Plays made by the player that were challenged by an opponent. This list may not be completely accurate. Check the 'Challenge Heuristics' section of the about page for more information.
Plays made by the player that were challenged by an opponent. This list may not be completely accurate. Check the 'Challenge Heuristics' section of the about page for more information.
MM: First of several awkward decisions especially as I was getting low on time. Mainly considered this, AVOWED, and PAWN/NU. With still a small lead and 2 Ss unseen I decided the conservative approach was better. AVOWED opens a dangerous 2x2 lane for SO----- bingoes, and NU could give back huge scoring plays with SH--- and such at L4. In hindsight, my small lead didn't turn out to be very safe, so I perhaps should've done with NU. I'm going to hit SNED next turn, and if Noah does hit a big play there (which is still fairly unlikely) he'll give me an opportunity to bingo back with my AEDNS leave. Going to go with a #strategysmall here.
MM: Quickly narrowed my options here to HABU and 2L HUB. Especially with only 1 S unseen not, I think HUB is correct and I once again got too paranoid about setting up S hooks for Noah that he might not have but I already have. HABU puts me up 28, which felt pretty safe on this board, but as will be shown was not safe at all if I have a suboptimal draw. HUB also keeps a vowel which is very important here. #strategymedium I think.
The listing of all of the player's mistakes. For more information about mistakes, check the 'Mistakes' section of the about page.
I decided FU(G) was such a weird play that it had to be a setup an overwhelming majority of the time. I did a bunch of estimations here and determined that this was barely worth playing if his play was a setup 80% of the time. However, what I failed to analyze was that this does block the hardest-hitting X plays, but gives back easy -AX plays in return which score around 40 points, so I'm not actually reducing Noah's average score by nearly as much as I thought I was. My other thought here was YO(K). I thought his range was specific enough now that the 14K spot would be mine a lot and that I could draw YO(K)ES or even something better a lot of the time. On paper I average well after BUR(F)I(s), but not nearly enough. There are plays that average more immediately as well, such as the bingo-seeking plays of M7 BUY and BUOY. BUR(F)I(s) should edge those out pretty convincingly in the turns after next, though. Even when I specify OUX as a partial rack leave, BUR(F)I(s) performs remarkably worse than YO(K). And unfortunately, just like Noah, I missed a cool disconnected play that solves most of my problems and keeps the game much closer. 13G (F)U(s)IB(L)Y is the way to go here. It blocks any setup potential better than any other candidate play and scores well. It does block the 14J spot which I still thought was a good asset, but that's OK. I've already tried to draw into a big play there and failed, no need to put all my eggs in one basket with the score so close. A ton of time and thought went into this play, and it's a glaring error. Tunnel visioning into not seeing that this didn't rid the board of big X plays like I wanted it to, as well as setting myself up for only one good outcome. #strategylarge #findinglarge
I decided FU(G) was such a weird play that it had to be a setup an overwhelming majority of the time. I did a bunch of estimations here and determined that this was barely worth playing if his play was a setup 80% of the time. However, what I failed to analyze was that this does block the hardest-hitting X plays, but gives back easy -AX plays in return which score around 40 points, so I'm not actually reducing Noah's average score by nearly as much as I thought I was. My other thought here was YO(K). I thought his range was specific enough now that the 14K spot would be mine a lot and that I could draw YO(K)ES or even something better a lot of the time. On paper I average well after BUR(F)I(s), but not nearly enough. There are plays that average more immediately as well, such as the bingo-seeking plays of M7 BUY and BUOY. BUR(F)I(s) should edge those out pretty convincingly in the turns after next, though. Even when I specify OUX as a partial rack leave, BUR(F)I(s) performs remarkably worse than YO(K). And unfortunately, just like Noah, I missed a cool disconnected play that solves most of my problems and keeps the game much closer. 13G (F)U(s)IB(L)Y is the way to go here. It blocks any setup potential better than any other candidate play and scores well. It does block the 14J spot which I still thought was a good asset, but that's OK. I've already tried to draw into a big play there and failed, no need to put all my eggs in one basket with the score so close. A ton of time and thought went into this play, and it's a glaring error. Tunnel visioning into not seeing that this didn't rid the board of big X plays like I wanted it to, as well as setting myself up for only one good outcome. #strategylarge #findinglarge
