I briefly considered 8N AG, which wins a sim, but Quackle is underestimating how often it will get blocked. Any play making YAH/YAS/YAR or YACHT should be good enough for him. I'm not sure what's best here. #strategysaddest
Matt's suggestion of H12 (TE)DY after the game seems to be correct. That and 13M GA(T) are the only winning plays. They outrun bingos in every scenario. #strategysaddest
With the N6 hotspot gone, there is no way I can protect the F14 hotspot from 14C (I)LK. The best sequence is 4D (JO)R 10 -> 14C (I)LK 7 -> 9N Z(E) 22 -> 12N U(R) 2 -> 7L (N)A 12 -> pass -> 4L E(V)E 18 and yes that is with 14 plies. #endgamesad
I had spent probably half my time at the point of making this play. But I just couldn't spot REIGNED. Again, I felt like I was falling into my old patterns this game and couldn't escape. No excuses. Couldn't even spot DE(R)INgER or anything that didn't open a 3x3 or score too low. I knew this was wrong but my time was ticking so fast. #findingsaddest
TA(N)E# is tied for 157th best equity but survives the sim without being cut off; it has no back hook and blocks (FEW)S# and rows 11 and 13, thereby minimizing Dennis's bingo chance, at the expense of scoring only 4 points. 10C CAA# wins the sim, playing no defense at all but keeping the best leave for the consonant-heavy pool; 3E CA(UM)# and 3L (R)ACA# are close behind. #strategysmall
Massive blunder. I need to play H1 HUGS here. I thought ING bingos were dead after this, but NUKE is a word. Now I have that hanging over me for the rest of the game. #strategysaddest
I completely failed to see any of the -LIKE bingos through the K that were available in the pool until after I made my play. I3 F(O)H is definitely best here for blocking bingos. #findingsaddest
Right idea. I did see a good play and considered DEMETON as well as MONTY and MONEY at J2. MON(E)YED is the standout play since that does dispose of the Y, which can be a bingo killer even though it's a nice scoring tile to keep on this specific board since DEMETON sets up another spot for my Y. #findingmedium
Felt clever mathing this out and feeling like I had gotten this endgame right - but Quackle humbles me with 2L NAN, setting up NANE/KELP in a way which can only be blocked if Lynda plays something like US/NANS for 10, eating both the J and V when I respond with 15K KELPY. KLAP is second best and 4 points off of that sequence. #endgamesmall 7:10
I tanked on this play for a long time and had no idea what to do. I still don't have a great idea of what is correct here. Sim says I4 A(R)E or H11 (R)ORIE or I5 (R)EO which look much better. plz holp. #strategymedium probably.
first instance this tournament of seeing a clear best play after making my inferior play. He gave me the perfect letter at 9J to play through this rack, in pretty decent fashion. 9F AU(G)U(R)Y is way better than this. AU(G)U(R) is actually a really cool play as well, and sims similarly to AUGURY given the huge scoring potential of keeping the Y, not only for 10 row plays, but 8 row plays, and also just stuff like K9 YOW that will often balance really well and score 31. #visionsaddest
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
quackle likes 14A ARVO solely because it bingoes a lot more than my play. should i really do that? it seems like it gives up more points and bingoes than FRAT. what a weird move. -4 #strategymedium ??
need to fish off one with G4 (A)N and hope to draw the S (all my bingos rn lose). My bingos next turn (if i draw the S) are basically unblockable #endgamesaddest
Quackle hates this exchange and wants me to conserve spread by playing G3 WOWS, blocking the bingo lanes on rows 2-4 while saving 4I LUAU for next turn. #tacticsmedium
I was paranoid about Z plays on row 15, but 6J JO(I)NE(R) looks best here (and also 15M SAZ still plays, sad!). I can probably only lose to a bingo after 6J JO(I)NE(R) and it blocks a bunch of them. #strategylarge
N: I saw 5K EX but I wasn't sure if I should go for the bingo that I was sort of sure of or play EX and hope I could find a bingo next turn. I figured the game was close enough that I needed to just get the points. Also a #knowledgesad for the challenge
If I saw the 7, which I unfortunately did not, 7B LARIGAN is the move at this score. I effectively make the top right of the board hard to access and 14A LARRIGAN gives him great counterplay. #findingmedium
This is delusional. First, 11I VAU(N)T is better, but I irrationally didn't want to put the A next to the triple word. Second, 3A VATU is way better, I'm not up enough to be pulling shit like what I did. Third, HAININGS is a word, so this doesn't even lock the board down. #strategySADDEST
nothing great dig for here, or rather, too much bad versus only some good. Better to just score a few lesss and keep a bit better with OLDE 3J. #strategysmall #findingsmall
14E R(A)ND is the kind of play that I have a really hard time seeing. It sims best, but I'm not sure what is actually best since I assume a human would play very differently from Quackle. On the other hand, the EDS/EDH hook is difficult to block without the hooks. I dunno. #strategysadder
