Hated to not play on row 14 but those plays just get smashed compared to RIB. But there's a cool nuance I didn't really appreciate here; while plays like sim-winning 14E BITTED surely give up a few more points than RIB does, they actually decrease Tijan's bingo% quite a bit compared to RIB. That's because row 14 after BALDY is much easier to hit than row 15 after BITTED, and RIB also gives him a bonus floater of a B to play with. Quackle is pretty emphatic that this is a #strategymedium.
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
G5 G(U)ANO ugh #endgamelarge
and he shorted me 4 points from his rack even though I knew it. I was rattled after this game. Matt was very much a destabilizing force.
this was really dumb. I can actually outscore if I play K11 OF (or EF which is just slightly worse but same idea). It's 31 points and does actually threaten a lot of stuff when the right letters are in the bag. Really dumb of me. I have to make a play making FEH to reopen the N column, but I can also do other stuff at the same time. This just never outscores. #strategysaddest
This was not a great time to dump my U separate from something since he has the Q. It's possible he had more clunk after also showing a P and a K. I have to assume he will dump the Q next turn. With QOPK specified as a partial rack, I think if I wanted to make my type of play, 4K RULY is a better version of this since I also have 1 more shot to draw a scoring tile compatible with the N10 hotspot. #strategylarge
I don't remember my exact leave here and I didn't record it because I was extremely low on time. This is just a guess since I know I had AEIIRST the next turn. Regardless, this is almost certainly incorrect. #strategylarge
Sim likes POUF which I wouldn't do, but 6E OAF setting up potential MARID reparallels looks pretty good. I think I saw that but didn't appreciate it fully. #strategysmall
UP/PHI over this mostly because of my next turn's leave, which Q thinks is really good after UP but bad after CHIRP. This is a bit too much disparity, cause it's probably keeping CERT type leaves that are really not good on this board. Still, I'm at a deficit, so keeping better bingo options is good. I could also do P(RE)CURE, which opens the board more nicely. I think UP or PRECURE should come down. #tacticssmall
I had a hunch that I should've played BLIVE right after hitting my clock and before Bob's next play...too fixated on keeping an E with seven more to redraw. #strategysmall 15:03
giving him ES as a leave. i also have to assume that he doesn't know BANDA (for the purposes of getting lucky, i mean). matt did a similar play to this one a few weeks ago and i lost because i didn't block it. in this case, my rack is so garbage that quackle thinks i should mostly ignore it and try to clean up my rack. he probably won't bingo - the bag kind of sucks, but there's big tiles out there so his next score is going to suck for me. the main problem with ID is that it only reduces his average score by about 13 next turn (from 61 to 48), which is not enough to warrant making such a bad sacrifice on my end. so this situation is not at all similar to the one two weeks ago, when i actually had a great block. i really should have done some math here and realized ID was bad. 13K IRID is the play -- -7.5 #strategymedium
i did see 2F JEE, but didn't like that i don't have one of the A's to front-hook it. i don't like it that much, idk. i think i would still do JIG any day unless someone convinces me otherwise. -4 #tacticssmall (if anything)
Chosen over G3 WOG because this scores two more points and opens, and the G can hook SIN while the C cannot. D11 WOG scores the same as G3 WOG (which I didn't realize), so the same argument applies--but Quackle strongly prefers D11 WOG. In retrospect, I agree; D11 WOG keeps better tiles and closes, which I should want to do with my lead. #tacticsmedium
so I missed (G)HAZI. That's a huge miss. Saw TEL(O)I but wanted to block something or score something. This seems like second best but it's a far, far second. #findinglarge
huge lowlight where I completely fail to see the possibility of a word fitting through an I in 3rd position. Andy had a 1/3 chance of winning by 2. I recounted everything after seeing a possible word there would tie. Found Andy underscoring MAW by 2, got pissed off, and was not able to see the possibility of EV(I)CTION. Horrible. Obviously, 9s may exist, and they happen not to. Terrible. #findingSADDEST
I'm down, so I guess I need to be aggressive by playing L2 ETCHInG. I didn't want to do it because there was still an F, two Ls, and an R unseen. IDK, maybe I distract my opponent with this while I hope to bingo elsewhere. big oof. #strategysmall
Yes, I saw 14F GRIT. And then I saw KITING, and then I saw TIRING which undoubles my R's and saves the K for 14F, and meanwhile I forgot about GRIT. But I have to draw an A for 14F KA or else the sacrifice isn't worth it. Actually, the best plays are at L10: GYRI, RYKE, and KYRIE block row 14, and GYRI in particular saves the K for 14F and doesn't take any of the four unseen S's. #tacticsmedium
I did not know SQUILLA, which is the bingo on this rack. While that would not have stopped him from bingoing next turn, it would have made this one more interesting. I did see L8 QUASI, but I really need to both score and bingo. QUELL basically makes it a tie game and LL is an awful leave on this board. #knowledgemedium
I super regretted this over WAX. Never considered that him overlapping FAX is significantly easier, even though it's easier for me too. Quackle thinks this is around a point worse. #tacticssmall
I really didn't want to play YOWIEs N10 because of the I draws, but this has to be worse. I ran out of time. Quackle likes 11E (Q)I, which is hilarious. I think this is just bad. YOWIEs has to be better #strategySAD
Can't make myself pull the trigger on PoTENCES for 4 more. No 9s available but I spent way too much time looking and trying to talk myself out of SERPENTIC* #knowledgesad
YET or YELD E9 win the sim easily. It's possible that I missed the Y hook on OGEE, but maybe it didn't seem right to fish at this score. E5 does seem like a good thing to block, but apparently not worth breaking up the rack over. Either #strategymedium or #visionmedium (-6)
I liked hanging onto my Y to open the bottom left if I needed to do that. Quackle thinks I should play VINYL immediately, even though I'm over 95% to win with both moves. #strategysmall
just fishing the F with EFF hits 32/75 of the pool! and is very defensive. I put the T on for extra defense, he averages over 5 less than after VEX. I didn't mind the scoring spot VEXT opens cause if he hits it he's likely giving one back to me. Still, 7E EF or (EF)F look better #findingsmall EF vs (EF)F is interesting, the latter is more standard but the former also invites 8a openings which open the board for me, and I average a lot next turn.
this gives up too many points. about half the time he has a letter to hook it and can hit me back bigly. i had typical tunnel vision here and didn't consider any other move besides getting rid of EE somewhere, but EERST is even better than EORST, and K5 OE makes my bingo more likely to fit. this was not a good move. -9 #strategylarge #focus
since i'm at a disadvantage even after i bingo, quackle actually prefers i volatilize it a bit with M5 TACRINE. i didn't want to fall behind again to a lucky X, but i do need more scoring spots since there's a potentially big one in the left of row 12. -3 #tacticssmall
Considered AMINE and AMINIC but missed LIMACINE, which Quackle prefers; unlike AMINE, it doesn't hook/give up bingos, and it scores as much as I can get. #findingsmall 10:53
he played CRAB too quickly. he has a bingo there a lot of the time, but he probably has it even if i block CRAB. AG bingoes more often, but i wanted to open an additional lane.. so i don't know. if we give him a leave of ATS? for giggles, my move rises up a little higher, but G13 OD is at the top, i guess opening another triple for me to use or something. not a good position for me, but this is all a result of VIM. i'm going to be down my next move unless i bingo back. -0.5 #strategysmall