?GSS > ?SSTT and TUFT sets up my S's on a DWS lane, but Quackle prefers FUG, likely because it reduces Carl's scoring potential by not offering a floater. #tacticssmall
I briefly thought about doing 5C OHIA or 5C CIAO as well as this, but those gave up too many points, and I still have Columns C and D to use. J2 OHO would have also been an interesting move setting up my C, however, I'm still not likely to win this game. And that's the hardest for Robin to block. #visionlarge #strategylarge
Thought WAGGAS would give up the extra points it scores on defense, but apparently it's only two points worse than GEWGAWS. Maybe GEWGAWS slightly likelier to get +5 from challenge too, but still #tacticssmall 17:58
Quackle hates this and likes 7C HUE; FLRT is a bad leave, but ELU is worse, and HUE scores one more point. There are also many plays better than FRITH that sacrifice points but keep better leaves, such as 9B UH and 7B FLU. #strategymedium
The sun has pretty much set and I was also slightly tilted because I thought UNMARRED might have been phony (it's not). I have no idea what I'm supposed to do here other than resign. #strategysaddest
Quackle despises this, but I think it's fine - GOO isn't a good leave but the PLAYMATES spot is quite dangerous and IDEAL does as good a job of blocking it as I can while scoring a lot in the process. I saw GEOIDAL but it leaves lots of stuff like ZEES there and also puts an A in a dangerous spot at K8. Maybe a #strategysmall, but I still think my play is ideal.
considered CODE and ZAX as well, but I liked keeping more bingo chances and opening a new lane. D(E)X bingoes more than CODEX by a couple percent! I do like opening a lane with CODEX though so he can't kill everything with agene. #tacticssmall
i should have played QUEUER (i wasn't 101% on it). i didn't want to give up an easy high scoring S hook. but it's important to balance my rack. -5.5 #tacticsmedium #knowledgesmall
such an insane bingo available here. Can you find it? This is probably worse than MAY L11 because although I block myself with MAY, I also give him a lot less to work with, and I have the blank, so I don't really need to leave everything open. #tacticssmall #findingmedium #knowledgemedium
so defensive .. 10H TOO scores 4 more and it's worth continuing to be aggressive when the board has some juicy bingo lanes. i think? -4.5 #strategymedium
Will: Close, but there are more than enough bingoes that still go down along column L that I absolutely need to play BENJES here instead; I probably also do a bit better in endgames by going out in one. #strategylarge
So admittedly I missed 2J ARIOT here which looks pretty nice, but picking which fish to make here was tricky. I don't think I appreciated that M1 HOA would bingo a similar amount to the plays fishing off two As. That looks definitely best thanks to the extra 6 points. But F6 AJAR vs M3 AA vs J10 AA was a tough call. I thought M3 AA would help me get down more bingos but apparently AJAR bingos just as much and doesn't open anything up - it certainly would've worked out better here. #tacticssmall
N11 TIKE dominates the sim, winning 73%, and I have no idea why--it scores 26, but it keeps EUU and makes a higher-scoring (though less useful) bingo line on column O, which should in theory prevent me from outscoring if Mitch has a bingo (54%). 7K ETUI, Championship Player's pick and second place on the sim (63% win), allows the fewest bingos (40%) and keeps a leave that can outscore most plays that aren't bingos. Thus I think ETUI is best. KUE does not block column N at all and is thus significantly worse. #tacticslarge
G1 QI seems like the kind of play that would sim best, but this time it's just the timid 9C QA(T) that wins. I have difficulty evaluating these kinds of decisions, though this one seems correct. Also, #knowledgesad for the challenge.
This is the highest scoring play, but it empties the bag, and Ruth may be able to outscore me in the endgame. Quackle suggests M12 LIB, which sets up a scoring lane on row 15 that only I can use. #tacticslarge
jesus i still didn't know if TAENITE was TWL, and i remember checking it after the game. 1A TENIAE sims best, despite opening up a potentially dangerous 8 lane. i think it wants me to kill row A's huge scores. bANJO or something. -5.5 #strategymedium
I spent quite a lot of time on this, aapparently I should play FOU on the bottom for defense, but its really close. I actually didn't generate that. -1 #visionsmall BUFO sims one up too. FOU top gives away 3 more, which is a lot.
