H1 INfAUNA(E) #KNOWLEDGESADDEST and a big old "what was I thinking?" because I spaced out and thought I had a T. It took me until walking over to the challenge computer to realize that I never had a T and I'm just stupid.
Didn't know fricking EWERS. Feels like SADDEST but since it's only 5 points. #knowledgesad and also 1K VEG(A)S. I was completely out of time. #timeSADDEST
Lamented STEEPEN being blocked - at no point did ENSTEEP remotely come close to entering my mind. If I'm being honest, what *did* go through my mind was - should I play STEEPEN and hook NAD*? Nah, Winter surely knows that NADS is sticky-S, and probably has some kind of lewd device for remembering that factoid. #findinglarge
Fishing is not the right play here, for I do not hit often enough, and once Orry makes his play of M13 LEU I have to start blocking again. I should take the points with 10D GIBES, the sim winner. #tacticsmedium
Fatal mistake here; again, not many Es left, so not liking L8 NEELE: but the play here is 14F EEN after Terry's VAE. I have to try and force her into opening the board and letting me get my bingo down first. Probably more of a #strategysmall but I got burned pretty hard. 12:11
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.
Taking the scoring spot at N2 and setting up an S-hook. N1 EE# is better execution, as it scores 7 more points both immediately and on average next turn. #tacticsmedium
once again being safe, though I missed SPElEAN in the same spot which I would be sure of as opposed to SPEANEd, which I was not, given I always confused SNEAPED SPEANED with SNEAKED SKEANED*. #knowledgemedium #findingmedium
I suppose he could have S(E)RAGLIO, the only playable 7 on row 14, and nothing else. I should therefore play deP(L)ANES A2 or fish with E(ME).
i played the rest of this game in like 2-3 minutes. i realized the only way i was going to win is to speed play; i believe he was down to around 5-6 minutes by now. i'm normally a very slow player so this was an interesting tactic. -3 NUB in the same spot, but shrug. #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
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
incredibly frustrated here. The board isn't close to being contained and now if he gets a bingo I am barely ahead. E7 T(U)RR is winning a sim, isn't that ridiculous. I saw it but thought it took an E. lmao fuck. I can just block the S hook later with a VIVAT play ending in RT. #knowledgemedium I exchanged XTTRT keeping RZ
hilariously ran out of time here. I assumed he was going to play something with QUATE like ME(R)C so I put down PASSIvE and EQUAT* and only stopped because I didn't have enough time to circle the blank and hit the clock before going overtime. Then I realized I was about to play a hilarious phony and laughed instead of actually finding a better bingo. Then I was down to -00:45 so I had to just play the first thing I saw. #timeSADDEST #findingSADDEST
Looks like FUGIO is a bit better; WU is certainly worse than the IOW after FUGU, but FUGU gives back the big easy E hook and FUGIO scores 4 more. #tacticssmall
N9 SHoFARS and N9 SHARiFS lose to 15H ACRIDE(S)T. I had about 30 seconds left when I took the S off of N9 SHoFARS. This never loses, but H10 (A)SHRAF is much better. #knowledgelarge
i saw D# VI(LI)FY and then convinced myself you need two Ls to spell it. N12 D(IVI) does slightly better than FOY, probably because having 3 Is is something that only Odysseus dreams of (if you know, you know) #strategysad
This is one of five plays that win 100% because they block N5 VENDEES--a word I had forgotten about. Quackle likes L8 WO because it doesn't empty the bag. This is the pre-endgame, though, and I don't trust Quackle here. I like 10J WAUR, unloading a U with one unseen. #strategymedium
-14 ! bad bad move here. i liked it thematically; blocking a few vertical bingo lanes. quackle prefers three moves at 12K - PAW, MAW, WAP. ordinarily, with a nice lead, it would be foolish to open the board like that. however, her bingo chances are very low - there's only 1 E, lots of I's and other ugly letters left. so PAW is good! #strategylarge #focus #bag
14B for 2 more since IIRTT isn't doing much with an open I. Or if I'm not going to do that, even YTTRIA is better since that cleans that rack better. #strategymedium
I know that FRS is in the bag and I was trying to set up some unblockable bingo but I think he's able to block everything. I dunno. F1 (ZO)RI seems pretty good here. #strategysaddest
why was i so nervous? my brain settled in on CARIES and considered nothing else except CRANES (which is better). but I didn't like CRANES because if he draws the S he can have an easy high scoring overlap like MATED, etc. but i didn't think of the simple CARERS, which keeps a vowel (i DID notice the bag was vowel heavy, but i was so nervous at this time after the RAKIS mistake ...) and i'm quite likely to draw an E because the bag is E heavy, but i thought of nothing else!!! #strategylarge
This outruns every available bingo, but the best play is 14B SQUIRM, which blocks more of Jennifer's potential bingos than any other play, leaving only column A open. J4 WAZOO is notable. #strategysmall
This should've been DEGUST, which I considered; there are no spots for sevens with my DST leave apart from DOJOS or EMS. Quackle says I bingo 21% after TEGU and 18% after DEGUST, which is easily close enough for me to take 9 extra points here. #strategysmall
I really only considered QaDI O1, VE(G) I6 and this. I was worried SERIFING* was good, so I calculated the endgames with that in mind. This is wrong since SERIFING* is not a word. 3K V(OWE)D blocks REFINES/SMEW, the only available bingo, and keeps threats of Qa(D)I open.
