I normally play GUV but I not only liked the board shape after VUG vs GUV, but I also liked that I could re-hook if he played VUGG to VUGGY or even VUGH to VUGHS. GUV reduces opponent score by 3 over VUG immediately. hm so perhaps VUG helps him more than it helps me. #tacticssmall
Many options here keep the board open for a while, which is something I want to have against him. D8 (H)UMPY is the best equity play and does take out 2x2s using the E in HEAVE. I'm glad I found this since this does set up my Y nicely, however, D4 MURP(H)Y, which I didn't see, gets rid of my Y while also setting up my B nicely. I do need some spread since I still need to recover from the Rd 5 debacle and BURP accomplishes that aspect. That said, MURPHY does a better job of that while taking out a dangerous floater. #findingsmall
Lynn's last play of EVE told me there's a good chance she's holding onto the last N. I was admittedly turned off by this draw of 2 more Us after already playing off 1 of them. 6F (Q)UAG is fine. #findingmedium
Will: Too crazy. I was going for the maximum chance at a 9x myself here and also a fallback of ZANIER with an E draw. But the simple 14A VAW still preserves a good crack at a 9x while scoring 18 more points. #strategylarge
should just do HOURI, forks the board some and I probably need the lanes. His range isn't super strong after OXIC cause the board is dead, in fact he had ILRRY. I was happy with JORUM but HOURI seems like the best thing to do for the board. #visionsmall
Quackle prefers KEX, blocking JUPONS with four S's unseen. I chose EX because I wanted scoring potential with the K, though it is not all that helpful on this board. #tacticssmall
big oversight here. I should plaly FA/AI, which I rejected because of the easy parallels it gives back. however, if I took a closer look I would realize that all of Joey's responses will give back an even bigger parallel to me. TIE wil give TIER, TIL TILE, TIN TINE, TIP TIPI, TIT TITI. same with FAN FAR FAT giving E hooks. #tacticslarge
Getting harder to bingo, though seemingly just 6E OY blocks bingos nearly as well as YONIC and preserves much better chances for myself; it admittedly cripples the E of RACEMOSE and forces slightly more specificity with the V and I of VIOLIST, but I would've thought YONIC blocked more. #strategysmall
missed all the other bings here. Sadface. RECYCLER I should see, RECOVERY I should see. mERCERY I don't play because it opens a 3x3, I'd best play CE(L)ERY for 28. Also thought he might challenge this. #findinglarge
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
There is a lot of cool plays here: this, 9A YEH, B2 wHEEZER, J8 YEZ, N2 YEESH. HEEZE has best equity, but Quackle picks 9A YEH (which I found postmortem). YEH sacrifices only six points while keeping ?EEZ--a very strong leave especially considering the shortage of unseen E's. #strategymedium
I6 HE(R)BAGED is available here as my only decent chance back into the game. But I talked myself out of it! I also talked myself out of DEBAG! I have played too many games in which an option I am unsure of is invalid and reveals to me that I was too hasty with the comeback attempt. Scrabble is psychological warfare sometimes, and I am all but shielded from it. B(A)DGE is also not as bad as it looks, since 4 R's and 3 D's are already gone. #knowledgelarge
-2 to ODE blocking N(A)N and slowplaying. He also would have gone over if I did that. Takes guts. #endgamesmall
something was underscored by 2, so final recorded as 388-380
I do draw a bingo starting in B, but I miss the gorgeous MES(H)WORK F2 and make my most hilarious blunder of the tournament. Thinking of BITEWING(S). This was so crazy it worked. Billy held and released. #knowledgeSADDEST
RIP, completely forgot to consider AHOLDS being valid, which I knew. SMUGGER wins. I made some insane calculation that this would tie if she saw (YE)TI 12A setting up (N)IDI and I blocked with G(I) D14, but she was low on time and I hoped that wouldn't be found. Quackle can't even find that sequence because it's so weird (and just flat-out wrong). Somehow didn't think of NIDI first. Oops. Also, just (YE)GG which I didn't have time to calculate wins as well, since she can't block oMeRS and go out in two and will lose by at the least 1 point! If she blocks the 3rd and 1st row with ID 1K, I win after (WIZ)aRdS and M(E) F14 since she isn't going out. Horrible miss on my part to finish a crazy game. If I play QUERYING first here, she can play I1 D(O) and just outrun me. #findingsaddest #endgamesaddest