now I'm pretty much completely 50/50 about whether Noah has the X, and when I make this play, I'm closer and closer to realizing FU(G) was not an X setup. The best play here is 3I FIN(N)AN. That's a huge miss once again #findinglarge
Drawing the X was so painful, but at least I felt the game was somewhat even at this point despite my attempts to sabotage it with BUR(F)I(s). I had realized at this point that my play had allowed -AX words and was really upset. Also, I could be better off here playing POX and keeping the F considering Noah's last play. I think the defense is well worth it here. #tacticssmall
Quackle prefers KEX, blocking JUPONS with four S's unseen. I chose EX because I wanted scoring potential with the K, though it is not all that helpful on this board. #tacticssmall
2B AECIA is best, unloading vowels and occasionally drawing into 1A QAT with four T's unseen. I seem to never find AECIA, especially when I am distracted by the Q on my rack. #findingsmall
Quackle hates this play, and I agree that it is unsound. My idea was to generate turnover for the blank while setting up a marginal lane on column N that is difficult for Noah to close (without opening another lane or sacrificing points) or to hit, because I have the last E. I considered 12H DOWSE, but Noah usually has one or more of DRRRS and can close the board easily by playing on column M. I did not consider any fishing plays. L8 WE is best by far, setting up OKES on column M and tempting a play at 8L that opens lanes for 8s. #strategylarge
I feel I've already lost this game. I missed ECO J9. Hoping I paralyze him with this play and that next turn I can either draw well or take a low-variance turn to exchange. ECO is the best play. #findingsmall
It's not like I was a huge fan of this play, but again, it seemed pretty straightforward. It's not. It's way less defensive than POGO and even EGO. POGO is probably the best play #strategysmall
this is a bad play for many reasons. Reason number 1 is that I didn't think this took an S. Reason number 2 is that TIT(B)IT is a word. I once again thought this was a great play since it set up my X a lot and blocked EMPLOYERS. #knowledgelarge
Once I made this play I realized it was not good. There's one place left to score easily on this board and it's E5. If I draw poorly after this, I won't necessarily be able to withstand a bingo and a scoring play from Noah. E5 BO is far and away best #strategylarge
so now this plays with TUTTIS for 101. I considered many times whether I would be game to challenge TUTTIS this game, and figured that I wouldn't be able to. #knowledgesmall
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
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
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
in speed games, there is enormous value in seeing bingos quickly. I unfortunately do not usually have that capacity, so I often make plays like this, that can't be too much worse than a bingo, but that are clearly inferior. The time I save is very valuable, but immediately missing the bingos is obviously a problem. Had I taken the time to see a bingo after not immediately seeing one, I would have lost a lot of time and it would not have been worth it. Best looks to be L5 cATHEAD, which looks like it would lead to a game where whoever gets the next bingo will win. #findingmedium
14H (S)pELAEAN is 78! Despite AnNEALED being better because of the placement of the N, it was not worth the extra second to replace the two N's once I had laid the play down. #findingmedium
failed to find plays here, many plays look good that I didn't see. This was the start of me thinking I was ahead, when Noah and I were actually around tied. DUNGAREE scored a lot. 13C MOONI(L)Y looks decent here. 9G O(T)IC is very nice, and M(O)ONY only does well because it keeps O(T)IC for next turn. N10 (D)OOMY is also a good play. #findingsmall
