I think I took like 7 minutes here at least ugh, there's nothing better than this or (W)AgTAILS and (M)ATILdAS. This gives too many overlaps. #findingsmall
i'm too much of a perfectionist, once i saw that i missed this bingo i felt bad. i think it's my only bingo miss of the tournament, but it's annoying because i wrote AABORRSU and i checked that i've both gotten and missed this word a few times when studying. the alphagram didn't really look familiar, and it's a hard word, but if one wants to win nationals, one has to find BAROSAUR here. #knowledgeSADDEST
Now I'm not in a good spot. I do need to play long here, and while this does block some BEACHY plays, I think I needed to spot F9 R(E)FILM here to make a more volatile board. I didn't spot that and REFILM is quite a bit ahead of FIRTH. #visionsmall
tough call here. I liked TWO(S)OME some but the S hook is more risk than I'd like to take here. LOW, MOW, and LOWE are all interesting. She averages a bit more after LOW cause of the E hook, but it's close. I average most after LOW, ELOT isn't very good generally or here. LOWE might be the best medium between them, I score more on average next turn than after MOW and only sacrifice one point. Her average is about the same after each play. #tacticssmall
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
M3 ZE #TIMESADDEST. I spent all my time on the previous turn. The P was in the bag, so I had a 1/3 to hit 14E PELITIC. Also, #knowledgesad for sad desparate challenge.
Both B12 NU(L)L and 1H (B)UNNY are better at scoring more total points over this turn and the next which is what I need to outrun bingos. #strategysadder
13C (JA)P presumes i bingo through the A for THRIDACE/TRACHEID or through the R for TRICHORD. Pretty sure the A is getting blocked next turn. Sad I didn't know TRICHORD. M1 HIPT at least tries to gimme another letter to play through, i guess. i feel like this is a solid #strategysadder
I did not know 11D TACHIST(E). Funny thing is, I can substitute the T with an M for TACHISME, which has 3 anagrams. This is the best nonbingo play, but still, #knowledgelarge.
Not thrilled to open the double-double but this was by far the most palatable equity move; 7E KEPT was my other option, and Quackle prefers it slightly based on just a bit better defense. #strategysmall 17:51
Considered just 7G OO and I apparently get 5% more bingos keeping the M here. Would not have guessed that. Then of course there's the fact that OO doesn't make the big scoring spot for power tile bombs. #tacticssmall
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
I was too afraid of all the lanes on this board. I should still just play HEA(R)D because it scores well. I felt like I needed to be proactive and try and go for blanks and stuff, but yeah... #tacticssmall L(E)HUA 9F is also an option
i spent absurdly long on this move. it was frustrating. i should probably just keep it closed and do EM at N1, and pounce on any openings (or still draw a bingo - EM bingoes 46% next turn, maybe a little less because he'll keep it closed, but still). -7 #strategymedium
update: ONIE did not block a lot of bings
Wanted to do HUB to set up the Z plays underneath but thought the math didn't work out. Still, I should be playing more romantically than this. And the math does work out. #tacticssaddest
ok, so back when he played REARMING i immediately thought "don't forget the P hook" and was looking for a P all game. right after JAYS played, i realized that i missed KEET, and that BIDE was never a bingo fish. you can imagine my brain immediately short circuiting. what happened? this was the last game of the morning. was i hungry? THIS whole game right here is why i'm not coming close to winning nationals unless i change something, and even though i now know that it is my focus that needs help, actually getting to that deeply focused state requires so much effort (for me) that it is insanely difficult. i pulled it off to a small extent at lake george (and still made a bunch of silly mistakes), but i haven't been practicing. what is my POET even doing; i'm going to let him score a bunch off the P, and i'm not even setting up a hopeful S hook. i seem very undeserving of a 2000 rating when i make mistakes like this, which explains why i'm almost never there. -19 #strategySADDEST #focusworst
Found the bingo BEELINE, but unfortunately I did not know it took a D hook. If I'm not gonna realize there's a playable bingo, EEILN is OK to keep on this board for the open D and G, so I think (ADO)BE would have been better than this. #knowledgemedium
E4 FEO(D) is obviously best but we've already established that i dont know COWHEEL. i saw D11 (H)OUF but thought it was too easy to overlap/kill the S hook, but didnt take into account that i need to keep scoring/can bingo elsewhere #knowledgesaddest #strategysaddest
I was confident there were no bingos through the K with his tiles but I missed that he had no bingos starting at E1, so 9E CH(A)W is best, blocking all bingos on the E column. #endgamesad
looks like I chose wrong here. M1 MODI, 6D ROD, 6D ROM all look worth playing here. I liked opening the top left with this play, but I also set up QAT and X plays, which are really annoying. ROD is probably my favourite of the bunch. #strategysmall
i chickened out on (G)LUER -- was pretty sure but if i'm wrong i probably lose the game. my move also wins 100% of the time but i wasn't totally sure i would win, i had about 30 seconds and i saw that i just might outrun M10 NOIR, although i wasn't sure. too much nervousness early left me scrambling for time. -1 #endgamesmall
I intentionally did not go out with 13C sENN(IT) knowing he had 3 seconds left on his clock and was going to lose 10 points accordingly. D8 N(AB)Es would have been better than my move to prevent his highest scoring out play. #endgamesmall
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
I played too scared here. I thought my opponent was fishing but the bag is too crappy. It's more likely that he's bogged down with consonants and there's nothing he can do. I need to play O1 PONT or O1 SOAP and outrun. My play literally set up a lovely little X hotspot for my opponent to outrun me with. Genuinely, I could not have made a stupider move. Even passing is better. This is a time where knowing E4 PANTOS would have come in handy. #knowledgesaddest #strategylarge
I know he opened horizontally becuase I remember where he played REDEFIED.
K11 OVUL(E) appears to be a better version of VU(M). It scores the same, blocks more and scores 6 more than VU(M) next turn because D1 plays appear more often. #tacticssmall
So, yes, I have the blank and im closer to a bingo and it's better to set myself up with 15H AJI and i DID think about it and i did put AJI on the board but then i switched it to JAI at the last second because i was afraid #strategysad
I totally spaced that narco was good...until later. PREY G8 is best. SIm still likes arco better than narco but prey sims 5 poitns better
#Strategymedium #knowledgesaddest
Literally I had so many plays that would have won me the game, but noooooo. I was even considering D1 VOLTES! Never let me outside again, please #strategysaddest
C: I thought about burning the blank with QUA 14F, and indeed it wins the sim. The blank is usually worth 30-35 points, but here it's a little bit less since I'm relatively close to a bingo even without it. (-4.5) #leaveevaluationmedium
J: He said he considered QUaSS 14F. He probably also considered QUa in the same spot but knowing his style he would not play this since it gives back an immediately lucrative bingo spot for me. Another really interesting play is 14A SO(T), keeping the deadly QU? combination for 14F. It really doesn't appear to be a play keeping the Q, so unless I had a play in that spot, Carl would be likely to be able to play there next turn, perhaps even draw an A or an I to be able to retain his blank. I really like that play, but QUa's numbers are crushing according to quackle. 38-point average score after 66 instead of 66 average score after 31 (assuming Carl finds all of his blank bingos, which is a likely scenario).
Considering the option of recurringly keeping the Q, I think SO(T) would be the play here. #tacticssmall