This was astounding bad. The idea is wrong and the execution is wrong. I just need to score with O8 FEH, but if I'm doing a block like this I need to do 9L (E)F to prevent ISH bingos. I completely panicked about the AND/DEL opening and played terribly. #strategysaddest
yuck, kind of hard to see, but i should. DIGITIZE for 94! i was kind of worrying and playing badly here; CATER was quite the wrong move and it led to some crap :( -37 #findinglarge
this is phony. even though it was unchallenged, it is still a large mistake; part of me thought it was good for some reason. the best play here is N2 BUGEYE. this turn could have gone much worse for me. -5 #knowledgelarge
I played QUIRT because the pool was more than 2-1 consonants to vowels, and preferred EIT to IRT. Quackle suggests that the plays are equivalent defensively but that I still get a couple percentage points more bingos down with QUIET compared to QUIRT. #tacticssmall
sims near to FROE J6 even without inferring Jason has a strong leave, but FROREN# makes this play a lot worse. I am supposed to know that word, since Matthew Tunnicliffe taught me the FRORNE# FROREN# FORREN# combo a couple of weeks ago #knowledgesmall
Bad move. 7E WROTE is fine, despite how horrible the G is, two G's isn't much worse and it doesn't give back as much. Also points. I missed WROTE, too equity-minded
#findingmedium
#tacticsmedium
I had her on sticks including the D after this. Since I didn't have a good block I'd thought I set up my S, though maybe I should have just done H1 TONUS. I'm not really sure how big of a mistake this is, I'll just mark it as #strategymedium
lots of things are close here. I should probably play longer and leave more promising tiles with J4 TRYMA. The K column will probably get opened regardless. #strategysmall
12C VID for the much better leave and also 100% win. also, notably, H(UM)P seems to win 100% of the time even though it leaves ERECTILE open, probably because i'll score a lot in the triple. i didn't see anything else.. this is a big mistake for spread purposes. #tacticslarge -54
just play X(U). This was stupidly fancy and cost me the game. It just seemed to fit my Nationals profile. Also shout out to PAN(CREATIN). #tacticslarge
sort of balked here. Never saw 13K INN which looks pretty good to block the likeliest lane and score, while maintaining the R for RYA. I don't necessarily want to block one spot here, but I might be able to get away with it. #findingsmall
6A YARDeRS #knowledgesaddest #visionsaddest. This ends up being a 12-point dynamic equity mistake. I saw the word but wasn't sure of it. I might have tried it but didn't even see the spot. My play is second best tho
#knowledgesad for challenge also can someone make this man please stop bingoing. im asking for my health just nbd
also O10 TENT(H)S but who's counting #findingsaddest #endgamesaddest
Waffled over VAWS, O1 EA, and NAVE for quite a while. I was going for the final blow bingo, and indeed I do get a massive amount more bingos down after NAVE; but VAWS still seems like the right play here, going up by 70 and keeping the board very tight. #tacticssmall
This, however, is where I should have lost this game. I thought there was only 1 spot to play the U, but 8L UDO is the other one. So 11D EM should have come down first. #endgamelarge
now I see the spot and decide POUNCY* is phony
I missed every scoring option here. PUNANY# and UNPAY# and NU(N)NY# I didn't know, but L4 NANCY sims best. #findinglarge
L3 SFOR(Z)aTO is not an easy one to spot by any means and is definitely more sound than this with it being the same score. Words starting with SF are not ones you see too often. And I'm glad that I talked myself out of EBONIZER*. #visionmedium
7F NOODGE scores 1 more than GEODE, keeps a better leave, and does not set up a Z bomb. While I agree with Quackle that NOODGE is better than GEODE, I don't see how it's a 10-point mistake. #findinglarge
pretty sure he didn't have another S, he took quite a bit of time on VOWS, so i figured he had not kept an S and probably had a leave with one-pointers. still, it's a bit much; maybe just doing 13B AA is fine. but i still like this a lot. -4 #strategymedium