I now realized that I wasn't actually ahead, but this still looked quite strong to block the easy scoring spot, so I was happy to take it over XI(S) for 55. This is valid strategy for blitz, since I'm also leaving myself with FEH 4F for next turn, but the position is obviously richer than that. Not playing 4 tiles is good here because neither of us wants too draw the Q. The pool is very bad so blocking row 1 isn't really all that valuable, except for a game-ending play there like WEARY, TEARING, YEARN, which happens only once in a while. 14F XI(S) is definitely the stronger choice. #tacticslarge
If I was going to chicken out of a valid high-prob 7, at least I did it while making a pretty good play, but it's absolutely horrible that I couldn't be sure BORACES was valid. Noah thought BORACE* was good too. #knowledgeSADDEST
MM: No. One of my biggest misses of the tournament -- ENZYM/ENZYME at 8A. I saw stuff like 12D ZA and 6C GYOZA, and D12 ZANY but really felt CONGOU/CONGOS needed to be blocked with SSUU unseen. Plus YE saves ZA next turn which is fairly unlikely to be blocked. ZANY blocks the CONGO hooks but AGEE is a pretty bad leave especially with a somewhat vowel-heavy pool, I'm confident I average 20 more after YE as opposed to ZANY. Perhaps this is too paranoid, but I think YE is reasonable over the other options I considered. ENZYM/ENZYME are obviously best by a long shot, though. #findinglarge
wrote a big X here on my scoresheet, which seems to designate that I saw that I had missed NAKFA from the N in DESIGNEE. #findingmedium
AUK L1 is only a 4-point sacrifice too, seems worth making for the leave.
MM: Lots of mediocre choices here. C1 JET sets up DU-- plays but seemed too risky with DKR left to hook EF and AAUU left to hook UTE. I liked that JOLT saved UNFED, which is fairly unlikely to get blocked. Noah pointed out after the game that UNFED first might be better, as I have a chance of hitting 3G JAR next turn for a lot if I can pull one of the 2 remaining As. And DUNE as a leave probably doesn't have much potential to improve beyond UNFED. So going to call this a #strategysmall.
I did not want to make this play. It's almost certain that Noah has another E here, as otherwise he would have kept his E and played FIST/FAST. Also, there are 8 unseen E's. This means that he's going to be able to access the O column a crushing amount of the time, and I'll be left with row 14 and whatever counterplay his O column play leaves me with, which is peanuts. I basically had to hope here that he just didn't have an E, which meant no A or I last turn either. I considered NIX 11E as well, to keep things open. NIX looks better because I draw COWED 12B which sets up SCOWED. #strategysmall
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
I overdrew here for the only time this tournament. And it's obviously since I had the blank. Luckily I didn't mix, so he only chose from the 5 I drew. CIZ and the Z is gone. Quackle agrees with that choice. Lucky it wasn't a bigger mistake, but losing the Z is pretty bad. B11 (J)IBE is the favourite. I couldn't stomach it. #strategymedium
after CARD I want to reduce bingos as much as possible, but I don't need to open a 3x3 and try to outrun that way. I can just play M(E)TED and do virtually the same things. This was game-losing. #strategylarge
tough spot. I saw J7 (SAD)HU but did not like that Q(I) 2J would not empty the bag. However, it keeps E4 EGO behind which I missed. That's huge. This just doesn't get the job done. #tacticslarge
I had also completely missed QIS, thought I was winning until he made his crushing move. Having to block RE(G)INA(E) was just the icing on the cake. -7 to LO(G)OI, but this seemed to have the only chance of winning. #endgamemedium
so close. I knew nothing that I saw won, but I missed two of his J plays. Quackle again has nothing on my wordfinding ability since it cannot find this play -9 to just brute force with PUt(Z) E9 or VEIN 4A #endgamemedium
I think taking the points for 13A (IN)VITEE is warranted here. I didn't see it. It does better things to the board and scores a lot more. #findingsmall
I might have completely misevaluated this. I'm probably just not outrunning, which was my goal. Or draw a blank somehow but I was like sure he had it. #strategysaddest
I thought there was a bingo in here, and there was. LIVERISH is very foreign-looking to me. It would not have saved me, but it's definitely the right play #knowledgelarge
Duplicate game detected (Tournament 11158, Round 15).
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