Finding Large
B10 TOTAL +22
Sheesh, you know DOTAL. What a garbage play this was. I also missed 10I TROD, which I think I like best. Interestingly, TROD loses to TROT in that spot in the sim, and they both lose to TRAT. Keeping the DO for B10? DOTAL wins the sim. #findinglarge
Chris Lipe vs. Bill Rexhausen (Game 35558)
Endgame Small
11G COXES +45
EXED much better, fewer points, but blocks Wendy's best chance at winning COXES making LORDINGS also good, didn't know that was valid. #endgameSAD #knowledgeSAD #strategySAD
Wendy McGrath vs. Danielle Barker (Game 35343)
Knowledge Small
O8 (W)OODLiCE +92
outruns most out-bingos, but not all of them. Had I been sure of CLODPOLE, I might have played that, since most of her bingos fit there. I think CLODPOLE should win the most games, since I don't foresee losing in any endgames that don't involve bingos. 32 draws seem to win for Chloe after WOODLICE, and 27 after C(L)ODpOLE, so a slight edge to blocking. If it were the beginning of the tournament, WOODLICE would be the best play for spread. #knowledgesmall
Joshua Sokol vs. Chloe Fatsis (Game 41801)
Strategy Large
6F XI +54
I get DETAILS and DENTILS making FIXT if I draw the blank + A or N; AUDILES, DUALISE, DUPLIES, SULLIED, SULFIDE, and DUELIST if I draw the blank + U to make UREDO; and SCAILED if i draw the blank + A making CREDO. #strategysaddest
Nitya Chagti vs. Erickson Smith (Game 50321)
Finding Large
E8 (A)DhESION +66
this play was MISDONE, I spent too much time trying to find a bingo through the A of BARKED, panicked and went with the worst possible BINGO.
#findingSADDEST
Danielle Barker vs. Peter Maas (Game 35342)
Strategy Large
O9 RALLY +16
just with BRANG*, I was about ready to snap challenge, and the longer I took, the less I felt I should challenge. This is a huge mistake, but I still figured my best chances were holding on from this position. But I missed AR(M)Y for 39, which is too many to say no to. There is very limited risk of 7 consonants next turn being pivotal enough to lose the game, and also very minimal chance of not drawing a vowel, given the 15/10 vowel/consonant ratio. Something like 10-15%? I just missed AR(M)Y, but worse, I made this play with absolutely no clue about RALLYE, a word I know. I never saw RALLYE. This was Jackson's game to come back and win. Incredibly good pressure by him, picking at my confidence levels more and more every turn. #knowledgesaddest #visionsaddest #strategysaddest #findingsaddest
Josh Sokol vs. Jackson Smylie (Game 41629)
Knowledge Large
O9 RALLY +16
just with BRANG*, I was about ready to snap challenge, and the longer I took, the less I felt I should challenge. This is a huge mistake, but I still figured my best chances were holding on from this position. But I missed AR(M)Y for 39, which is too many to say no to. There is very limited risk of 7 consonants next turn being pivotal enough to lose the game, and also very minimal chance of not drawing a vowel, given the 15/10 vowel/consonant ratio. Something like 10-15%? I just missed AR(M)Y, but worse, I made this play with absolutely no clue about RALLYE, a word I know. I never saw RALLYE. This was Jackson's game to come back and win. Incredibly good pressure by him, picking at my confidence levels more and more every turn. #knowledgesaddest #visionsaddest #strategysaddest #findingsaddest
Josh Sokol vs. Jackson Smylie (Game 41629)
Strategy Small
6I OOF +17
this helps him too much even when it blocks his bingos. I was trying to do too much. Just OF or OFF are probably better. #strategysmall
Jason Li vs. Joshua Sokol (Game 41484)
Strategy Small
N6 PE(A)G +13
his rack is pretty specific here. I don't know that it's at all worth trying to block a little. But I didn't want to get boxed in after an O-column bingo by playing on the 13 row. And I completely missed just playing this on the M column, or DEG/GED M10. This is terrible in retrospect and I'm only hurting myself. #strategySAD
Josh Sokol vs. Matthew Tunnicliffe (Game 48816)
Strategy Small
K9 U(V)EA +14
rough, but I need to find EAU 9M for 2 less. This is just slightly too reckless. EAU sacrifices 2 points, but sims 4 better. UVEA doesn't create a great lane, and I have OHMS that is hard to deal with, as well as the deterrents on the F column and 11 row. Marginal lanes are good to deter opponents from playing overly defensively, but also sufficiently defensively. The difference between the two can simply be lack of information. #strategysmall #findingsmall
Josh Sokol vs. Arie Sinke (Game 41581)
Knowledge Medium
4H (V)AGUE +20
