Finding Large
15H NIXED +57
wow, 15C SHINED is 74!!! I can outrun with the X after that! Ouch. Also, INDEX 15E was a miss and it blocks some stuff too. #findinglarge
Paul Avrin vs. Joshua Sokol (Game 35859)
Tactics Large
B9 A(Z)O +17
i blocked my own DIASTOLE. OPINIONED is nice, i wish i'd thought of it. i did think of the hook earlier on. it seems like he is going to block much of the time if i do that. #tacticslarge
Cesar Del Solar vs. Joel Sherman (Game 33684)
Strategy Medium
exch DGLL +0
F5 (WO)LD is a great idea. GLAZE(D) and GLOZE(D) are quite likely draws, so it's probably a beter play than (HE)LD J5 for 6 more. Also, I should keep Z?, not ZN? apparently #strategymedium
Joshua Sokol vs. Judy Horn (Game 36352)
Finding Large
L3 OBOE +22
I completely didn't see JOE until about 15 seconds after I hit the clock. BOOT(E)E is also really nice but also isn't congruent with my game plan #findinglarge
Matt Canik vs. Will Anderson (Game 33560)
Tactics Medium
9E GREW +20
Bad move. 7E WROTE is fine, despite how horrible the G is, two G's isn't much worse and it doesn't give back as much. Also points. I missed WROTE, too equity-minded
#findingmedium
#tacticsmedium
Tony Leah vs. Joshua Sokol (Game 33175)
Time Large
D4 TOLLiN(G) +14
Quackle says I can win 1/4 times with but I'm pretty sure it's lying to me beacuse I played them out and I don't see it. I have no idea if I have a win here or what the best play is. Regardless this play is terrible and I had no time. #strategylarge #timelarge
Edwin Roth vs. Joshua Castellano (Game 33154)
Finding Small
12A CONIUM +30
I didn't see O5 YONI; it seems a hair above CONIUM, which at least partially blocks some of the FOU hooking bingos Jason might have. #findingsmall
Will Anderson vs. Jason Keller (Game 34609)
Vision Medium
12I FOAM +27
i didn't think making dinky two-tile plays was gonna get me very far here (10F FA). i wanted to at least semi-block a lame lane (the L column). i didn't spot 2L O(V)UM which i like quite a bit. i also didn't spot 10I FOUL. that's better than FOAM for sure. i think i didn't look there too hard because it wasn't a double word score? lame. -4.5 #visionmedium
Cesar Del Solar vs. Matt Graham (Game 32681)
Tactics Small
L1 HOED +30
was worried about a worst case scenario J play down L1 here followed by a bingo. I should probably let that worry go and play K3 EDH. #tacticssmall
Joshua Sokol vs. Joey Mallick (Game 32721)
Finding Large
9B VE(R)T(U)S +26
4J V(IN) is the V fish I just missed. I also missed STILB(I)TE fwiw. I also missed SLITT(I)ER fwiw. But mostly I just missed V(IN) which is just dreadful. #findinglarge
50% chance I draw the R, perhaps there's a universe in which I get that down. Also VI(R)T(U)S is just better? Why did I miss that?
Robert Goetz vs. Joshua Sokol (Game 35862)
Vision Small
12J BIND +20
Considered BIPOD in the same spot, but didn't want to allow high-scoring 7s ending in S with all four Ss out. Also PRO is a much better leave than NR especially with no Ns played yet. At this point I'm pretty much conceded to an open board so wasn't that worried about the BINDI hook, so chose BIND over BOND to avoid a possible onslaught of Is from the pool. The best play is probably 2J IODIN, which I didn't see. #visionsmall
Mack Meller vs. Jackson Smylie (Game 34740)
Strategy Large
9C IN +9
K10 IS bings way more. Whatever I play here, he's going to know I'm close to a bing. I might as well increase the bing % and fish the S instead of the N. #strategylarge because this is way worse for bing %.
