Good thing I found the word. I would play this at G6 in a do-over. That's much more defensive and scores 4 more, especially after his range likely consists of another S and another vowel. #visionsmall
Tough call here, I tried to Nigel this out and figure out as many permutations as I could here to see which bingo would yield the lowest chance of counter-bingo, or whether maybe I should just fish off an N or the D; as it turns out all three bingos yield exactly the same bingo% of 71%, but INTENDS does in fact yield the lowest average scores. It does look like I work out a little better here by fishing off the D, which hits everything except the M. #strategysmall
I gave up here and blocked some potential bingos since spread could be really important later on. N7 YOGI is even better for saving spread. #strategysaddest
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
tip: if you have a bingo on your first move of the tournament, play it. You'll be infinitely more likely to win said tournament if you do. I saw TROWTHS, but ROWTH didn't have a hook in my head #knowledgesaddest
This has the best equity, but Quackle overwhelmingly prefers exchanging, keeping only the R--though I am ahead, I am less than 50% to win, so I should preserve the lanes on rows 14 and 15. #tacticsmedium
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
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
Too defensive or nah? I wanted to block 1A bings and 12E MUTUE(L) creates an S hook (he might not know RIPERS). I await your hatemail. 12E MUTUE(L) and 12M UTU are probably okay? #strategymedium
a rare purposeful phony from yours truly, but I was so tilted here.
I should think about the position here and play 2M DIG. This is still not the best play. #strategysmall
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
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
The only bingos are 1G WHIlLIED# and WHILlIED, which I did not know. However, Quackle prefers 13A IWI#, which keeps a better leave than WILI# (including two vowels, which is important given the consonant-heavy pool) and gives me a chance to play a bingo from 1H-1O next turn. I considered 9M WAI#, with the same idea; but WAI performs slightly worse than IWI and the bingos, likely because it blocks column L. #strategymedium #knowledgemedium
Whiffed on some good options here, especially L1 DUSKER, and definitely should've done L1 RUSK, taking a small advantage on a bad board. KNAUR is also better than DROUK just to avoid keeping a U. #findinglarge #strategymedium 11:10
an inexplicable miss of just 10H (D)UIT, which is worse than average but still has to be worth playing. Hyper leave-oriented play seems to have permeated my brain in NWL of late. I only considered exchanging and playing RUTT(Y). #findingSADDEST
super interesting choice between D1 ZO(E)A and this. How dangerous is the H1 spot? He took a while to play JOG, does that mean he doesn't have an A or E? I think my gut was really wrong here and I should have played ZO(E)A. In my opinion this is #tacticsmedium but Quackle says it's a 1-point mistake. Quackle has zero hindsight obviously. Jack was setting himself up under JO.
there is absolutely no reason to do this. I didn't think SOBERERS* was valid, but because I wasn't sure, I think I was kind of punishing myself, and also, *maybe* he doesn't challenge somehow. #knowledgesaddest
Sim winner is STUPA 5F, blocking LE(TUP). Ok, I'm sleep-deprived and all, and I have no time left, but I'm just saying: even on a good day, I'm never finding that. (-13) #endgamelarge #timemanagementlarge
quackle's ridiculous robot brain wants me to do J12 TEAT or TEIN so i can have a great chance at a triple-triple or at least a bingo up top. pretty crazy. the equity loss here is gigantic, but i'll just roll my eyes at it. #tacticsmedium
Wasn't really a fan of giving Reid easy and obvious underlaps to HEX, especially with 5 unseen Is and two unseen Us at this stage in the game. Sim still prefers HEX by about a point and HENT sets up sad possibilities if he's got one of the three unseen esses though. #tacticssad maybe but I'd probably do it again unless someone smart tells me not to
I was ready to play UNTENTED despite being unsure, but he gave me an A to play through, and I decided to make a big sacrifice to play something I was sure of. Once I played TAUTENED I started getting a bit pissed off at myself. I had been convinced UNTENTED was valid, but was more like 70% beforehand. 30% of the time I lose way too much to justify not taking around a 10 point sacrifice, but this assumes Seth will always know. Once again intimidated by the word knowledge, to a fault. Seth was likely to have challenged this, as he demonstrated when I asked him about UNTENTED after the game. #knowledgeSADDEST
Going for an -ED bingo on column I. I felt plays there like RED or ICED are too easily blockable since they take lots of hooks, but column I gets blocked a lot too so perhaps it's still better than LEE. I also considered NEREID, but that seemed bad as well after he parallels. Everything is quite bleak in any case, so this is a #strategysmall at most.
