I overdrew here for the only time this tournament. And it's obviously since I had the blank. Luckily I didn't mix, so he only chose from the 5 I drew. CIZ and the Z is gone. Quackle agrees with that choice. Lucky it wasn't a bigger mistake, but losing the Z is pretty bad. B11 (J)IBE is the favourite. I couldn't stomach it. #strategymedium
i deserved to draw another I. i recognized here that i was in trouble, and i took a deep breath to calm down, i spent about a minute before looking at the board again -- then i still was unable to find a spot for IDIOM even though i saw it on my rack. sigh. it's the best play here, at 11J. -4 #focus #visionmedium
part of the reason i played this instead of the standard QI is the hope of challenging off a hook on it. some dead 6s are tricky and i think this is one of them. still, it's certainly not optimal play. -4 #tacticsmedium
This is a bad play: it blocks row 12 and the BESCOURS hook, opens a D/N hook that I don't have, and scores only 12 points. Quackle strongly prefers 9F LIMA, which keeps the highest-scoring lanes open and scores 21 points. I like J2 MILIA, which scores the same as LIMA and keeps a better leave. #strategymedium
At this point I think I have the board under control because she didn't put the E on HAWS, so I burnt the R so sevens didn't fit on the board. Big mistake. There are a bunch of vowels left and I'm not even up by that much. #strategymedium
Apparently I'm supposed to play on row 4 according to a sim and CP. I guess he bingos there a lot and I have to block or it gives me a better chance to draw a blank. In hindsight I think I agree. This play is bad. #strategylarge
wow didn't consider L1 JAWL(I)NE! it's nice to not open the O column. I think I prefer it by a bit, setting up the scoring spot is okay as well with my lead. #visionsmall
I used my astounding and unfathomable knowledge of the leave values to correctly determine that H1 LIMA is better than H1 DIME and I am vindicated by the engine analysis which evaluates H1 LIMA as 0.1 equity better. Also, I completely missed G6 ID(E)M which is the best play #visionsad
1st live tourney for me in 2.5 years! The drive to Holden, MA was well worth it. I stopped off in CT on the way there the day before to hang out with another buddy and had a great time with him too. Despite some word knowledge errors I made this tourney, it felt nice to use real equipment when it mattered most. So here it goes: I saw SLEEPED* but correctly passed that up. Unfortunately, I thought SPEEL was a noun and not a verb, so I chickened out of SPEELED. #knowledgelarge
I was kinda nervous on this turn, I saw big downsides with every option, and that probably prompted me to play more paranoid with this play. That being said, I was kinda happy that it looks like a huge mistake but I think it's not the worst (at least not the 37 points down Q has it as :D). spread does kinda matter though, so I should really play JO(E) and go for a bingo. JERID can get in trouble if he hits an S play then a bingo, all the other J plays can get triple tripled on. JOTA can of course go south with 2 bingoes, or even a 14J play, but at least I'm very likely to hit a bingo, and it's unlikely he would hit a 14J play and a bingo and I don't hit a bingo. I still outrun 1 bingo very consistently, after JOTA for 11 or other J plays, but I guess after other J plays I can start beating 2 bingoes. f2 JOTA or 2f JOE are probably the plays here, even though it sucks to give up the occasional triple triple. those only really lose to 2 bingoes or a triple triple, and even then the 2 bingoes are very unlikely (I'd have to not bingo). so a triple triple is probably less likely than a big 14 play + bingo after JOTA, but I don't think this is a massive error. #strategymedium or something? idk
Not bad, but 14A MISDID is fine if it means outrunning better, which I can safely do at this score. I would have done MISDID if I had seen that. #findingmedium
ugh i was so frustrated by JAUNTEd that i spent literally 9 minutes on this move. i spent a very long time trying to alternatively talk myself out of BESETTED*, talk myself into playing DEBT instead of bingoing, and then trying to find a better bingo than BESTEaD. then for about two minutes i started even doubting BESTEad was good. With about 12 minutes on my clock i said screw it and just played bestead. very frustrating, constantly losing to Joel. DEBT sims significantly better than BESTEaD, and BEDrEST is also a better bingo. -8.5 #strategylarge -- i didn't think he would leave the 3-3 open
if i play AOUDAD here, josh is just blocking and i lose. i don't think i have a realistic chance of winning this game. quackle is so optimistic. i was hoping to keep scoring as much as possible and maybe i'd draw some miracle pREX or kYAR bingo. lol. I think DOURA gives me the best chance, though. #strategymedium
The only win is fishing the U or OU with OE in the bag to draw the unblockable G2 TENAIL(L)O(N) which is notable but difficult to spot. #endgamesaddest
MM: Lots of mediocre choices here. C1 JET sets up DU-- plays but seemed too risky with DKR left to hook EF and AAUU left to hook UTE. I liked that JOLT saved UNFED, which is fairly unlikely to get blocked. Noah pointed out after the game that UNFED first might be better, as I have a chance of hitting 3G JAR next turn for a lot if I can pull one of the 2 remaining As. And DUNE as a leave probably doesn't have much potential to improve beyond UNFED. So going to call this a #strategysmall.
