now I am finally burned for missing ASCRIBES! ARIARY comes up for the second game in a row, but this time I'm more confident it's best. TIARA has defensive merit as well, but I will want to deal with ASCRIBES at some point, especially because he can use it to fork the board and open the top left. ARIARY given his EFIKN rack looks best. This play error looks medium in size but the mistake of missing the A hook is a huge error. #visionlarge
Sterling, April 2026, Round 6. I wasn't 100% sure of 8D MISTRAL but if I knew how much worse 8B RAMTILS was (~4 points) maybe I would have played it. #knowledgesad
13I ENTER might be correct here. I inferred he had the last D so I thought setting up an S he was less likely to have was the way to go. Could be led to believe otherwise. My bingo is also unlikely to get me there after NEG, so I should be scoring. #tacticsmedium
This sims best but I'm not sure it's correct. I might need to make some drastic opening at this point because the sun is rapidly setting on this game. #strategysadder
chickened out of O3 (P)lOOKIER, which i'd seen last turn and was too titled to find O2 s(P)OOKIER #knowledgesaddest for phony #findingsaddest for O2 s(P)OOKIER
1) I should know the extensions for PRIZE if I play PRIZE 2) I should have calculated the difference between ZIG and PRIZE better
3) I should see PIEZO ffs #findingmedium #strategymedium
i don't know about this. i think i was a bit unfocused here and unable to figure out how to break ahead. i saw my S wasn't worth a ton on this board and i need to score. but 12L LARS looks a lot better. -8.5 #focus #strategylarge
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
K10 IS bings way more. Whatever I play here, he's going to know I'm close to a bing. I might as well increase the bing % and fish the S instead of the N. #strategylarge because this is way worse for bing %.
it was at this point that I knew I would lose the game. I somehow missed 7F HOYA, which despite sucking, is far and away the best shot I have. #findingsmall
H7 VERB for 9 would have allowed the X spot to be open, although that's not a move I want to make against Mitchell. Against most other players, I might have done that as the opponent would have had to deal with the X hotspot allowing me the VERBS hook. #strategylarge
I didn't see TUR(BI)D, which looks like a better X setup. It's not as clearly an X setup and doesn't open an S hook for him. With ADES I wasn't so concerned but I'm still giving him a couple awesome lanes, and he's taking the spot very often anyways. Even XU/LOT is probably fine here. #findingmedium
Sid pointed out SNUG J8, which sims even with FUGIO, but is probably a little bit better. Quackle always underrates defensive moves like that. Another option, which I didn't see, is OUZEL C11. OUZEL wins the sim, but I like SNUG best. (-1) #visionsmall
B8 RIDABLE or 14B RIDABLE are better #knowledgesad
Also, a standing applause for forgetting how to pronounce MARINERS, thinking it was some dumb American naval force propagandist bull, and therefore challenging it even though I've read the stupid Rime of the Ancient Mariner. The second I stopped the clock I knew I'd fucked up. It's funny how the brain works sometimes. Anyway, the dumbass award goes to me, so everyone get your grubby hands off of my prize, please and thank you.
I liked the idea of turning over more tiles to clean up my rack after his exchange 7, and I wasn't scared of putting a U in the 2x2 lane, but I will say that J6 LUC(E)NT is a better version of this- NV is less clunky than TV is and I score 2 more, plus LUCENT doesn't take an S hook. #findingsmall
I think taking the points for 13A (IN)VITEE is warranted here. I didn't see it. It does better things to the board and scores a lot more. #findingsmall
O1 BEAU is best, but again, I don't know the hooks to pAtHOGEN. #knowledgelarge but there are also better plays that I did know, like G4 UPO and 3D UVEA. I would like them more if they didn't kill the row 3 lane....