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
lots of options here. 2F ILEA, 2H AA, 2G ALA are all nice aggressive plays. They kinda bank on her not having the K, but that's a decent gamble in this position. If I draw the K I get good scores, and she can't score there easily at all. I sorta like ALA best of the three because I also open a lane on the 3 row that I can hit even if she gets a K play, ISATINE and the like. A(J)I is also interesting to go for ELASTAN(E), ELASTAS(E), ALIENAT(E). 26/156 I hit, which is pretty good. I'm inclined to take the other 2 row routes to go for the K, but I'm not sure I win always when I draw the K. I think it realistically is pretty often though, and something like ILEA would be good for that to draw the K the most, but after she blocks the spot I may not draw a good K play at the bottom. Maybe ALA because I can still get YENTA draws at the bottom, bingo draws, K draws and stuff like YIKES. #strategymedium because this play doesn't have a big plan, I don't think I clued into how much trouble I was in. I was more in the mindset that I would necessarily squeak out an endgame, but with big K plays available I can't just make a play like this. same with YEANS, that is findable and could be bad.
I think 3I WUD could have been done here to open up a 2nd lane. The extra points immediately were not worth it. Gotta love new themes sometimes, right? That's the beauty of Scrabble. #visionmeh
weird spot. I saw 4G EE(R)IE which has the best equity by a longshot. I decided against it for reasons. Those reasons are pretty frivolous, but I thought I could control this board I think. But EKE is also a fish, so if I bingo where is the control? I dunno. This is a huge sacrifice so I hope I'm not crazy. #strategymedium
I thought the S was pretty valuable on this board but Quackle is saying to play L9 (T)EAMS. J12 A(U)F is also worth considering, but her last few plays seem kinda fishy. #strategysmall
I really just need to play off the X. Just gotta find my 9s. If he bingos with BOWS or BOWL, I get N(AT)ROLITE with an I or L, I get R(AT)TOONED, and with Y or S, I get (AT)TORNEYS. With an M, TORMENT(Or). And then there are the overlaps of whatever bingo Jon would play on row 13. Still, I do insta-lose after some bingos. X(ED) 13B is the alternative, setting up a new lane. There's only one E left. Even if Jon plays on the A column, I will usually win after an out-bingo. If he gets something huge like FILMIER A8 for 101, he will be at 439, with a full rack and an empty bag. If I draw the Y, I get ATTORNEYs for 94 and 14 from Jon, winning with a 455. If I draw a bingo on row 13 like TONNERs, I'm scoring 72 and getting 20, tying with a 439. That's at the upper end of bad for me. However, if Jon doesn't bingo immediately, the same will then apply for my bingos on the A column. So it gets kind of dicey. Still, it's a very interesting option. This one, OX, runs into some bad draws, with only a 2/3 chance at best of a bingo. Playing just the X off is more like a 75% chance. This does block a bit, and his bingos will actually open a lane after this, which is why I chose it. But this was a scared play. Could have really gone badly for me. #strategylarge
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
I didn't care for B1 JEAN just because I don't have an S and Cesar could very well gobble up the A1 spot, but J2 JACANA(s) needs to be spotted. That's the play. #findingmedium
probably EpEEIS(T)S 5C for 2 fewer to not set up long-term forking potential with the W hook or something. Not the 2x2 ending in E thing, no, not that!! #findingsmall
i thought i had a better chance of drawing the X if i just bingo now. the worst thing is that ELEPIDOTE is not available because i have the last two Es. quackle thinks I should do 15L DUPE or PULE which i considered. maybe i draw the X, use it, and bingo the following turn?? -7 #strategymedium. honestly i don't know how to compare the two plays.
I saw 15L PI(N)T. I hated the leave with this pool and was nervous about potentially picking the Q. That would have absolutely screwed me over if Scott bingoes with either the FUDGES hook, the TOUCHE hook, or throught the E in KERF. And even if Scott doesn't have a bingo, I then have to potentially waste my blank to dispose of the Q. Championship player does not put this too far behind A1 TaWPI(E) and O8 VIeW. Lookng back, maybe I should do 5D W(A)P if I'll score something and minimize turnover if the V is also very clunky on this board, except if I draw -TIVE bingoes on Row 2, namely 2A OpTATIV(E). #strategymedium
And SIEGING doesn't play. I hate it when these small exchanges don't pan out! This was a suboptimal move and is where I feel like I lost the game. I can score the same with 9E GI and keep much better. While I do set up SEXING, he can use Column G to both score and block effectively. #strategylarge
suddenly, things aren't so clear. I don't remember if I missed VIN(Y)L or not. I think I really need to deal with one of the threats this turn. This seems like a tactical failure. #tacticsSADDEST
a little upsetting that i missed mingled. i saw melding, and didn't immediately think it had an anagram, because i don't study as much as i should. pretty important to find the right plays in this game. -5 with an inference of IST or something like that; josh would never play ZIG without an S. #knowledgemedium
Spent around 1.5 minutes here, knowing I needed to speed up. I should have easily spotted TRiAGED, which doubles G and D. The only issue is the X spot that creates, but I would be slightly closer to drawing it than Jackson, so it might even be beneficial to me. Quackle rates this as a bit more than 2 points worse #findingsmall