realized my thought process was flawed after I made this play. I have to hope Jason has the worst rack ever here. So if I do that, then I don't want to let him be allowed to exchange next turn. Which is why I didn't play CUE 11J. But I can actually win if he exchanges, even when it throws bad letters into the pool. That's something I might need to hope for. #strategyquestionable
5D STRaNDE(R) is clearly a better choice and his next move explains why. If I'm going to miss that, maybe 15C NERDi(E)ST is a better choice. #findingmedium
Her only out play is A6 LE(AR)N, so this scores while blocking her only out. But come to think of it, J11 D(E)VS gets more stuff off my rack. So it's better to allow her to go out. #endgamelarge
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
J2 ROT is actually a little better because it takes more hooks, as annoying as it is to keep the U. i actually have a decent shot at winning with it (well, if he doesn't have the F, which he likely does after TELIA because he's Will) i could also consider K3 O(U)R. -5 #tacticsmedium
This is one way to force the board open against him. He's not going to suspect that I am keeping an S. However, this was not a good time to make this specific play because I saw H7 G(A)RISHLY and talked myself out of it. #knowledgelarge
HONE is better because it just bingos more and scores more. CONE also takes an S hook and I didn't see it. ONE also might be the play because it doesn't create the S hook #strategysmall
and how stupid to see CONIINES and know it has an anagram, see this, and not take a bit of time to make sure this was it... I've messed this up before too. I knew the anagram didn't take an S, but this ain't it. Wow. #knowledgeSADDEST
um. It would seem that I let him get away with TOL* here? This seems very weird. But this is what I have recorded. I'm gonna go with this not having happened, but I'll record the game as it is! Heh. #visionlarge?
I did see the bingo LEONINE on this rack, but missed my spot for it. M1 it is. Also, THIS IS PHONY! Only ENNOBLE is good with all the hooks. Maybe if I'm gonna miss my spot for the bingo, probably N9 ONE is decent. That's part of why I didn't win this game. #visionsad
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
this is not a word and certainly not signifcantly better (or better at all) than the best valid options. 9F NONE sims a lot better due to scoring defense and immediate score. I had gotten way too averse to bad leaves at this point in my Scrabble quest. #knowledgemedium #strategymedium
there are a number of fairly easy bingos available on row 11, which a player like me would find on any given day, but not in this game. which is problematic, as these are the types of games where i most need to find these moves. -18.5 #focus #visionlarge I had tunnel vision with setting up EST here partially.
This was quite aggressive. I didn't see 7D OF, which makes it quite hard for Rob to do much of anything. This is a bit counter-productive, since my 2nd S is useful to hook LUV (or BUY for that matter). This nicely creates a spot to play a bingo that doesn't require the S to be in 1st to 6th position, but he is just too likely to play there, and there is just no reason to give up an easier spot for Rob to bingo as well. My rack is more than good enough to coast despite being a bit down on the scoreboard. OF 5J was definitely too aggressive though, at least I didn't play that. #finidingsmall #tacticssmall
Quackle prefers HALT, which scores two more points and unloads one more consonant, but keeps the V, which has less scoring potential than the H. At least HALT keeps E3 VUG and M11 VIG for next turn. #strategysmall I guess
this is a poor effort. was banking on the D being in that bag, making it very hard for him to block. however, he can just play TI or NU and block pretty thoroughly. I think NEE I11 is an interesting idea. any NEED blocks will either make a lane going left or going right. might be marginal if he plays GRIDE, but still something. Q likes EH/WOOSH, but I'm worried about plays around there because the G can block so well. #strategylarge cause this isn't very good.
first instance this tournament of seeing a clear best play after making my inferior play. He gave me the perfect letter at 9J to play through this rack, in pretty decent fashion. 9F AU(G)U(R)Y is way better than this. AU(G)U(R) is actually a really cool play as well, and sims similarly to AUGURY given the huge scoring potential of keeping the Y, not only for 10 row plays, but 8 row plays, and also just stuff like K9 YOW that will often balance really well and score 31. #visionsaddest
poor endgame. i wan't totally sure on FLOCS so didn't want to play it first. #endgamelarge #knowledgelarge. i bled a lot of spread this tourney and it may have made some difference for the cash prizes.
I probably need to do N5 OU(R) here, I need two bingoes to get back in here. that also does the mose for the board longterm, makes it hard to close everything. AUDIO sims well but I need to go harder on bingoes. #findingsmall
wtf... never considered just OE, only DOE. Opening bingo spots is slightly worse than usual, but definitely not worse enough not to do that. Unbelievable. #findingsaddest
Sim is saying 15F HUI by 8 points, but I thought I really needed the S hook created by D12 HUB. Someone convince me that D12 HUB is wrong. I await your hatemail. EDIT: it's wrong, I was wrong, #STRATEGYSADDEST
thought a lot about LI(E) 10B to set up PLIE, but if he plays QI/LI there I might be in trouble. I didn't know PULY#, which seems right at 3L #knowledgeSAD
wow, this is a big misevaluation. i thought my UPO was much better defensively than the UPO on lane 4, so i gladly sacrificed the point. mainly, it blocks the QUALMS/QUALMY hook. but my UPO is very easy to overlap for a ton of points, so it gives up at least 5 more points on average, and only slightly decreases his bingo %. UNROPE at 4G however is the best simming play. -5.5 #strategymedium
fucking cOAPTED again. I saw that on my rack but once I finished looking through the O and U I didn't realize it also played in the same spot. Feared this was wrong but I had all the tools necessary to make the right play here #memorysaddest #findingsaddest