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
oof. i chickened out on RETRACER, wrote it down but couldn't pull the trigger. ERR is still not right if retracer was phony, maybe something at 12 A like CARET/CERATE/CREATE. -38 #knowledgelarge
i like this move, but quackle thinks just dropping the H is fine. apparently i bingo close to 89% of the time when i do that! definitely sounds a bit high, since i don't hit bingos with the B or R, and he's going to block some percentage of the time. so i'm not sure. anyway, i didn't see that many possible bingos, and wanted to keep the F for scoring at O4. #strategysmall ?
I need to play BOURN here, also makes his parallels give back more, another shot at the extremely important S. Sliiiightly fewer bingoes on average though, but still looks worth. #findingsmall
At this point I am very low on time and proceed to absolutely blow the game for this turn and the nex. This is technically winning, but it's way harder for a human to play, especially with no time. L4 AE is best. #TIMESADDEST
I think 7c ATT might be the play i was looking for. I didn't like that MATT gave back big overlaps, but ATT is better cause his overlaps score less and they will give back a lane on the A column. The pool isn't too dangerous for those overlaps either. I like it to keep ILKA open. I was kinda lost for options here, didn't see anything besides ilka plays that I liked. At this point I was also not so down about playing with ILKA because I figured I could get away with the S hook and challenge it off if he played it. #findingsmall
I saw sim-winner WOW 12B but didn't like keeping a vowel heavy rack. It's better than opening the TWS. I just can't think without sleep, and consequently I'm making mistakes on nearly every turn. (-6) #strategymedium
unfortunately I took 4-5 minutes here making sure there was no 3x3, and didn't count how much a play would score at 13B. TINHORn scores 3 more than my bingos to the C. #findingsmall. ORNITHIC was more defensive but I was only 80% sure of it or so. #knowledgesmall
it's between yuch and huic here, but annoyingly i insta-played YUCH instead of considering them both. i think HUIC might have a small edge here because it's more defensive. #strategysmall
The sim is saying stuff like L10 (R)IG, 11M GI, M10 (A)GIO, and M10 (A)G. I'm not sure how much these work though and I don't know what's best. #strategysaddest
outruns most out-bingos, but not all of them. Had I been sure of CLODPOLE, I might have played that, since most of her bingos fit there. I think CLODPOLE should win the most games, since I don't foresee losing in any endgames that don't involve bingos. 32 draws seem to win for Chloe after WOODLICE, and 27 after C(L)ODpOLE, so a slight edge to blocking. If it were the beginning of the tournament, WOODLICE would be the best play for spread. #knowledgesmall
I suppose COLT isn't bad since there's not much to score in this position. CT? is actually not that bad leave after O4 TOT(HE)R, which I didn't spot, despite the open Gs as floaters even though 7s I play would open up good counterplay for Eric. I think either TOTHER or 7H TORC look slightly stronger. #findingsmall
H10 (T)ANGUN is better because it doesn't make the hotspot. I really hated giving all those floaters but I didn't see anything better. #knowledgemedium
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
however, in 2017, I won against Joe Edley, thinking I had cashed, but everything else did not go my way and I ended up right outside the money. I saw WEEPIE and was just too uneasy about its validity to play it. I knew that I could afford a few small mistakes, so long as I didn't lose a turn. Though, I had lost a turn to Karl earlier in the tournament and still won that game. WEEPIE is obviously a word and I just have no self-confidence. #knowledgesmall
i spent a long time on this move and then made a bad play. i should play CURIE 10K here, i considered it and it is aggressive, and good, i have the case S. it might be slightly worse because he is consonant heavy. i strongly considered 9C UNTIE as well, and saw that the bag was consonant heavy (11 vowels and 16 consonants unseen). i knew he probably had like 4-5 of the consonants at least based on his last few plays, so that may even out the bag a little bit, but still, UTE seemed to bingo a lot. my problem is that the bag still has a lot of ugly high point tiles that won't bingo. i was worried that if i played UNTIE or CURIE i would draw 4 consonants and my rack would go to hell. still, i don't know how i spend such a long time on this rack and then make such a lame move. i should be less afraid and play CURIE. there are high scoring tiles to go for like the J, Z, X which i need to outrun him. i even considered DA(CE) for quite a while, which sims almost as well as CURIE. i basically grossly overestimated how much UTE would bingo, and then spent a while trying to justify to myself that i should play it, and then decided it was worth the risk. i was totally wrong. -9.5 #strategylarge