I took over 8 minutes on this rack. I eventually saw ASSUAGER, the only bingo, around 6 minutes in, after generating AGERATUM, ARGUABLE, GRADUATE and RUNAGATE. At first, I thought ASSUAGER made sense, but because I was fairly certain that ASSWAGER* was invalid, despite ASSWAGE being an alternate form of ASSUAGE, I ended up deciding against playing it. Throughout the rest of the game I was fairly certain ASSUAGER was valid. If I had pulled the trigger on ASSUAGER, the time I spent would have been somewhat reasonable. I never saw D1 AREG for 30, which trumps my play of VAGUE by a few points of equity. In and of itself, ASSUAGER is around 9 points better than VAGUE, which is about what I intuited during the game. This was my first stroke of luck in what would become an absurd work of art, as not even making the best non-bingo play worked out by blocking Jackson's huge double-double. #knowledgemedium
Jackson Smylie vs. Josh Sokol (Game 41628)
Knowledge Large
C5 DWEE(B)ING +0 (Lost challenge)
this will be the last time I confuse WEEDBED and BEDEWED for BEDEWED and DWEEBED* and BEDEWING and BEWINGED for BEDEWING and DWEEBING* (I hope) #knowledgelarge
Joshua Sokol vs. Kenji Matsumoto (Game 33137)
Finding Small
J6 PA(R)TIbLE +77
Absolutely insane. To make matters worse, despite slowing down for a half a minute to look for row 9 overlaps, I somehow fail to spot PLATIEs for 3 more. This time, creating the X and Z bomb spot at 10F is somewhat contemptible, seeing as Quackle cannot quickly decide if it likes sacrificing the 3 points or not. PARTIbLE has some decent control. I can see attempting to close things off within 3 moves or so after PARTIbLE. After PLATIEs, not as much, since the R and S of MATADORS and the E and R of ROILIER aren't very intuitive to deal with without opening new threats, despite their closeness. Furthermore, the P on B9 can always be used to make desparate forking plays. Still, I rate this as yet another mistake. #findingsmall
Jackson Smylie vs. Josh Sokol (Game 41628)
Finding Large
O9 RALLY +16
just with BRANG*, I was about ready to snap challenge, and the longer I took, the less I felt I should challenge. This is a huge mistake, but I still figured my best chances were holding on from this position. But I missed AR(M)Y for 39, which is too many to say no to. There is very limited risk of 7 consonants next turn being pivotal enough to lose the game, and also very minimal chance of not drawing a vowel, given the 15/10 vowel/consonant ratio. Something like 10-15%? I just missed AR(M)Y, but worse, I made this play with absolutely no clue about RALLYE, a word I know. I never saw RALLYE. This was Jackson's game to come back and win. Incredibly good pressure by him, picking at my confidence levels more and more every turn. #knowledgesaddest #visionsaddest #strategysaddest #findingsaddest
Josh Sokol vs. Jackson Smylie (Game 41629)
Strategy Large
2A AEON +20
I either have to fish eit something like O(C)A or A(C)E, or I do this, which seemed to win if I drew some X? stuff. I did not iterate properly though, and this seems to always lose with the draws I was hoping for. I have to avoid stuff like FOIBLE, but a lot of outs in two will be good enough for Arie even without big plays. Spread was not important here, so I needed to find something better. Maybe I had to play A(C)E or O(C)A, though I felt he could too often block everything with a play like FIL(AR) 5B, although those plays are hard to find and make with one in the bag. Gotta try something, so maybe I do something like (P)EE or (L)EE going for ANOXIA for 67 and complications. Maybe best to play EE somewhere else. Yeah, I think that's the right idea. If ANOXIA?T or ANOXIA?B are unseen to Arie there's (P)AINTBOX, if ANOXIA?E is unseen there's (A)NOXEMIA. Damn, wish I had thought of that. Way better at conceptualizing wins that don't involve very specific bingo threats. #strategysaddest
Josh Sokol vs. Arie Sinke (Game 41581)
Vision Medium
exch ABLQA +0
BALED 4A is the obvious move here. I saw BALED on my rack and just didn't look for a place for it. Also exchanging AQ is probably better too. #visionSADDER #strategy#SADDER
Danielle Barker vs. Maureen Clifford (Game 33545)
Knowledge Large
8D VANING +28
why didn't i trust myself? i held him for a long time and i've looked VANED up out of curiosity, i'm sure. i was too worried my bingo would be unplayable next turn if i was wrong. #knowledgelarge
Trip Payne vs. Cesar Del Solar (Game 35446)
Vision Large
11J A(N)OA +15
almost played ANNO(Y), which would have blocked RALLYE unwittingly. I wanted to block REFRAINS stuff, which is obviously far less of a factor given RALLYE. I thought this did a good job outrunning 14E plays. I could play EAU at L11 to also block the dangerous REFRAINS hook as well as scoring plays to the Y, but I was more worried about getting outrun from 53 ahead instead of 62 ahead, and that would allow Jackson time to play something on the N column like OE maybe, since EAU protects that sort of opening. #visionsaddest for RALLYE again.
