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The position, with full unseen pool and whatnot, is HERE., including 4 unknown tiles from current player's rackIt's a relatively straight-forward one at first blush. There are exactly seven tiles left in the bag, with both blanks unseen, and I trail 299 to 323. I strongly suspect, due to an obvious fish the previous play, that my opponent holds at least one, and possibly both blanks, and considering the unseen pool unseen tiles (AANNNOORRSUW??), a bingo, while not automatic, seemed probable. My rack is CEIKRSV. This rack yields one eight, which I did find relatively easily. It also plays at 14A. Pete: Turn 12 | | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | | 1 | L1 | A1 | C3 | E1 | | | P3 | U1 | N1 | T1 | | | | | | | 2 | | | | F4 | A1 | Z10 | E1 | | | O1 | N1 | | | | | | 3 | | Y4 | E1 | T1 | I1 | | | Q10 | | T1 | I1 | | O1 | E1 | | | 4 | V4 | A1 | T1 | | | | P3 | I1 | N1 | A1 | S1 | T1 | E1 | R1 | S1 | | 5 | I1 | | | W4 | A1 | D2 | | | | L1 | I1 | | | | L1 | | 6 | O1 | H4 | | | B3 | I1 | B3 | | | E1 | | | | | Y4 | | 7 | L1 | I1 | | | | F4 | A1 | M3 | E1 | D2 | | | | | E1 | | 8 | E1 | | | | | | M3 | I1 | X8 | | | | | | R1 | | 9 | T1 | | | | | | | G2 | | | | | | | | | 10 | | | | | | J8 | A1 | G2 | E1 | R1 | | | | | | | 11 | | | | D2 | U1 | O1 | | | | | | | | | | | 12 | H4 | U1 | G2 | E1 | | | | | | | | | | | | | 13 | O1 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 14 | O1 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 15 | D2 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Chris Sheppard | unknown | 323 | | → | Pete | CEIKRSV | 299 | My logic went as follows: If I bingo, and he has a bingo, I lose. and with any small fishing play, I'm drawing at a sub-optimal leave for the necessary bingo. An intermediate play that scores probably blocks lines I may need to respond, and would probably get outrun by an out in two or three unless I draw a blank. I decided to exchange KV, figuring that CEIRS +2 had a lot of potential on the wide open board, and sticking him with the V and the K might provide the points I'd need. I just don't know if my logic was totally on the mark. Quackle, after 1019 iterations, gives the following: F10 (JO)CK 17 48.87% K10 SICK 34 48.50% exch KV 0 47.12% 14A (O)VERSICK 88 46.97% I don't know if Quackle is wrong because it doesn't infer that a blank seems less likely to come out of bag than pure probability would dictate, or am I wrong to overestimate the chances that my opponent holds that blank? I think the timing of the plays leads me towards the exchange being better than JOCK, as you're giving your opponent seven tiles if he bingoes, and if he doesn't, throwing a couple of clunky ones for him to work with. SICK seems way too easy to outrun... I think I did the right thing, I'm just not sure I fully understand why... I open it to the floor for discussion and insults of the author. Tags: position, scrabble
Current Location: home
Current Mood:  confused
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As I claw my way back to dignity on ISC... I saw what would have been my coolest bingo ever, by far, had my opponent cooperated. I opened with FUNK 7G, and my rack was ?ADIMTZ. If my opponent makes a parallel play, making (K)I, I had the all time style points 9... and the scary thing is, I saw the possibility immediately. I literally learned the word in Kindergarten. Instead, my opponent plays REBU(K)E through that K, leaving me the higher scoring, but far less exciting, AToMIZ(E)D for a double double... The word that might have been is behind the cut Maybe I am remembering how to play this game... now if I ever had the opportunity to do so. That is all. Tags: scrabble, unwarranted triumphalism
Current Location: tha interwebs
Current Mood: awake
Current Music: Matthew Sweet- 100% fun
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Chuck Armstrong and I are playing in a best to five final today... winner gets first, loser gets second. ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) aruspex and stmonday least the general pool at 12 and 11 wins, respectively. However as they met myself and chuck in the semifinal matches, their gaudy records qualify them for no better than third place, while Chuck with 10 wins and I win 9 face off for the championship. Somehow, I like Chuck's chances a litte bit better than mine, but all I can do it play my game, and play it about 30 degrees more aggressive and crazy than usual. Will have much more post-tournament. Fun event, best Hudson field in a long time, and I shouldn't have even made the playoff... more on these tonite. PZ Tags: hudson, scrabble
Current Location: almost out the door
Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Sportcenter