Pretty interesting sim result here. Quackle's favorite play here is F7 FROG, followed by 2J HOG, 8L FAIR, 2J FOG, then my move of 2J FOH, then 8L FARO. They're all really closely packed together in valuation. Terry just bingoed and the board is loaded with high-equity scoring spots so simulation is going to be even more accurate than usual. FROG is both the highest scoring and most defensive move, cutting off SLEW and badly damaging the scoring potential of any racks Terry draws with the X in it. (By contrast, the Z plays all over the place on this board and there's little I can do about it.) I didn't think of FROG at all, unfortunately. On the other hand, I'm losing and might like SLEW to stay open. HOG vs FOG vs FOH at 2J is quite interesting. Sim prefers HOG, perhaps expecting me to get down some much heavier bingos with SHEN and THEN afterwards. My play of FOH gives me the highest bingo% on my next move, but nevertheless trails HOG by 3 points per turn because of those heavy bingos I draw into, and which stay open a huge amount of the time thanks to the other good scoring spots available. I'll give FROG a #visionsmall and HOG a #tacticssmall.
I have no respect for my opponents and my results are suffering as a result. *OR* I have a high expections that max will not lose this game if I don't bing here, and that it was more likely he would not challenge the newly expurgated word. Obviously I played NOOKIES, not this #knowledgesaddest
I totally fucked up and thought he had BINGERS and that I was blocking bingos through the N. Even if he did have BINGERS this still gives back B(OK) plays. #STRATEGYSADDEST
completely spaced on scart this game, so thought was being exteremely safe emptying the bag with safe, but most certainly was not #strategylarge #findinglarge
Before this turn, I had maybe 9 minutes on my clock, but my tracking was off. I think I spent about 8 minutes retracking before realizing we were missing a tile. By the time we found it I had maybe a minute left. I panicked and played this. #TIMESADDEST
A really interesting first rack! PAYED is standard and I think I still should have played it. I didn't realize the S hook it set up when I considered it, which would have pushed it over the edge for me. Also, as I took a little while on it, there is some challenge upside. I could also do PAY or PYA to set up S hooks, they do well in the sim. I was worried about the overlaps after PAYED, and some of them do give back good plays to me, but he can probably find one that doesn't. I think PAYED is definitely better though, I average 6 more after PAYED! #tacticssmall it is a bit odd that I forwent the standard payed due to overlaps then I went with the PEATY that gives easier overlaps, but I felt that Y on the star was too bingo defensive for my leave. not a great play
although this game is not realistically winnable, i can get some spread back by continuing to fish, for example, H12 BELT is just a couple points below but it keeps a much better leave. i partially thought GLOTTALS* was good. -5 #strategymedium #knowledgemedium
I think I would have been rather insane to fish off the M with 6G M(EW) even though Ed is more unlikely to block a 3x3 when there's only 1 tile that fits in the 4th position in this case. Despite giving back potential D1-D4 or D1-D4 plays, C2 SMARTED still comes out on top in the sim. It's slightly worth it for 3 more now even if Ed seemed to be fishing his last 2 turns. #strategysmall
So, yes, I have the blank and im closer to a bingo and it's better to set myself up with 15H AJI and i DID think about it and i did put AJI on the board but then i switched it to JAI at the last second because i was afraid #strategysad
B13 EEN never works; didnt realize that O12 (D)ENE bingos more than my play #strategysad. Also this play was miscounted as 12 because this Barbie was visiting Tilt Central
Missed two bingos here after he surprisingly blocked ANALYSTS K5. SATYRALS# and STAYSA(I)L. I have no excuse for the latter other than of course I would miss a Y bingo. This turn was also fascinating because I wondered how much the A improved my leave. If I play K9 SAY, I score 1 less, and don't block the triple. However, I understcored SAY by 2 in my head. Still, as somewhat expected, SAY is a much better play than SA(T)AY. I should have gathered that conclusion over the board. #findingsaddest #strategysad
i got a bit upset after this move as i noticed the far better 8B JAGG shortly after hitting my clock. i was low on time, and worried that a bingo from him might end up winning him the game, and i kinda freaked out! -4.5 #strategymedium