Marlon Hill vs. Joshua Castellano (Game 32563)
Finding Large
2F OUCH +18
I missed 2e YOU, which I think is the play here. I liked this more than coyau just for defense, but I think YOU is probably more defensive cause he can start with any vowel or S. He has an R more often than usual given he played one and also is keeping bingo tiles, but the H1 YOUR spot isn't massive. #findinglarge
Nicholas Tam vs. Jackson Smylie (Game 35376)
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)
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)
Finding Medium
3I GI(M)ME +24
I am in awful shape already, just because I gave him that C to play through. L3 MITE was misse, and I didn't know GIMMIE. #findingmedium
Bryn Bowen vs. Joshua Sokol (Game 35774)
Knowledge Large
4A EmISSIO(N) +66
i've actually played ossifier at a tournament earlier this year, but no hope of finding it here. i was nearly in tears by the end of this game, which hasn't happened to me in many years! i ended up losing my focus for much of the rest of the day. -9 #knowledgelarge
Cesar Del Solar vs. Carl Johnson (Game 32861)
Strategy Medium
C9 T(H)IRL +18
I can see why I didn't want to play sim-winner ZIN at L8 or G4, but that doesn't make this the right play. It opens a lane that is basically impossible to block. Maybe RITZY 12G or ZINS 11B? (-6) #strategymedium
Carl Johnson vs. Matt Canik (Game 34493)
Finding Large
5F ETUI +15
I don't remember whether I passed up on the bingos or missed them entirely. But the top 5 plays are all bingos: D5 mUTINEER is best, followed by D6 cEINTURE, D5 rEUNITER, D6 gENITURE, and D6 UNrETIRE. #findinglarge
Alec Sjoholm vs. John Karris (Game 32989)
Finding Small
13H (R)UNAbOUT +66
Will: Didn't notice that OUTVAUNT plays at 14F. There's already a gigantic S hook on the board so making another one isn't quite the same problem it would normally be, and OUTVAUNT doesn't open a 9x lane for Josh. #findingsmall #strategysmall
Will Anderson vs. Joshua Castellano (Game 34619)
Strategy Small
K9 TIT(H)ER +18
maybe TITHE keeping the R hook for next turn? quackle likes 12A TITLE, which seems counterintuitive to me, but i think i need to keep scoring spots open for myself too. -2.5 #strategysmall
Cesar Del Solar vs. Jay Levin (Game 33682)
Strategy Large
D4 TOLLiN(G) +14
Quackle says I can win 1/4 times with but I'm pretty sure it's lying to me beacuse I played them out and I don't see it. I have no idea if I have a win here or what the best play is. Regardless this play is terrible and I had no time. #strategylarge #timelarge
Edwin Roth vs. Joshua Castellano (Game 33154)
Finding Medium
13A FON +19
Quackle picks 5K OWL, but I prefer 5K OWN, which has slightly better equity. I missed the spot, and I thought FON scored 22 before I played it. I also mistakenly thought FON kept better than WON. #findingmedium
Mitch Bayersdorfer vs. Alec Sjoholm (Game 33630)
Strategy Medium
10M Z(I)G +13
I should play E6 (F)RUG here. an A draw gets me kANZ(U), an O pONZ(U), and the Z has value later on once stuff opens up a bit, which is pretty necessary at some point. #strategymedium
I was very intent on getting a bingo next turn, but I might not even win if that happens.
Joshua Sokol vs. Eric Harshbarger (Game 35819)
Finding Medium
11K (F)UG +7
this has quite good recursion potential, so it's not as much of a mistake as quackle says over OU(T)AGE. But it's a testament to how OUTAGE is better than FUG doesn't immediately do as well, since it means I don't draw a huge Q play as often as I would like to. #findingmedium
Joshua Sokol vs. Will Anderson (Game 32898)
Tactics Small
L2 HAUBER(K) +32
didn't like what this did to the board, but something like AW only leaves the 3 row open, the other lanes aren't good anyways. looks between this and AW. AW seems to leave more space open and bingoes a bit more immediately #tacticssmall
Joshua Sokol vs. Jackson Smylie (Game 35107)
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)
Knowledge Small
10F HILLY +41
D4 KILL(JO)Y. I'm pretty sure I would have known this was good if I had seen it and I didn't even look at playing through JO, making it a #visionsmall mistake. Also #knowledgesmall for the +5.
