K4 GoRSIEST is best; I didn't bother to iterate the blank. GrISTERS opens only three distinct floaters instead of four, while GoRSIEST weakens 6J and puts the S in row 10, rather than row 11 which has a DWS. #tacticssmall
It appears that exchanging does sim ahead of my play and G9 (F)AUNAE, which I was not a fan of. I'd probably exchange down to EN if I had to do this over again. #strategysmall
I was confident there were no bingos through the K with his tiles but I missed that he had no bingos starting at E1, so 9E CH(A)W is best, blocking all bingos on the E column. #endgamesad
This is just a much worse version of (R)OWA(N) 9H and I could easily just play (P)OW or something but I still want to dodge the 10 unseen vowels #endgamesad
out of the EO/EE + FS/WS comboes, I liked EEFS best, at least right now. the W could be useful at other times, and maybe FOE is a bit better than WOE here. I didn't like the FO combo, so WOE over WEE, plus the hooks. I can also do EEEW here. I didn't like EEOS after FEW, inviting overlaps that I won't be able to hit well, and making no S hook. Q likes FOE best by a bit, I bingo a smidge less than after WOE but score a bit better w the W for overlaps. #tacticssmall
UH 7B is a fascinating option. I bingo a bit less than with WI(C)H or wHI(R) 5I, but my bingos score a whole lot more, without actually giving Ricky that much. He is less likely than average to have a D or an H to hook UH also. This would have been the right play. #tacticssmall
missed a bunch of better options here. QUIFF and QUAFF 9C are the most obvious. I couldn't stomach AQUAFIT 13I opening a 3x3, so I tunnelled on how I didn't like this play or that one. #strategymedium
D10 PRANG sacrifices 6 points but sets up the S on row 15. H11 USURP wins the sim, surprisingly; apparently it allows fewer bingos than either PRANG. But I prefer D10 PRANG. #tacticsmedium
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
I knew TRED* looked strange but i also convinced myself that it was a common english word. Also, I missed L4 FUND(Y), so #findingsadder and #knowledgesaddest for letting the phony go
this seemed like a decent block, but it could backfire. DILATE is a little harder to underlap (LA LI LO vs NA NE NO NU with the blanks as vowels), and there are two Ns left. -3 #findingmedium
lots of options here. 2F ILEA, 2H AA, 2G ALA are all nice aggressive plays. They kinda bank on her not having the K, but that's a decent gamble in this position. If I draw the K I get good scores, and she can't score there easily at all. I sorta like ALA best of the three because I also open a lane on the 3 row that I can hit even if she gets a K play, ISATINE and the like. A(J)I is also interesting to go for ELASTAN(E), ELASTAS(E), ALIENAT(E). 26/156 I hit, which is pretty good. I'm inclined to take the other 2 row routes to go for the K, but I'm not sure I win always when I draw the K. I think it realistically is pretty often though, and something like ILEA would be good for that to draw the K the most, but after she blocks the spot I may not draw a good K play at the bottom. Maybe ALA because I can still get YENTA draws at the bottom, bingo draws, K draws and stuff like YIKES. #strategymedium because this play doesn't have a big plan, I don't think I clued into how much trouble I was in. I was more in the mindset that I would necessarily squeak out an endgame, but with big K plays available I can't just make a play like this. same with YEANS, that is findable and could be bad.
awful and discouraging. I completely forgot that DEVI was a word so i only thought of making the hook an A. also, because I had spent like half my time on the first three moves, i was pretty low here and could not see a good way to win. i did see FRAT, which quackle says is a winning play, but where's the other spot for WAI besides WAIT? -8 #endgamelarge (edit: 5B WAIR, making three "new" in the last few years 2s!! how can I hope to play Collins if I can't find TWL 2s??)