I think I would have been rather insane to fish off the M with 6G M(EW) even though Ed is more unlikely to block a 3x3 when there's only 1 tile that fits in the 4th position in this case. Despite giving back potential D1-D4 or D1-D4 plays, C2 SMARTED still comes out on top in the sim. It's slightly worth it for 3 more now even if Ed seemed to be fishing his last 2 turns. #strategysmall
watching my laptop start to whine and heat up to the temperature of our sun as it sims makes me feel so much better about having had a hard time finding a good play. like, yes, this pile of metal and numbers, too, does not know what to do here. fwiw, it likes 7F WE, so it's only like a #tacticssad (ish)
i suppose i should play a proper endgame here. this is how to get spread. i knew with near absolute certainty DOWNSME(N) was phony and didn't bother looking for a bingo from it (pretty sure i'd find ordinals if needed). i have to block ENOW with 12C DE, and then draw an F or a G, which i know are in the bag. G bingoes in both lanes, and F bingoes up top with SAFRANIN. i also have tRI(JUGATE), in case i draw the F and he blocks the top lane. I was going to try it if i needed it, but wasn't sure of it. in any case, this results in a very large spread error, even though the game is 100% won. -85 #strategylarge #endgamelarge
MM: This is not a good play for two reasons. 1) I should block 2B RIN/NEW with TOLT, which is 10 better. 2) TROOK* is not a word. #endgamemedium
JM: No such thing as TROOK*. I must have been thinking of STROOK. Spread meant very little to me at this juncture.
I think I didn't consider FLABS but I kinda remember considering FLAB and not liking that C- bingoes wouldn't play. I think FLABS is def worth it though, this is badddd #findingmedium
nooooothing is worse than ur opponent opening with a bingo and having a shitty response. Q likes UNBIND a lot more, I really considered it to put pressure on and maybe to induce a mistake. I should have done that, I got fixated on making this JIN spot and keeping the G open and stuff like that, but I don't hit enough with this. #strategymedium JUT is also better, or JUG. I do hit 1/5 about, but this doesn't seem good enough. also doesn't really keep things open if I play horizontally with DJINN
Drawing OOO killed any chance I had of winning this game. C2 APO has the best valuation; it blocks Carl's next play, and the pool is consonant-heavy, so I don't have to worry about keeping five vowels on my rack. #tacticslarge
This is when S(PORTERs) becomes relevant. I was not a fan of it at the start of the game, but I forgot about it when things started frowning upon me in this middlegame. It is absolutely relevant here and keeping my S is very important. #knowledgemedium
GENISTA and TEASING are a tiny bit better than INGESTA. Quackle prefers SWEATING for 78; amazingly, giving up column A is not expected to increase Darrell's average score beyond what he will get after TEASING/GENISTA/INGESTA. I'm unconvinced. If I'm honest, I was 99% sure GENISTA was TWL and opted for a 100% option. #knowledgesmall
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.
wow i didn't expect XU 9H to sim that much better if at all. XU really limits her score next turn. it's ok to play defense if i'm down. -4 #strategymedium
This is a great opening by Tim and I realize I'm kinda screwed here since there's no way to effectively block. I figured I'd at least make a play there so I'd be able to block in two turns, but he's just gonna open somewhere else. Maybe I should've gone for 9B N(I)L or maybe I need to counterfish somehow. I dunno. #strategysaddest
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
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).
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
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
$ is notable, 12B (R)ELAuNCH is findable, but if im not gonna do that then 6J (ZEA)L is better than my play (and even 13B (I)NCHmEAL) #findingsaddest #strategysaddest
Using the E instead of the A or O brings my bing % way up, but I'm probably better off playing 6I N(IT)ROX hoping to draw all the vowels. #strategylarge
any shot i had of winning disappeared by missing MEALLESS, which is kind of a hard find, granted, especially with my state of mind at this point. -24 #knowledgelarge
got kinda... idk aggressive loving or something, w the R out and the lead I liked having this leave, and to outscore with OLIVES hooks. however I should play OGIVE, which is a better version of this! I think I temporarily forgot that OGIVE took an S #knowledgesmall. I could see playing VOGIE as well, that is the type of play I usually make!
quackle prefers taking the pts with B4 NAV (and also killing that part of the board). RTU? should bingo pretty often, and it's good to score more points here. -5.5 #visionmedium #tacticsmedium