Good for finding a scoring play, but Rs are better to keep than Ls on this board, so MOLLIE in the same spot would have been a little better. #findingsmall
i always absolutely hate having to make decisions like this. is AW a fish? it seems like i just have to score. quackle likes it too, but it also likes 11C EARWIG. upon further thought, i think i would have played EARWIG if i'd seen it. #tacticssmall
Even after an exchange 6, I think 10E LIE would have been a little better because even though I set up EWER and the EDIT hooks, L10E LIE sets up both my D and my R and Brandon averages about 3 less next turn. #strategysmall
NC: Exch. NOQ I'm a dumbass. I saw the floating G and I thought "I don't need the G" but I can play 5F bingos ending in ING by keeping it #STRATEGYMEDIUM #VISIONSADDER
First of all, 4D FEBRIC(U)L(E) is notable af but it's a nine so i'm not counting it. Second of all, 1D FILBER(T) is next in the sim so for THAT, i will indeed give myself a #knowledgesaddest
Missed the sweet (F)O(D)GEL. I am not in a good position, but any board opening play I can make will just get outrun too easily. FODGEL is a better version of this plsy. #visionmedium
missed 3(!) bingos here, and I knew I was missing them too. LOPPERED and LAPPETED I didn't know for sure, and I chickened out of DEPEOPLE. #knowledgeSADDEST
I missed 15J TAHSIL! What a wicked play #knowledgemedium #findingmedium
compared HALT and HILT, decided that yes there were more A's out, but the ZI combo is still much worse than ZA, although I get NAZI with an A, so hmm.
best is M12 BAN(I). I had been aware of the M13 (r)A(GI) spot, but didn't see this one. That saves OI 4L for 15 and stops Stefan from going out in two with W(ON)T 11J. -7 #endgamemedium
i had too little time here, but i think i should keep the Q and hope to get lucky! 20-minute timer really messes with me, clearly OW is the only thing that gives me a chance to win here. -15 #strategylarge
I ran out of time, mistracked, and gave up and just scored, which wins 4/8 with no inference. M6 DIRL(S) wins 5/8 with no inference when he doesn't have a bingo on the O column (if I draw EIRS?) and O3 DIXI wins 5/8 with no inference when he doesn't have a bingo from the V (if I draw AERS?). The evaluation of this endgame with inference is left as an exercise to the reader. #TIMESADDEST #STRATEGYSADDEST
shiiiiiit I missed FREMD. #findinglarge I was also close to exchanging here, and I think it is fine, especially cause DEFT doesn't take an S so overlaps may not leave me with much. ERST sims best, followed by EMRST then DERST then DEFT quite a bit below #tacticssmall as well for the DOUBLE FAIL!!1
I missed the R hook on JAKE and the L hook for PATAGIA (which I straight up just didn't know, I thought it maybe took an S or nothing). Once I saw that B9 (BA)IRNS guaranteed the win I didn't really think too hard. #visionsaddest #knowledgesaddest
Nothing is particularly appealing to me here. I could have also done 6H VAV(s) as well, but I would like to be able to counter with a bingo should he bingo. That's just gonna make it extremely difficult to play on the top of the board in the future. However, H4 VALV(A)R is a miss and would have gotten me out of this mess better. #findingbad
EENRR is so gross to keep with DHAL...Quackle is saying I should've tried to avoid that with something like 9H DERN. DHAL sims closely behind. #strategysmall
missed a couple of things here, mainly MAR(CELLED). Didn't know MARCEL was a verb. I guess I'll know for next time CELLED is the opening play. I also missed OZA(L)ID for 40, and potentially misevaluated ZO(O)ID K2. Wanted to do a bit more to the board here, felt in control. #knowledgemedium #findingmedium
O1 BEAU is best, but again, I don't know the hooks to pAtHOGEN. #knowledgelarge but there are also better plays that I did know, like G4 UPO and 3D UVEA. I would like them more if they didn't kill the row 3 lane....
I saw O10 IRITIC, and I should have played it. IRITIC blocks column O, one of the higher-scoring bingo lanes on the board, and partially blocks row 12. The reason I played ICIER is that it fully blocks rows 12 and 13, the easiest bingo lanes. But it sacrifices 13 points, W > ITW, and I can easily outrun most row 13 bingos. #tacticsmedium
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
noooo just play B(O)W. i think i wanted him to waste some equity but why not try to bingo again. i'm trying to consciously fish a little less but blowing up INRST with a nice G to bingo through is just silly. -6.5 #strategymedium
INCUBI is cool! PION was the other word I considered. BUN at b2 scores an extra point, but NUB is slightly more defensive, taking out the left side more. I score more next turn after PION, it looks wholly better. #tacticssmall
7L GRR has a considerable positional advantage over this placement. Leaves the easier 7s lane open on row 10, but moreover blocks the R and T in OVERTLY that aren't super useful to me and leaves the A in FAKED alone. #tacticssmall
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
i don't know if this is an overreaction. do i just play Z(A)G? GADJE sacrifices a lot of points but gets rid of some ugliness. CDEJT doesn't strike me as an appetizing leave. i suppose if i draw another E i can get JETTED for a few points, or DEJECT, etc. i hate this and should have exchanged on my first move. quackle thinks the sacrifice from GADJE is not worth it as i only get slightly more points next turn with GADJE than ZAG, but i'm sacrificing 13 pts now. makes sense that this is such a big equity loss. -10.5 #strategylarge
11I RAJA is best equity but given the game situation I wanted to play a bit more aggressively and keep lines open. However, something in between like 11K JA keeping a slightly better leave seems best here. #strategysad
I spent quite a lot of time on this, aapparently I should play FOU on the bottom for defense, but its really close. I actually didn't generate that. -1 #visionsmall BUFO sims one up too. FOU top gives away 3 more, which is a lot.