Josh Sokol vs. Jackson Smylie (Game 41629)
Finding Small
D1 AUTUM(N) +18
YUM 7A #findingSAD #strategySADDER. Instead I opened up another possible triple triple (SUNSHADE was there already, and now ENDASHES), just really wanted to get rid of those Us
Danielle Barker vs. Peter Maas (Game 35342)
Finding Large
3H cHIN(O)OKS +86
how does one spot KIbOSH(I)N(G) D7 and miss SINKHOl(E) O1. I sadly thought this was better than KIBOSHING so I played it. It is indeed better but ugh. #findingSADDEST
Seth Lipkin vs. Joshua Sokol (Game 47184)
Strategy Medium
D1 AUTUM(N) +18
YUM 7A #findingSAD #strategySADDER. Instead I opened up another possible triple triple (SUNSHADE was there already, and now ENDASHES), just really wanted to get rid of those Us
Danielle Barker vs. Peter Maas (Game 35342)
Strategy Large
M3 VAN +22
I should probably leave the 3 row open, it's hard for him to close. I hated all my options - DAV(E)N? that puts pressure on at least, it's probably better than VAN. I was kinda hoping he wouldn't have a good TAGS block, but he can always do a mediocre one from the G in KLEAGLES or with ETA, and then I have to bingo on some terrible marginal lane. I think I got too obsessed with staying in bingo range, DAVEN isn't likely to win but at least I will be able to have a place to bingo. I think B4 ADD is good as well, keeping the 3 row and 13 rows open. either one of those seem way better than VAN #strategylarge
Jackson Smylie vs. Kenji Matsumoto (Game 33113)
Vision Large
O9 RALLY +16
just with BRANG*, I was about ready to snap challenge, and the longer I took, the less I felt I should challenge. This is a huge mistake, but I still figured my best chances were holding on from this position. But I missed AR(M)Y for 39, which is too many to say no to. There is very limited risk of 7 consonants next turn being pivotal enough to lose the game, and also very minimal chance of not drawing a vowel, given the 15/10 vowel/consonant ratio. Something like 10-15%? I just missed AR(M)Y, but worse, I made this play with absolutely no clue about RALLYE, a word I know. I never saw RALLYE. This was Jackson's game to come back and win. Incredibly good pressure by him, picking at my confidence levels more and more every turn. #knowledgesaddest #visionsaddest #strategysaddest #findingsaddest
Josh Sokol vs. Jackson Smylie (Game 41629)
Finding Small
K9 U(V)EA +14
rough, but I need to find EAU 9M for 2 less. This is just slightly too reckless. EAU sacrifices 2 points, but sims 4 better. UVEA doesn't create a great lane, and I have OHMS that is hard to deal with, as well as the deterrents on the F column and 11 row. Marginal lanes are good to deter opponents from playing overly defensively, but also sufficiently defensively. The difference between the two can simply be lack of information. #strategysmall #findingsmall
Josh Sokol vs. Arie Sinke (Game 41581)
Strategy Medium
7K FUTZ +26
Never considered that TUFT 4C blocks X and Q bombs. That alone makes it worth playing. I was really close to playing this but just felt Jason was too likely to play on row 2 anyway, but the Z has a decent future on this board anyway. Even if I assume Jason plays on row 2 a ton more often than random, TUFT is worth doing. I thought I was being mature, but I was just being cowardly. #strategymedium
Jason Li vs. Joshua Sokol (Game 41484)
Tactics Small
9C RELOA(N)ED +62
or OLEA(N)DER. Karl wasn't sure whiich to play, and neither am I really. I guess OLEANDER forks the scoring spots better. #tacticssmall
Karl Higby vs. Josh Sokol (Game 34809)
Finding Large
K8 MA(Y)O +18
didn't know DOMATIA#, though this rack did scream of bingo. I missed DAIM(Y)O and OID(I)A which both significantly improve on this. I looked for something like DAIMYO, such a tough thing to spot. OIDIA should not be tough to spot, but I was intent on leaving the S hook open and totally distracted by what had just happened. Really bad. #findingSADDEST #knowledgeSADDEST
Josh Sokol vs. Matthew Tunnicliffe (Game 48816)
Finding Small
H7 L(O)G +4
glad I didn't see GLITCHED (apparently not a word??) and let the phony go, definitely would have played it.
GLID/GILD K5, would have played that. #findingSAD
Danielle Barker vs. Emil Rem (Game 35462)
Tactics Medium
12A WAUL +26
huge misevaluation - NAW or LAW J4 sim far better. I average more and lower his average and score better. I didn't expect DNT so be so bad here, but apparently DLNU bingoes far more. I guess keeping more floaters open? #tacticsmedium
Jackson Smylie vs. Matt Graham (Game 33128)
Strategy Small
4D CAN(I)D +20
I'm not sure... I think a12 plays come down a lot, in which case I want to keep as much bingo space open. based on a sim, it seems like the top left marginal lanes are realllly marginal, keeping them open barely improves my bingo chances. I think I should do WAND or D(A)N L7 over CANID, if an a12 play is happening I want to go harder on the bingo%, it will be difficult to outrun. WAND could possibly outrun. #strategysmall
Jackson Smylie vs. Matt Graham (Game 33128)