Joshua Castellano vs. Daniel Milton (Game 31567)
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)
Strategy Small
D1 G(I)RT +14
A: The best plays are exchanges: Quackle's pick is to exchange all 7, followed by other exchanges keeping the S and maybe one other tile. Keeping the S seems right because it is essential for column O and also useful on column N making ZITIS. GIRT blocks column D and leaves 6 in the bag, making it impossible for me to play two bingos. #strategysmall
C: Worse yet, a few years ago, I prepared a spreadsheet of all the blank bingos with 5 or fewer solutions, and have looked at the top 3,000 8s maybe 50 times each. One of these blanagrams is ?AEILNNO, with four solutions. If I had recognized this, I might have found mINNEOL(A) E4, but that seemed like the least promising lane, and I didn't give it enough time. All those hundreds of hours I've spent looking at those lists, and then I miss something from there. But it pays to remember that all the study in the world can't guarantee that you'll find the word. It merely increases your chances of finding it.
Alec Sjoholm vs. Carl Johnson (Game 34492)
Knowledge Large
N9 BEAM(E)R +42
Saw AMBEERS and remembered it had an anagram but couldn't see BESMEAR. Jackson didn't see AMBEERS and so he let this go. Weird word knowledge mutuality. #knowledgelarge
Jackson Smylie vs. Joshua Sokol (Game 35505)
Strategy Medium
9C JA(I) +18
I have to leave one in the bag here. 14A (T)IP is best because it sets up D12 JAIL to outrun any bing winning everytime according the Championship Player. This is almost as good. #strategymedium
Robert Linn vs. Joshua Castellano (Game 31572)
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)
Tactics Large
15C WINgB(A)TS +63
Absolutely and horribly inexcusable. This is invalid and I held for a while, unable to remember if BATWING or WINGBAT* is valid. I remembered that Reid had a history of knowing a lot of words and I know that I don't know anything at all and eventually accept and make the spread-cutting move but WINGBATS* ISN'T A WORD ASDAFSD
Literally when the only way to lose is to accept a word that looks funny to you, you should probably challenge that word. Guhhhhhh. This is one of many, many times where I show absolutely no faith in my word knoweldge this tournament.
#knowledgesaddest #tacticssaddest (idk if I can tag two things but I'll try)
Reid Hattaway vs. Matt Canik (Game 32971)
Finding Large
F2 G(R)OW +12
a really nice X-setup with 5E TOW(A)GE but I chose to play it safe and not even look for that. Seems way to prudent. #findinglarge
Judy Horn vs. Joshua Sokol (Game 35860)
Strategy Medium
3K (D)IT +10
i wanted to keep the ED for the tricky lane on row 2, and still open something. at this point my win % is so low that i don't bother too much with worrying about what my best play could be. maybe DIT just takes way too many hooks or something. quackle likes J12 TID(E) which doesn't create a new lane. however, it blocks a scoring spot for her. if i have to get lucky i might as well play the extra tile to draw for an N for ING or some crap.. who knows? scrabble is too hard. -4 #strategymedium
Lisa Odom vs. Cesar Del Solar (Game 33680)
Tactics Medium
8H BELIVE +30
part of the reason i played this instead of the standard QI is the hope of challenging off a hook on it. some dead 6s are tricky and i think this is one of them. still, it's certainly not optimal play. -4 #tacticsmedium
Laurie Cohen vs. Cesar Del Solar (Game 35445)
Knowledge Large
9C Z(E)K +32
i chickened out on ICKER. that's by far the best play here. i just need to learn the words basically. i don't know how to learn 4s and 5s. i don't think Aerolith is the best way for short words. -11. i also considered C12 MM but it seemed too weak, it sims better than my play though. #knowledgelarge
Cesar Del Solar vs. Matt Graham (Game 32681)
Finding Medium
11G (A)UDIT +12
