oh my god appendix fuckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk #findinglarge #fuck
Thought hard about whether to play 5M DAB setting up KABO(B) which is kind of never blocked ever but I chickened out of it. I think I need to be a little more free with my setups sometimes but I'm glad I spotted this idea (and it does sim best.) #strategysad
I like how well this goes through the tile bag while I'm ahead by a lot, but 2K BOIT(E) was missed and should have been the play. I should be making plays with less turnover with all those As left. #visionmedium
spent way too long looking for better bingoes and eventually gave up. i couldn't find MONgOES and didn't like MOONErS for whatever reason. #findingmedium
Incredible. Not only did I not know 14J QuIST, but I also chickened out of putting the S on JETSOM and didn't think to play 14J WRIST. This move is so bad that I'm tagging it with multiple mistakes. #knowledgelarge #knowledgelarge #visionlarge
10A DHOTI would have been really nice for 6 more and I save the J for another scoring play! Gotta learn to find higher scoring without needing power tiles sometimes. #visionmedium
Too crazy. I was getting nervous that a simple TRAPROCKS bingo would be the death of me and wanted to get more threats on the board, but I just don't need to play this aggressively yet. B1 BI (confusing notation, eh) bingos much more than BIO thanks to the better-balanced leave hitting COCA plays more often; a different approach would be B1 BE, which sets up 1A ONTIC/OB/NEF for me next turn. 6D OB is a pretty simple way to set up a new line without opening myself up to heavy counterplay. Just fishing the B at 2K also bingos a ton of the time. #strategymedium 17:01
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
quackle really thinks i should play through this rack. i didn't spot O4 LARDER, that seems ok enough, i suppose. or I10 REAR? gross choices here. -7 #strategymedium
So, I'm a silly little goose who is still learning and growing and yes spoiler alert i phonied twice with invalid threes. because i am a silly little goose who is still learning and growing. please and thank you. #knowledgesaddest
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
quackle prefers taking the pts with B4 NAV (and also killing that part of the board). RTU? should bingo pretty often, and it's good to score more points here. -5.5 #visionmedium #tacticsmedium
i wasnt 100% on BOULLES. iirc this is one of the "hardest" racks in aerolith, because people always forget one of the three. also soluble takes an S and i wasn't sure on that either. eep. #knowledgemedium
Now I'm more inclined to open up since I'm down and he played off 3 tiles instead of one, though I should have looked at the pool here. 8L (C)OPE is clearly better. #strategysad
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
The sims said 6A SNOWMEN wins ~82% but 2J WOM(A)NS wins ~85%, which is a bit unintuitive. I think the sim might be overestimating 2J WOM(A)NS slightly because sometimes the opponent will fish 1 with 2 in the bag, but it might still be best. #strategysad
J3 VANqU(I)SH #findinglarge
He took over 3 minutes on his opening move, I should have seen all the possible 8s since there are only 3... Just saw UNSHAVEN and UNSHAVED fuck
Drat. Still not rock solid on finding the 30k-40k probability 8s like UNFIXITY, which plays at A8 for 89. I'd have had a shot of seeing it if the X had been a natural tile as opposed to the blank designation. #findinglarge
it's more important here to keep a balanced leave; OOZE does that better despite giving up quite a bit more points. i also score a lot more after it than OOT. -3 #strategymedium
the previous game against chris schneider was one of the worst games i've ever played. i know i like saying that a lot and hyperbolizing, but it really truly was; it's up on cross-tables for your viewing needs. i still blame it on that first round loss; i truly believe that if i had won the first game i would have won this tournament, but instead i am sitting here at 5-7 with 8 games to go. after tacos el gordo, one of my favorite restaurants in north america, i felt like it would be a waste of my time and money to not give it my very best shot, so i resolved to play the next 8 games as well as i possibly could. i think KEG or OAKED are a little better than my move, though. -1.5 #strategysmall
Massive blunder. I need to play H1 HUGS here. I thought ING bingos were dead after this, but NUKE is a word. Now I have that hanging over me for the rest of the game. #strategysaddest
dead to DETOXING, unless I draw DEVO(U)TER F1 or E(N)ROOTED 14G or his rack is horrendous. DEPE(R)M H1 was missed, and does a ton better against DETOXING, allowing me to outrun and bingo more. This also could lose to stuff that draws into DETOXING, and that happens far more when I leave 2 in the bag rather than 1. PHEE(R)# is also an option. I also considered HEDE(R) which has to be better than HEMPS I think. Was tilted from missing HE M3 on the GAWK turn. #findingsaddest
I'm far ahead that I can sacrifice over ten points of equity to avoid allowing triple-triples. In this case, I should play 10D SIKA. This play got probably the longest hold of my career, because Michael was directing the tournament and a bag of tiles was spilled. #tacticsmedium
I was out of time, and in fact went OVERtime, and didn't see SABIR, let alone BAs O11, forming ZEBRASS. Ouch ouch ouch! (-17) #endgamelarge, timemanagementlarge
