Obviously not opening after YIN. LUN preserves HAZAN/AZAN possibilities for the future. The only other move I would potentially do here is 9C HULA, which should be pretty difficult to bingo with. #strategysmall 14:46
But I didn't know A7 EN(HYDROUS). It was available last turn but probably not beter than PHT. Here it's definitely way better than bingoing. #knowledgesaddest
Already fucking up. 8D WIVER is just too many points to pass up. Intuitively it feels like I should be able to justify exchanging here, but the sim says its an 8 point mistake. #tacticssadder
Very sad. I thought I had WAFTURE but realized I didn't. I was only 95% sur of WAFTER. I was probably on tilt and played this too fast. #KNOWLEDGESADDEST
Yeah I had noooo idea what to do here. Quackle says I bingo most with 7A OOT and then with my play, except that my opp bingos most after my play #strategysadder
I may have chickened out of DOGTROT here. But maybe that was some other game. GAROTT(ES) seems better since only OI are out to overlap on the O column, and I would be keeping an O. #tacticssmall
Ciao amici, and welcome to Round 1 of Nits speaking into the void! If you are reading this, thank you and apologies in advance
7E BAWK #knowledgesadder
The standout play that was missed here was G7 F(R)EAK. It's good that I held onto my T for JURAT plays, but FEAR was just not a good play. #visionlarge
sometimes you just lose a game on the first turn. This is #, couldn't remember even though I just checked this like two weeks ago. ETHERISE SHEETIER#. Thought SHEETIER was + rather than # and even then SHEETY# could just be invariable. But the elephant in the room is the bingo through the I. Alphabetized DEEHIRTY to no avail. #findingsaddest
how did I miss 2M BRR? It's not great to block the C, but it's worse to score zero with a reasonable play on hand. This was horrendous. #findingSADDEST
Nothing is particularly appealing to me here. I could have also done 6H VAV(s) as well, but I would like to be able to counter with a bingo should he bingo. That's just gonna make it extremely difficult to play on the top of the board in the future. However, H4 VALV(A)R is a miss and would have gotten me out of this mess better. #findingbad
feeling a bit less sexy now. Maybe I just take the points with 13J WHEATS because it blocks all the SATIRIZED stuff. That sims best by a bunch. #strategymedium
Right idea to ditch the V and hang onto the Z. For some reason I only spotted the INFANTE hook later on but not the INFANTA hook at all. 11H OVAL is just too good here to fork 2 S setups in 1 play. #visionlarge
I did not see the best rack-cleanup options here, C8 (R)UBIED or 13B BEDUI(N). Again a lack of ability to generate certain patterns that I must attempt to eliminate. (R)UBIED looks pretty good. #findingsmall
I think I briefly thought the E in BIVALENT was an I (lmao) and didn't play L12 WAUR. Seems pretty lost regardless, not sure what I'm supposed to do. I thought If I drew XZ and some vowels I might have a chance. #strategysaddest
I genuinely was considering D10 Q(A)T, which sims better here, but eventually went with C9 WO(R)DS instead in hopes of giving myself a chance to end a bingo with an E on the B column. Plus, if I drew an I, I had the 12A QA(D)I setup next turn #strategysmall
I again don't really know if I should play 4A BEGS or M3 BEGS or exchange. I was trying to block what I thought was the easier spot here. I await your hatemail #strategylarge
in big trouble here. Still, not enough trouble to justify completely forgetting that this is just not a word. HOOPIEST*=ISOPHOTE. Luckily, no hold from Darin. In terms of what to play here, I saw this, RYOT C12, and HOOTY 5K. I did not see 1A TRO(P)HY, which is just a better version of HOOPY* altogether. That seems correct. #knowledgesaddest #findingsad
Bad mistake! I was only 80% sure N10 MUTTS was spelled like that and I thought this was okay, but literally anything holding Z and leaving 8L open is better. #knowledgesaddest #strategysaddest
i don't know if this is an overreaction. do i just play Z(A)G? GADJE sacrifices a lot of points but gets rid of some ugliness. CDEJT doesn't strike me as an appetizing leave. i suppose if i draw another E i can get JETTED for a few points, or DEJECT, etc. i hate this and should have exchanged on my first move. quackle thinks the sacrifice from GADJE is not worth it as i only get slightly more points next turn with GADJE than ZAG, but i'm sacrificing 13 pts now. makes sense that this is such a big equity loss. -10.5 #strategylarge
G3 GAP or PEG in the spot where I played are better to preserve the CKLR synergy. Another idea is N2 PRICKLE, hoping to draw tiles to outrun. #strategysmall
Only did this because I know Peter left the punchless IOST on his previous play, but it's still better to play something more traditional undoubling and keeping my vowel like just 4B WREN. #strategymedium
I think it's fine to pass up MISDEAL in favor of MISLEAD since MISDEALT is also good. But what's not fine is missing the 2x2 of 5E M(A)LADIES and missing out on 25 points. #findinglarge
STOUP blocks row 14, the only bingo lane available to Richard (no O's or U's to parallel STOUP remain); but E9 INEPT does it better, sacrificing only one point while saving the S for row 15. OUTVAUNTED is awesome. #findingmedium