Why didn't I play 14B GRASP? Actually, PING has better equity than both GRASP and Quackle's choice, 12A DING. But DING is better because what, APRS is a better leave and A12-A15 is less lucrative? #tacticssmall
N: 3A (O)VERmANS and 3A (O)VERSmAN don't even win anymore lol oof #knowledgesaddest also I went over by three minutes so the final score was recorded as 320-472
I liked finding a play that opens up nicely. I think if I wanted to also dump my G here with Column H already being one of my main bingo lines, E2 VAGIN(AL) was a slightly better play for 2 more. The sim agrees. #findingsmall
missed the nice B(EWE)PT. Very equity-focused mindset. PET was also a leave I wanted, but I felt like Jackson would more often than not dampen the P by playing on the D column. Thought better to go for an S or R or blank. #findingsmall
so I missed (G)HAZI. That's a huge miss. Saw TEL(O)I but wanted to block something or score something. This seems like second best but it's a far, far second. #findinglarge
I didn't have to phony here. I saw TOKENING but it looked awful, and missed everything else. KENoT(R)ON is a word I was not familiar with, and it plays for 94! I also had NEKTON(I)c. #knowledgelarge
Thought this was a good phony though. I chose the more volatile spot because it was less likely to get challenged if it meant leaving big spots open.
I think I missed 3B NA(I)F. That seems good here as well, since I am not sure of SEPTORIAS, so a lot of the value of OF decreases if I choose not to play SEPTORIAS. #knowledgesmall
No floating B for BANDPASS or PASSBAND. That would have been a nice way to get my psyche up. I guess I7 ASP is fine despite the hooks it gives up. I guess Quackle wants that volatility when I'm down quite a bit already. Not to mention my spread is awful. #strategysmall
I couldn't see any way to fish off 1 tile and guarantee a bingo in two spots that can't be blocked. It turns out there are none, but fishing off the U draws into I6 AN(T)Il(A)BOR and 14F BARItON(E) which is pretty cool, but I'm never finding I6 AN(T)Il(A)BOR and blocks of 14F BARItON(E) will often block I6 AN(T)Il(A)BOR too if I somehow manage to find it (I won't) and he doesn't. None of this matters too much anyway since this is the finals and a tie is pretty unlikely. 1C (C)ARIBOU is probably fine. #findingsadder
Perhaps I should have thought to do 4A GEnITORS here, which is the top simming play, instead of either my play or VERGIToS in the same spot because it doesn't open up anything new for Brandon, even though I am sacrificing 4 points. It's still a relatively nice pool and I would not be out of the woods. I should probably force Brandon's potential counterbingo with this reasonably nice pool to score less and give me back more. #strategymedium
Case S is extremely strong here with LUVS and a very bingo-friendly pool, so I played CROZE to at least partially block some stuff through the K and completely take out the the row 2 bingo line; 1I MOCKERS was very tempting as well. Obviously, I'll feel pretty stupid any time Joey triple-triples through the K after CROZE, whereas pretty much no bingo after MOCKERS will score enough to threaten me, especially with me holding the Z. I think I got a little greedy here and should've played MOCKERS just to secure the win. #strategysmall
So many lanes, so much potential! I spent more than 5 minutes looking for bingos and didn't see one. After the game, I gave the rack to Alec and he found the only bingo in about 30 seconds. Dude is *sharp*. Also, LENO 1A is better than any other play by far. I must have gotten flustered after wasting all my time failing to find the bingo that I didn't take more time to find the right non-bingo play. (-30) #visionlarge, #strategylarge, #timemanagementlarge
Rd 2 of Philly virtual 1-24-2021. SEXLIKE* is not a word fyi. I know some of you all wish it was.
Q does understandably like 8G KEX a little better, but KEX will get paralleled too often by someone like Jay. This allows the board to stay open for reasonably longer, but EXILES is probably even better than this. #visionlarge
gotta find K7 KEMPT here, it keeps a much better leave; i especially need a good leave because based on his last two plays another bingo is coming down right about now. -6.5 #visionmedium
But the sacrifice was worth it, as (alas) my 93-point JETES was blocked. Quackle picks 1A EME, blocking 1A and ensuring that my M scores well while saving D6 JEST or J10 JETS. #tacticsmedium
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)
I played WILJA extremely fast, thinking it had to be right - but 11I BEWIG scores 40 and leaves AL, which is far more flexible than BEG for bingoing next turn. Didn't generate it as a choice. #findingmedium