This is a good play, however, O7 YEN(t)E for 40 is clearly better and was missed. IIP isn't that bad of a leave with only 1 more I to draw. #findingmedium
I only remembered ANTEFIXA taking an L, but it is EL. my position if I accept is also not very good, I will probably do OPERA or exchange. #knowledgelarge
I only have 1 win in this position that I missed- 6E (P)YI(N). It saves O6 ID which Froilan cannot block- his best block of that play is 5M A(U)K which gives me O5 KID to go out! This was misscored as 11. #endgamelarge
14M KIT sims best, but I was worried about O7 bingos ending in IEST or EST. What I didn't see during the game is that I can also definitely lose to plays like N4 BONACIS, 6H VIB(R)ANCE, and 6G COVE(R)ING, so 14M KIT is probably best. #strategysaddest
I was panicked at this point because I thought he might be close to a bingo which would be game over. This put me deep in the tank and I tunneled on row 13 plays and column J plays. 12J GU(C)K is just clearly best and it's not even close. I need to calm down and just play the equity here. #strategysaddest
Pretty interesting sim result here. Quackle's favorite play here is F7 FROG, followed by 2J HOG, 8L FAIR, 2J FOG, then my move of 2J FOH, then 8L FARO. They're all really closely packed together in valuation. Terry just bingoed and the board is loaded with high-equity scoring spots so simulation is going to be even more accurate than usual. FROG is both the highest scoring and most defensive move, cutting off SLEW and badly damaging the scoring potential of any racks Terry draws with the X in it. (By contrast, the Z plays all over the place on this board and there's little I can do about it.) I didn't think of FROG at all, unfortunately. On the other hand, I'm losing and might like SLEW to stay open. HOG vs FOG vs FOH at 2J is quite interesting. Sim prefers HOG, perhaps expecting me to get down some much heavier bingos with SHEN and THEN afterwards. My play of FOH gives me the highest bingo% on my next move, but nevertheless trails HOG by 3 points per turn because of those heavy bingos I draw into, and which stay open a huge amount of the time thanks to the other good scoring spots available. I'll give FROG a #visionsmall and HOG a #tacticssmall.
i should actually play G2 JEEP since i know he doesn't have the blank at this point so i should go for it. i can always block it next turn. -10 #strategylarge
I'm not sure... I think a12 plays come down a lot, in which case I want to keep as much bingo space open. based on a sim, it seems like the top left marginal lanes are realllly marginal, keeping them open barely improves my bingo chances. I think I should do WAND or D(A)N L7 over CANID, if an a12 play is happening I want to go harder on the bingo%, it will be difficult to outrun. WAND could possibly outrun. #strategysmall
I realized after I played this that I missed A10 LAVAGE, which both I and the sim prefer over BAGEL. The equity play, A12 VEGA, performs equally with LAVAGE. #strategysmall
just with BRANG*, I was about ready to snap challenge, and the longer I took, the less I felt I should challenge. This is a huge mistake, but I still figured my best chances were holding on from this position. But I missed AR(M)Y for 39, which is too many to say no to. There is very limited risk of 7 consonants next turn being pivotal enough to lose the game, and also very minimal chance of not drawing a vowel, given the 15/10 vowel/consonant ratio. Something like 10-15%? I just missed AR(M)Y, but worse, I made this play with absolutely no clue about RALLYE, a word I know. I never saw RALLYE. This was Jackson's game to come back and win. Incredibly good pressure by him, picking at my confidence levels more and more every turn. #knowledgesaddest #visionsaddest #strategysaddest #findingsaddest
It is preferable to play thru this rack over exchanging, although exchanging down to CEN or CEIN doesn't sim too far back. 12H INU(R)E does score 6 more but I honestly didn't love the prospect of keeping CII here. I probably should have gone with INURE, nothing is really that good here. #strategysmall
Maybe just J14 SH would have been fine, as much of an S telegraph as that is as well as GUEST. I clearly made a more desperate move than needed. #visionmedium
C7 ECU is good here because I'm still scoring enough to stay in reach and, assuming my opponent has the J, I can still pick up a bingo after this. #strategylarge
and then... this happens. ladies and gentlemen, your 2020 National Scrabble Champion can't find a top 500 word, or its anagram, on a wide open board. i don't know what to attribute this to. lord knows i've spent many hours thinking about this move and how i've been playing for nearly 15 years and how simple of a word it is, one doesn't even have to be a scrabble player to anagram the simple everyday word UNIDEAL. argh. makes me want to never play again. but i'm pretty sure it was due to a combination of nerves and tilting, and as long as i am actively working towards those, i suppose errors like this will become rarer. but talk about not being clutch at all, god damn. -39.5 #knowledgelarge #unideal #ridiculous
I want to begin by saying that I was absolutely disassociated during this game. What was going through my head? Nothing. I had two thoughts, they ricocheted off of each other, and then it was time to eat sushi. It's the sushi's fault. I just wanted sushi.
Just play I7 JET, Nits. #visionSADDEST
i really find it impossible that i lose after this play unless he has a 6 with -oke. piquet is an option i did not see and pretty much outruns any bngos -10 #findingmedium