This isn't bad equitywise. But it does allow Joel to play 9s ending with -IER that can get him back in the game, namely GROUCHIER. I think a better move that still allows me to retain my only vowel is 9F T(E)N(NE)R for 14. Row 15 bingoes are not as scary as they normally might be since it's hard to end an 8 with -IE and there are no more unseen As, so Joel cannot extend from an E to the bottom right corner. Also, I eliminate 2x2s from the N in LAMINATED. #findingsmall
What do I block, 15H sELENIC/sILENCE or O1 SILICONEs? Quackle says neither, that 14A UNS and many other plays outrun. I decided to block sELENIC/sILENCE, I think because it scores more and is easier to find than SILICONEs. However, my block for sELENIC/sILENCE scores only 3 points, and if Matt has sELENIC/sILENCE he also has L4 ELENChI. Also O1 SILENCINg, L4 CaNNOLI, and 4G LYCOpENE and sYNCLINE exist. In order to block all bingos except sELENIC/sILENCE/ELENChI, I would have to play three or more tiles on row 3 spanning from 3L to 3N, but it is impossible to do that without allowing another bingo starting from 3M. In short, blocking bingos isn't worth it, and 14A UNS saving F4 FLEW is best. #tacticslarge
Misevaluted the equity here. I did not realize HORS (13.6) was that much better than ORRS (4.1), which makes A1 RUN just slightly better. #tacticssmall
MARKING is better than MAKING cuz of the pool, i think. quackle still doesn't like blocking, instead playing 15H MANGEL to open another lane? i really disagree, i think hitting the L would be a lot harder than a wide open lane with MANGEL, and another lane in row 3 or 4. 3B RAGMEN seems to be the best play that blocks the lanes in the top left, and it keeps the K for scoring. -5 #findingmedium #knowledgemedium
i have to do something clever like 2K SIGH here. although my winning % is low, this is how to come back. the problem with my play is it just gives him an easy scoring dump. SIGH makes it tricky for him. also GRITH > BRITH. -3.5 #strategymedium
ESTANCIA got blocked, which I would have seen this time. Clearly things are not going my way this game. I think I needed to do N1 ACETA here and create better scoring opportunities. #findingmeh
I'm far ahead that I can sacrifice over ten points of equity to avoid allowing triple-triples. In this case, I should play 10D SIKA. This play got probably the longest hold of my career, because Michael was directing the tournament and a bag of tiles was spilled. #tacticsmedium
14J TROGGS sims best, but I'm not sure if I prefer that given her range. Although I really liked what J9 (A)GGRO did to the board with my leave, I don't think this is correct, though I'm not really sure what is. N4 GROG and 13K GORG(E) seem like reasonable options. #strategymedium
I thought I need to make some desperate fish here but my best shot is to just try and outrun with plays making BIRLS. I really just needed more time to figure it out. #timesaddest #strategysaddest
saw TUNNY and RUNNY but not RUNTY, which is what I would have chosen. I knew EIT was worse than EIR but felt the R in UNDERLIE gave the leave a nice boost. However, if I had seen that there were many T's to duplicate, I wouldn't have made this decision. Who knows if I ever would have spotted RUNTY. This was overthinking and bad playfinding. #findingsmall
I might have completely misevaluated this. I'm probably just not outrunning, which was my goal. Or draw a blank somehow but I was like sure he had it. #strategysaddest
Took a stupidly long time here and still didn't even think to look for a play like B1 OCEANID for 38. I did ECAD over other plays like DECANI in the same spot (my other primary choice) to keep IN together for -ING words down to the G of TROMPING. But the AINO leave is just too imbalanced and the pool not bingo prone enough. Just EOAN in the same spot is Quackle's pick, and if I want to keep IN together something like 2B ODA looks like a much better way to do it. #strategymedium 11:17
W: I need to do KITE and get lucky; I felt there was a chance of outscoring after SICKED, but I still have that chance after KITE and I get way more bingos down. #strategymedium
Though ADZE is the highest-scoring play, Quackle doesn't consider it. The best play is 2I GOV#, setting up 1G ZEA# or 1H ZA; BriAnna's blocks score very few points, and I still have ADZE. #tacticslarge
Other bingoes I saw here were 9C ARENOsE, 4D OvEN(W)ARE, and several thru the L. I'd rather open up 2 2x2s with this over ARENOsE, and make this safer play over OvEN(W)ARE, but I did actually have a 2x2 that I missed which was 5D EARp(H)ONE. #visionlarge
There's a lot of stuff that's better than this like 7F MENYIE and F6 ME(I)NY that I wasn't sure of. B6 YE(R) is best. #STRATEGYSADDEST #KNOWLEDGESADDEST
I didn't care for B1 JEAN just because I don't have an S and Cesar could very well gobble up the A1 spot, but J2 JACANA(s) needs to be spotted. That's the play. #findingmedium
It doesn't look like there's any out in 2 that blocks row 15, but 14G T(E)NOR is best threatening C12 J(O)UR to go out and G3 J(E)U once it gets blocked. #endgamesaddest
just fishing the F with EFF hits 32/75 of the pool! and is very defensive. I put the T on for extra defense, he averages over 5 less than after VEX. I didn't mind the scoring spot VEXT opens cause if he hits it he's likely giving one back to me. Still, 7E EF or (EF)F look better #findingsmall EF vs (EF)F is interesting, the latter is more standard but the former also invites 8a openings which open the board for me, and I average a lot next turn.
I don't think I was mentally present during this game because so far I've 1) EXCHANGED MY S and 2) fished OO for 4 (not even 8!)
Also 11E COO(R)IES #VISIONSADDEST #FINDINGSADDEST and #knowledgesad for the challenge