I'm really surprized to see RAX F4 win the sim. I wanted to keep that RAZ combo for 14H. I suppose drawing the Q without that U is pretty bad, but I wouldn't think burning the R and the A would be worth it. (-5) #strategysmall
thought this could also be an exchange to keep more floaters open and keep one fewer conso. Maybe keep two fewer consos. In any case DNRS is almost identical to DRST apparently, so not creating G-RIND and RIND-Y is definitely worth it. #strategysmall
I wasn't 100% on this but I had the urge to be confident, after the CHAINER challenge and after no bite on BAGWORM or BUNTINGS. It's really funny that I played a phony against Mina with these specific letters, since the first time we played a game together she assured me that VEINERS was definitely a word on our opening rack of EEINRSV against David Whitley in the NOLA airport in 2017. Had I thought of that, I probably would have played VEINLE(T) 11D or RELIN(K). #knowledgeSADDEST
This hits a few sevens, but they're all too easiliy blocked. The best play seems to be 10L (G)OV, which Championship Player says wins 14% of the time. I guess if I draw a bing that ends in S or starts with A, E, I, or O, my bing can't be blocked? That's the only thing I can think of. #strategylarge
looks like I chose wrong here. M1 MODI, 6D ROD, 6D ROM all look worth playing here. I liked opening the top left with this play, but I also set up QAT and X plays, which are really annoying. ROD is probably my favourite of the bunch. #strategysmall
for the love of god i need more than one vowel per rack. quackle just likes taking more pts with K4 NOD. i desperately wanted to block that AQUA hook and that side of the board.... -5 #strategymedium ?
I thought this would bring his bing % down significantly compared to better equity plays, but The Duck says no, only by 1-2 percentage points. #strategymedium
11C THE wins a close sim over L7 UH and EH. I rejected THE, fearing heavy underlaps. I did not consider UH or EH. I like how UH blocks the scoring spot at 8J-O. #tacticsmedium
L9 P(H)YLAR blocks L1 JAd(E)ITES, 14H TAJInES, and L8 JE(H)ADIST, but M9 P(E)ARLY only blocks the last two #endgamesad
Players agreed to a final score of 460-323
Q thinks I should play both FUNGOES and FAX over this. I didn't consider FAX strongly, but the board is REALLY bad for scoring if I play it, so there's a ton of defense value, plus the almost guaranteed bingo next turn. FuNGOES only drops my score by 22 in comparison with FOE, and drops his average by about 4. I think the dearth of scoring spots on the board should have led me away from playing FOE. #strategysmall
I spent all my time trying to make some Z setup, but it doesn't seem like there's anything that's unblockable, so I played this hoping for opp plays off OSS -> H2 I(D) -> pass -> 1F ZIG. #strategysadder
Playing through is better than exchanging, as much as it sucks that I could not pick a vowel. I think I had the right idea if I wanted to take away a key scoring spot and block the L. However, I also think that LAV is better than TAV since I have a more synergystic leave. But the play that sims the best is 2C TR(O)MM(E)L, which I did not know, and I might have even done that if I knew it and saw it. #findingsmall
this was an odd decision by me. I don't think I saw or considered NOH 12C at all, the clear equity play blocking the clear scoring spot. However, I really enjoyed the look of the board after this. If he uses the full scoring spot at 12A, I might get a very nice score myself, even a 3x3. However, Joey is more prone to playing at 12C or 12B than he is to play at 12A given his style of late, so perhaps this was an oversight, since things aren't great when he does that. The bingo lines are mostly airballs and he has a significant lead before my turn. NOH seems standard and totally fine here. HOV(E)L also seems decent, setting up two lanes. #findingmedium
LOL this is phony! jeez... i remember thinking it looked a little funny, but i was pretty dejected by my record, lol. but even now i thought it was fine. #knowledgelarge
I saw O10 IRITIC, and I should have played it. IRITIC blocks column O, one of the higher-scoring bingo lanes on the board, and partially blocks row 12. The reason I played ICIER is that it fully blocks rows 12 and 13, the easiest bingo lanes. But it sacrifices 13 points, W > ITW, and I can easily outrun most row 13 bingos. #tacticsmedium
Sim despises this. I get it, EEIO is weak despite the lopsided C/V ratio unseen and I'm still just letting the LABS hook sit there undisturbed. I was close to doing 11E ZODIAC but balked at the possibility of Vince opening column A with a play from 12A, creating situations with multiple very dangerous bingo lines available. 10D AIZLE is a fine way to score nearly as well as ZODIAC, block a couple lines, and make it more difficult to open the left side of the board while also scoring anything. #strategylarge