to pass up a bingo, but then not finish the thought? massive strategic mistake to end this game. -40% win chance roughly #strategylarge
Jonathan Kent vs. Cesar Del Solar (Game 32937)
Strategy Unspecified
D1 PEIN +27
i think if i were to train a neural network to play scrabble, it would choose 10B PAINED. that really really is not my style, but i did very strongly consider it. i think i do need to play like that when necessary. PAINED puts me up at least 50 on a closed board. now he has the responsibility to open it and i can just keep it closed. i would come to regret this move strongly. #strategy?
Cesar Del Solar vs. John Karris (Game 32683)
Finding Large
E8 (A)DhESION +66
this play was MISDONE, I spent too much time trying to find a bingo through the A of BARKED, panicked and went with the worst possible BINGO.
#findingSADDEST
Danielle Barker vs. Peter Maas (Game 35342)
Tactics Small
C8 (M)ETALING +74
i7 ATINGLE is the auto-pilot play. I liked trying to control the board with this, blocking more lanes, but I overestimated the bingo defense this provided. #tacticssmall
Joshua Sokol vs. Joey Mallick (Game 32721)
Strategy Small
8A G(U)Y(O)T +34
10 points seemed like a bit too much to give up for 11A LEVITY, but in hindsight it does seem worth it. GNS has decent bingo potential with 3 Is unseen, and minimizes my chances of consonant overload since it keeps one less consonant. It also blocks the A11 spot and keeps the A1 spot, which I'm probably a favorite to use over Josh since I can put my S at 6A. The LNSV leave after GUYOT really isn't going anywhere on this board and could turn disastrous very easily. #strategysmall
Joshua Sokol vs. Mack Meller (Game 34742)
Strategy Small
12J (W)AP +16
no idea what to do here. I took forever. Maybe (W)RAP to set up WRAPT. I hated (P)RAU because of all the extra bingos it gave back. It still sims best. #strategysmall
Joshua Sokol vs. Arie Sinke (Game 38020)
Vision Large
12H VEXILS +43
quackle doesn't like this very much. even though i block way more bingos with my play, 5D VEXIL scores more and keeps AS. also, trains can bingo up top, and it doesn't bingo THAT often (about 60% if i leave the bottom open). #visionlarge -9.5
Darrell Day vs. Cesar Del Solar (Game 32716)
Strategy Small
2F DU(R)A +22
Again, major consonant overload to come - the EIIL leave should combine with the pool to hit some plays on row 1 that Marlon can't really address. Still, keeping two Is is avoidable here with plays like 4A LUDIC, 4C DUCI, and perhaps best of all, 2F LIRA; CP actually picks 2F DURAL, really going all in on drawing consonants to the leave of EII. Makes sense to me. #strategysmall 5:22
Will Anderson vs. Marlon Hill (Game 33170)
Vision Medium
O5 GUACO +26
I think VOCAB needs to come down here. Although it doesn't do as good a job at outrunning as GUACO, it lowers his bingo% from 22 to 13. I may have to go all in on defense here, it will be tough to outrun (if he bingoes he's still drawing into a great pool). If he bingoes after GUACO I could possibly win, I'll be down at least 25 (for 11 row bingoes), an out in two will probably not win with GV in hand. RE- bingoes will win the game instantly for him. I think VOCAB is the play, outrunning with GUACO isn't viable enough. #visionmedium
Jackson Smylie vs. Matt Canik (Game 33114)
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)
Tactics Medium
10C W(AD)I +10
I inferred a Z. But Jeff didn't have a Z. In my defense, 10C WADI wins the sim when I infer a Z, because none of Championship Player's choices block ADZ. But otherwise, 9G WIT is best. #tacticsmedium
Jeff Fiszbein vs. Alec Sjoholm (Game 32987)
Knowledge Medium
E4 MAK(I)NG +26
MARKING is better than MAKING cuz of the pool, i think. quackle still doesn't like blocking, instead playing 15H MANGEL to open another lane? i really disagree, i think hitting the L would be a lot harder than a wide open lane with MANGEL, and another lane in row 3 or 4. 3B RAGMEN seems to be the best play that blocks the lanes in the top left, and it keeps the K for scoring. -5 #findingmedium #knowledgemedium
Nigel Peltier vs. Cesar Del Solar (Game 32701)
Strategy Large
1H PE(C) +21
I saw 2B SWANNIE available after this play, but I felt like I had to accept that and just outrun him. Also loses to KYANISE, SWANKIE, and ANYWISE. M7 EON is best. #strategylarge
Daniel Blake vs. Joshua Castellano (Game 36969)
Strategy Medium
7G HO +22
Yea, this move carries too much risk with the leave and, of course, drawing 2 more vowels. HOO does sim better. Not to mention, AINOS isn't the best leave with an open K and I. #strategymedium
Robin Lewis vs. Samuel Kaplan (Game 37196)