I didn't see TUR(BI)D, which looks like a better X setup. It's not as clearly an X setup and doesn't open an S hook for him. With ADES I wasn't so concerned but I'm still giving him a couple awesome lanes, and he's taking the spot very often anyways. Even XU/LOT is probably fine here. #findingmedium
Joshua Sokol vs. Jackson Smylie (Game 35372)
Strategy Medium
12K BR(I)TH +28
i have to do something clever like 2K SIGH here. although my winning % is low, this is how to come back. the problem with my play is it just gives him an easy scoring dump. SIGH makes it tricky for him. also GRITH > BRITH. -3.5 #strategymedium
Frank Tangredi vs. Cesar Del Solar (Game 33829)
Strategy Small
5E GARDA +18
I think I was a bit too worried about his range here. after OXY his options are limited, so pretty often NIL won't be keeping the best leave possible. with AINT specified, GARDA sims second best to GHAT, which kills the sim. I guess with that type of rack it hits the G quite well. I was too worried about the ANIL lane I guess. I was happy to not play AARGH, but that is probably okay. What he had in reality was def the lower end of his range, but it seems that with a lot of reasonable racks GHAT is the play. I am surprised that ANIL is this small of a worry, but I guess it does partially restrict the lane. #strategysmall
Jackson Smylie vs. Adam Ginzberg (Game 35161)
Tactics Medium
N10 HA(e) +28
very annoying, playing HAE instead of HIE. i still do this crap too often. -5 #tacticsmedium (or what is this? i have no idea how to qualify this dumb error)
Cesar Del Solar vs. Jay Levin (Game 33682)
Knowledge Small
15H EX +42
This is the best in terms of win %, winning 7/8. N12 Z(I)G does the same but with a slightly better equity. #endgamesmall and #knowledgesmall for my sad challenge next turn.
Evan Berofsky vs. Joshua Castellano (Game 34962)
Knowledge Large
L7 JAGS +25
wrote down JAGLESS on my scoresheet, and i haven't studied enough to know the words cold. sorry to disappoint my loyal fans out there. now i'll never know how sick it would have been to bingo with JAGLESS. 2E J(A)G is better than my move, btw, i think. -58 #knowledgelarge
Rafi Stern vs. Cesar Del Solar (Game 32715)
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)
Strategy Large
exch YY +0
this is wayyyyy too steamful, and i thought i was focused. D10 YEN or YER or even better, 15E AIRY are fine! i'm pretty sure i saw AIRY or at least i should. what am i doing exchanging? bad mistake. -16.5 #strategylarge
Jay Levin vs. Cesar Del Solar (Game 32939)
Knowledge Large
11E (E)DI(T)ION +16
NOOOOO I FORGOT THEY ADDED A THIRD WORD TO THE ADEIINOT RACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -50 also maybe 3F ION. #knowledgelarge
Joey Mallick vs. Cesar Del Solar (Game 32698)
Strategy Medium
8J AM(E)BAE +36
K3 AXE is better defensively than AMEBAE and scores 4 more. so it's better, even though AMEBAE scores a little more on avg next turn. -6.5 #strategymedium i don't understand scrabble.
Sal Piro vs. Cesar Del Solar (Game 35133)
Vision Medium
N2 BRAInI(E)R +68
Scored as 78. This is the only bingo, but I did not consider playing at 15H after BENT came down; RABIETIc and BIRRETtA are available. #visionmedium #scoring
Alec Sjoholm vs. Gary Waltuch (Game 33629)
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
12E GARNETs +66
this is a very poor placement for my bingo, reminds me of playing newbs who play a blank bingo hitting nothing for 20 fewer than an actual good play. my main problem is that i just completely forgot HUMERAL took an S. if he had put an S on it i would have been like oh yeah! also, the pretty R(EH)EATING is available, and should be eminently findable by me. even BERATiNG is a ton better. i suppose i was trying to play defense, if one was to assume HUMERAL didn't take an S, my move might be defensible compared to BERATING. in any case, i'm very likely to win this game now no matter what, but i should learn the words better. #knowledgelarge -22
Cesar Del Solar vs. Jackson Smylie (Game 32702)