4G B(E)NZOL was the play I was looking for here. Right idea to dump the Z because it's a sucky tile on this board, but the B also needed to be dumped. #findingsmall
I did underestimate how good H1 BET(H) is here despite giving up 7 immediately and allowing Dustin a vowel to play through. There is merit to doing that since I can draw into J5 ZETA to keep the board tight and continue to score. Worst case, if Dustin did not improve his rack, I can always respond with 2F ZE(E) on the following turn to block the board even more. It's a couple valuation points back of ZEP. #strategysmall
KATI and KRAI sim less than a point ahead of KINA despite KINA's slightly better bingo% - probably because they synergize a bit better with the K I just hung in space, though it's unlikely I get to use it. #tacticssmall
chickened out of O3 (P)lOOKIER, which i'd seen last turn and was too titled to find O2 s(P)OOKIER #knowledgesaddest for phony #findingsaddest for O2 s(P)OOKIER
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
he would later mention that i got all 10 power tiles but if you notice here it's a great disadvantage to have these tiles in this case. D11 BEG looks standard, i suppose, but so ugly. ugh. -7.5 #tacticsmedium
tough call here, definitely a weird position that took me a while. AX D12 is aggressive and certainly considerable, but it gives back a lot on an otherwise dead board, and then CIRTU doesn't go so far here. BRUX also gives back more than I'd like, I imagine he has X plays fairly often (though I draw EXACT and such quite often). XI/QI just seemed to not do anything proactive for me, whereas ACQUIT cleans out the rack that isn't good for bingoing or scoring. Q seems to think ACQUIT gives back more to him, and BRUX is better for me than for him. #tacticssmall
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
ugh, this move is so bad. at least i realized that i can't play 4J O(DE) by itself, it doesn't hit enough and scores abysmally. but LODE bingoes even less so it also sucks. i did see 2L ULNA and considered it for a while, but i hate ROTE and i'm down by 100 pts already, i absolutely need to bingo next turn. i didn't see M1 ENOL despite breathing deeply, so maybe there is no hope. -8 #findingmedium #strategylarge
12C VID for the much better leave and also 100% win. also, notably, H(UM)P seems to win 100% of the time even though it leaves ERECTILE open, probably because i'll score a lot in the triple. i didn't see anything else.. this is a big mistake for spread purposes. #tacticslarge -54
This play isn't bad. At least I found an OK way to play thru this rack, but the play I was looking for here was F7 (BE)RYL which I did miss. That would have given me another S hook to work with despite the slightly less synergistic DNPS leave. On the other hand, I think my play surprisingly sims a little better than BERYL because LPRS is more synergistic. #findingmedium
I think I had 10 seconds left here. I did not have time to track and didn't realize how good the pool was. 10N (P)O wins 5/8, this wins much lesser than that. #TIMESADDEST
had better spot for these letters, which I either saw during the game or upon analysis on a previous device I forgot about. 13I FROWARD or FORWARD #findingSADDEST
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
ORIEL L10 is probably best. However, if Peter kept a second S after BINTS (no guarantee; he could just be burning consonants), ION does much better, simming basically even with ORIEL. ION is still a large mistake because I didn't see ORIEL at all, but it may not be as bad as Quackle thinks it is. (-13?) #visionlarge
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
Sucks that K11 QAT got blocked. I would call this a mistake- yes, it is the right idea to turn over more tiles in the hopes of improving the Q. I should have played GOATEE at 10B for only 1 less point so that I potentially give myself 2 spots to dump the Q next turn if needed, in this case 11A QI and 12E QAT. It also blocks the O in DUOMI better, and that's why 10B GOATEE sims better than my play. #visionmedium
i think i just flat out missed PReSOLD, and probably 5H DROPLeTS too. i think i forgot polders had an anagram, but i can't remember. -16 #knowledgelarge
Very panicky. I was low on time and did not realize that triple-triples were unlikely with this pool. D1 LATRINE is fine. On the other hand, Moiz was very low on time and making a drawn out endgame will be favorable. #strategysaddest
I saw O10 FAKEER as I entered this rack into Quackle. Surprisingly OMA is only about 7 points worse, but that is likely because it keeps FAKEER for next turn. #findingmedium
I didn't want to play K5 VIRT(U) and give back 6J Q(I), but I guess it's probably fine. I thought I might be able to induce some low scoring Q dump or an exchange with this play. #strategysadder