How on earth did I draw a rack one letter off from the rack I had when I played DOGY a few turns ago? And even more impressive was the fact that I drew another D, W, and a Y, not even a high probability rack. K10 WY(N)D is a little tricky to spot and is 6 more. Not too big of a mistake. #findingsmall
I missed 15J TAHSIL! What a wicked play #knowledgemedium #findingmedium
compared HALT and HILT, decided that yes there were more A's out, but the ZI combo is still much worse than ZA, although I get NAZI with an A, so hmm.
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
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
This is just horrible. I need FEAT for guaranteed future scoring, and I'm giving that away for some OUT bingos, some column m junk, and some duplication? I thought there were more As in the pool (I mistracked and had to retrack later) but still, just, no. Something like AHI, otoh, may very well be worth it. Definitely want this play back, and I even identified how bad this play was immediately after the game. #strategylarge
7A ANTIENT I have never been able to successfully anagram this word in my Zyzzyva before and I wasn't about to start doing it over the board now lmao #knowledgesaddest
CP likes this, saying it wins 95%, but it's surely dependent on full confidence in CASTLINGS. Given that I did not have that confidence, a great option is 11D VOW/VAW, setting up SOZ/SAZ to follow up in the endgame, also winning 95% because the bingos Bradley does get down score so much less. Unfortunately, I burned a huge amount of time grappling with this position and somehow still didn't generate VOW/VAW, leaving me vulnerable to time pressure on my next move. #strategysmall #timelarge
think I just gotta pull the trigger on DUNCH here. I figured he knew BENDYS so wasn't worried about making another S hook, although CHOMPS is harder to block. NQRU also isn't very good here, I really need a couple more vowels to make it a decent leave, so it's really not so much less risky than PQR, just less shitty. given the difficulty of blocking CHOMPS I should just play DUNCH. #tacticssmall
I'm supposed to shoot for my own bingo here. The only way I lose is if he bingos and I don't. I can't close the lanes here. Something like 8M AI(R) is nice because EISTT works really well with the floating A, T, and O (even though I draw into a lot of 7s with AEIST) in the scenarios where my opponent plays SCOG. Even with the worst possible draw (CW), I sitll get SC(A)WTITE #strategysaddest
Absolutely and horribly inexcusable. This is invalid and I held for a while, unable to remember if BATWING or WINGBAT* is valid. I remembered that Reid had a history of knowing a lot of words and I know that I don't know anything at all and eventually accept and make the spread-cutting move but WINGBATS* ISN'T A WORD ASDAFSD
Literally when the only way to lose is to accept a word that looks funny to you, you should probably challenge that word. Guhhhhhh. This is one of many, many times where I show absolutely no faith in my word knoweldge this tournament.
#knowledgesaddest #tacticssaddest (idk if I can tag two things but I'll try)
I think GN(U) has to come down here. Again can't reasonably outrun, so have to go all in on defense. TONG is also reasonable, emptying the bag here is good to prevent him fishing (he could hit the B and E column, I will not be able to block both too often). GNU has the issue of allowing better fishing options for him, but it's really hard for him to open a new lane after GNU, so he's stuck having to hit the blockable B column. I looked for blocks but didn't consider GNU. #findinglarge
I missed H1 KEIRETS(U) and 6F TEARIES(T), so this is actually a big mistake, since it loses to 6F TEARIES(T). I always lose to H1 KEIRETS(U) so I either have to block or outrun everything else, so the winningest play is 13I Q(I)N. #endgamesaddest
WATERI(S)H got blocked this time, yay. I will admit that I was mesmerized by Eric drawing into a lot of good things after playing longer and should not have tried minting the board with this move for another score on this board with there only being 2 Ns left. F12 HAW or 9G H(A)W score about the same and keep better. Yes, I might protect myself a little better by keeping the W to score again at F14, but the lanes in EMANATED and INTINES probably won't get blocked as often after playing off my H and W as as move like VOG. Threrefore, it would have been fine to keep AEIRT or EIRT to attempt to bingo again. My next draw was disastrous, and Eric probably would have ran away from me regardless if I screw up this turn with how well he drew all game. Maybe this would have been awash, idk. #strategylarge
M13 N(O)R and other similar plays such as K13 R(A)N and D13 (E)RN are probably the saddest top simming plays I have ever seen. I should have recognized that I need a huge Q bingo to hope to win the game, so despite the sadness, I would have to agree with Quackle. #STRATEGYSADDEST
Wow. I could have just as easily done something like (C)OTTAgES in the same spot and be OK. Instead I phonied for the 2nd time today. Am I seriously wrong when I thought 2 people could give a speech or do a protest at the same time? Apparently, COSTATE means having ribs, and thus it takes no hooks. #findingsad
I was too afraid of all the lanes on this board. I should still just play HEA(R)D because it scores well. I felt like I needed to be proactive and try and go for blanks and stuff, but yeah... #tacticssmall L(E)HUA 9F is also an option
worst mistake of my life. i thought SOY closed that part of the board permanently and forgot about the H hook on RAKIS. additionally the leave is so much worse than playing YOU 14F. of course YOU has its own defensive issues, but then maybe YOUSE is an in-between play. SOY is so so so bad and lost me the game. but would YOU be comfortable playing YOU here? -12 #strategylarge
ZEP scores 10 fewer than ZEROTH but yields 8 fewer points to Chris by not floating the Z in column H and earns me 5 extra points on my own next turn. #tacticssmall
8L (DI)VO# is better than this, but the sim winner is 11E VOR#. VOR# scores well and reduces Robert's average score, and the pool is vowel-heavy, so I can afford to keep DINN. 11C VINO and 5C VINO(US) are close behind. #strategymedium
Drat. Still not rock solid on finding the 30k-40k probability 8s like UNFIXITY, which plays at A8 for 89. I'd have had a shot of seeing it if the X had been a natural tile as opposed to the blank designation. #findinglarge
I apparently underestimated my chances of hitting a bingo after exchanging I instead of IO. Keeping EGINOS is actually great as even with some clunky draws (namely J for JINGOES and Y for ISOGENY or drawing an A, E, O, or U) would help. #knowledgemedium
6I TORII obliterates my opponent's chances at bingoing. He's gonna be forced to make an opening, which I can take advantage of. WOT/WAD sets up SWAD which is pretty bad, considering that Willy played S(I)X instead of (C)OX. #strategysaddest
unfortunately I took 4-5 minutes here making sure there was no 3x3, and didn't count how much a play would score at 13B. TINHORn scores 3 more than my bingos to the C. #findingsmall. ORNITHIC was more defensive but I was only 80% sure of it or so. #knowledgesmall
Rd 2 of Philly virtual 1-24-2021. SEXLIKE* is not a word fyi. I know some of you all wish it was.
Q does understandably like 8G KEX a little better, but KEX will get paralleled too often by someone like Jay. This allows the board to stay open for reasonably longer, but EXILES is probably even better than this. #visionlarge
So close to doing 8A THO despite the duplicated Is and lost my nerve. Another idea I didn't see: I13 IT to set up ETH plays. KITTEN blows up my rack far too much for not enough points. #strategymedium 13:23