#knowledgemedium
still need to improve at defense. D4 QI gives up way fewer points even though it scores 2 less. i can also draw stuff like hoplites or bingos to the S. i think i was trying to block the S lane partially, but that's not worth sacrificing easy triple pts. -6 #strategymedium
i saw YOWZA but didn't like the leave and what i thought was worse defense. guess i was wrong though. ZONARY has much worse defense; lots of overlaps i guess, or plays through the Z. -3 #strategysmall
first instance this tournament of seeing a clear best play after making my inferior play. He gave me the perfect letter at 9J to play through this rack, in pretty decent fashion. 9F AU(G)U(R)Y is way better than this. AU(G)U(R) is actually a really cool play as well, and sims similarly to AUGURY given the huge scoring potential of keeping the Y, not only for 10 row plays, but 8 row plays, and also just stuff like K9 YOW that will often balance really well and score 31. #visionsaddest
none of this crap would hae happened without retracer. quackle likes 7C TEPEE a lot more, or 7B ETAPE, etc. i think with all the Us out i might be able to score more next turn. -10 #strategylarge
This turn destroyed me and I spent maybe 10 minutes tanking because I didn't know what to do. I really didn't want to open with 13H (SH)INOLA. F6 IO seems fine in hindsight #TIMESADDEST
While I did like CORE over COLE because of more remaining Rs than Ls, I did miss a bingo here- 11G RELOC(AT)EE. I gotta work on finding 9s. I realize they're not easy sometimes, but that could use some work. #findinglarge
This is where I wasn't sure what to do. I do want a more open board against David but REG seemed slightly reckless. Maybe GIE in the same spot is fine. I can still make a 2nd S hook without giving back hooks I don't have (AREG, DREG). #strategysmall
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
I completely missed AR(M)FUL here, which is definitely optimal. I did this because things are starting to look dangerous and I'm ready to induce mistakes. This is #findinglarge way behind AR(M)FUL and 13J FERULA and even 13L TUFA but actually considering that I will likely get FOULERS* to fly or get a turn off of her playing it, I think this is correct. If she's 50% to lose a turn after FOULER, I'm right to play it, and/or if I'm somewhat likely to use the spot which I think I am (maybe 15-25% of the time or something).
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
Chosen over 9G AG, which allows 10G pOMFRET. H6 OVA wins the sim; ADEGR >> ORV, and after OVA, Steven's highest-scoring bingos are 6C/6G FOREMOsT 66. The sim assumes that after AGED, Steven will play 10I FORMaTE, allowing potential OVER- plays at O8--which means that if Steven plays at 7H instead I can expect worse results than the sim suggests. #tacticsmedium
I wasn't sure if it was HYOIDS or PYOIDS* that was good. If I was sure, I definitely would have done 13C OsTIARY. Out of the plays I did see, I considered 11A YAk(I)TORI but that gave back too much to him. I also saw this as more sound than I6 AuD(I)TORY or pO(D)IATRY. That said, 13C OsTIARY is clearly best but those -OID words that do or don't take an S are a bit tricky. #knowledgelarge