not great; the leave is not good enough. i could do something like 7I WEAR or even the pretty awesome 7I WE -- ACHRRS is a very strong leave through that E. (but would that stay open?). tough move. -6 #tacticsmedium
Right idea with the turnover and blocking the HUMPS hook. I will say that TURNIP is a worse play than it usually is because I should not be keeping 2 Os with 3 more usneen. While TURNIP isn't egregious, I should be looking to address my O problem while also blocking more indirectly with F2 UNROOT or even 4C UNROOF. #visionmedium
now I'm pretty much completely 50/50 about whether Noah has the X, and when I make this play, I'm closer and closer to realizing FU(G) was not an X setup. The best play here is 3I FIN(N)AN. That's a huge miss once again #findinglarge
I have to block INOSITOL! I can also just play OEsTRUAL which I missed, but that's quite bad on spread and I should only play if I have a read that she has INOSITOL. (D)A is a stronger fish, hitting 5/8 in both spots, whereas this hits 4/8. #strategymedium
I don't know if I ever realized I had SOLUNAR. My handwriting later in the game doesn't give anything away. I know I never alphagrammed just the rack on my scoresheet, just 8s through the I and T. #findingsaddest
And yet, the nagging voice in my head telling me FUDS is no good (mixing it up with WUDS*, of course) tells me to throw it right back. I was 95% sure FUDS was bad but OF COURSE I should still try it instead of accepting a loss. A 5% chance at a win is worth a lot more than 25 spread. Idiotic and missed mate in one (4th of the tourney?) #knowledgesaddest
don't remember why I didn't just do TWIG here, obv don't bingo as much but outrun a lot better. I did FILE over WILE also to not make an extra S hook, hopefully can block POOVES and FLECKS together at some point #strategysmall
oh yeah HOGMANE is a word. coulda been a second 101 point play smh #findinglarge even as a nonbingo this play is trash, I got obsessed with the S but MHO is probably just standard and better anyway. maybe it's not awful because there will never be as nice a way of dealing with the S, but at least MHO has good upside and some defense value, and HOMAGING only partially blocks the S, when it will be more worthwhile to do a lower scoring but complete block later. awfulawful
totally lost my mind here and thought I could block her bingo. Turns out she was holding the nuts. Well, actually, quite the opposite of the nuts. #strategylarge
this isn't going well, but I can't play scared scoring defense. A5 IOLITE is much better balance and gives back way fewer game-losing bingos. #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
I considered all three of the top plays here, the other two of which are HUP M1 and HAW 13G. I could see that WAAH made it trickier to fully take out Rows 10 and 14, relative to HAW, and made it easier to score there besides, but figured that most of those scoring plays figured to muck up that part of the board. The case for HUP was that Row 1 is dangerous, and HUP neutralizes it forever. But it didn't seem worth it to sacrifice 10+ points. In the end, HAW G13 wins the sim. The immediate three points are worth it, and it might be better positionally too. -2 #strategysmall
Stopping miracle column A bingos and scary plays like 10B JAR. Something like 2I DINTING is mostly bulletproof as well, though I guess it would suck if Benjy had AGITABLE or EGLATERE. Quackle also likes 11H EMEND which I admit looks quite good to me, holding my lone vowel to dump the Q if I draw it and blocking the N and T of OUTPAINT. #strategysmall
I missed literally all of the bingos he could have at 14H. What the fuck was I doing this game? EMERITI, EUCRITE/ERUDITE, RETINUE. I need to block those, the best way is to play 14F (Z)OA which saves (REJECT)ABlE for next turn, which I at least saw. I just though that this didn't give anything back but it does, it gives back nITERIE too. #findinglarge #preendgamelarge
Quackle ranks the 2x2's: 1) 5E sOREDIAL#, 2) K4 mODIOLAR#, 3) 5E fORELAID#, 4) K5 tOROIDAL. I decided to play through the O to prevent any 2x2's in response, but 2x2's on row 11 probably should be less of a concern than the scoring spots that my bingo creates. mODIOLAR or tOROIDAL sets up the J and Z at J10 or J6 respectively, while sOREDIAL or fORELAID sets up the X at 6F (fORELAID also sets up the X at 6J). Because the spot under sOREDIAL is hardest to hit---requiring the X and either I or O---it makes sense for sOREDIAL to be best. Though I still don't understand why mODIOLAR should be better than tOROIDAL. #tacticssmall
Didn't know BRACT took an S so I tried to set up bingos ending in G or GS instead, even though there's like 2 Ns left. It's not enough. #strategysaddest #knowledgesaddest
This was an echo of the MUL(ATT)O/MO(G)UL position against Kevin Fraley at California Open 2018. JEW 4J is way better because FIDS M1 is unblockable. And I even saw it too! But I worried that I had mistracked and thought that Josh might play out and win if I was wrong. After JEW I'd be up 41 points but he'd get 16 from me, and his tiles look like they could score 25 points if there's a spot for them. With more time, I would have retracked the game to be dead certain that Josh can't play out, because that being the case, JEW/FIDS is best by a large margin. (-29) #endgamelarge #trackinglarge #timemanagementmedium
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