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Game 15.... so far, the turning point of my nascent scrabble career. I really played a good strategic game, integrating a philosophy of play with smart actions, strong choices, knowledge of the rules, and some board control that frustrated my opponent. I engineered a situation early where I could take control of the game, by forcing my opponent to open the board or risk a likely loss on the six pass rule. While quackle may not agree on every move, I feel very comfortable with my overall strategy in this game. It was unlike any I ever played, and gave me the momentum I needed for an 11-3 run on days three and four. Tags: players, scrabble, unwarranted triumphalism
Current Location: home
Current Mood:  happy
Current Music: none
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Well, I had a respectable Farmington, by the numbers at 4-3. rating moved up a touch, around eight points, on I'm in the 1390's now, I think... In reality, I played like crap at multiple points. 2 blown endgames, a non-challenge so embarrassing that I should be demoted to Division 5 (altho in my defense, it was game 1, and I try not to think before 10 AM), and a bunch (4) of missed bingoes... as a result, I've pretty much decided to chill on the studying between now and Friday... some basic review, but no more new stuff, and try to just think about the kind of game I want to play. Some good points to the day... stole an otherwise unwinnable game with a phony 6 on the penultimate play (PHONIA seemed plausible enough), Five of my games were decided by less than 20 pts, and I won three of them, including one which flipped to me on a recount... That was bittersweet, as it was against ipecac_icecap, who played an excellent game to come from behind... I hate playing George in tourney play... I like to have at least some level of dislike for my opponents, even if it is entirely manufactured and forgotten after the game. With George tho, I just can't do it... I feel I play well against him, and usually he plays very well against me, so we have some fun games, but in a tournament, I want detestable opponents I can draw the bag on and feel as tho justice were done. George may be one of the nicer and most likable players out there, so I almost didn't ask for a recount when he won by 2... but I had to, there was a three point error, and I won by 1. Also had a shootout against sopraffina which I managed to win 451-446... may not have been my best game, but it was definitely the most fun, including actually playing a decent endgame... I'm noticing that I am becoming better at dictating the style of play... 5 of the seven games, I really felt I had a reasonable level control of the flow of the game. If I wanted a board closed, it was pretty darn closed... if I wanted it open, it was open... The other two, one I fell behind early, and had to play catchup, only to lose in the endgame, and then in the other I got utterly bagged. I need to look back at my last 50 games or so, figure out which games I felt I had control of the board, and see what way I played it, and my results in each style of play... I feel that I'm improving on a closed board, but I still have a predilection to the open games. I want to see if the data backs up my bias towards open games. I've decided I'm putting absolutely zero expectations on myself. I don't know many players in the field, and I don't know how I'll handle breaking out of my regimen for five days. I've been faithful about my gym work (every day but Farmington since I got the membership) and sticking to Atkins (so much tougher than it sounds), and both will be severely tested in the Medium D... So, I just want to have a good time, play as well as I can, and see what results come from it. Should hit dayton with George early-to-mid Friday afternoon. once there, hopefully get to meet a bunch of you LJers who I know only through your journals... then try to get some sleep... Tags: players, scrabble
Current Location: here
Current Mood: calm
Current Music: REM- Life's Rich Pageant
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I really wish Dayton were tomorrow. I feel like my game and anagramming are rounding nicely into form, at least by my standards. Playing well at club, and on ISC... Even been adding the third thousand eights, and making quicker progress than I had previously with adding eights. People who know me say I study a lot. I probably do, but it doesn't seem like it. Only rarely do I dedicate otherwise free time to studying, because, well... I like to pretend I have a life. I study while I drive, while I work out (I've been to the gym every day since I got my membership... hitting cardio pretty hard), and in the half hour or so while I lay in bed trying to fall asleep. And this method was great for sevens... my mind wrapped around them, and I picked them up pretty easily. I feel extremely solid on the top 3k sevens, and because my study regime when I started sevens was different, I have found that I have picked up many many more outside the top 3k that one wouldn't ordinarily know. I have found the eights to be far more time consuming. It takes me so many more repetitions on any given alphagram until I feel comfortable with them... I'm finally getting really solid on my second thousand 8's. I've felt comfortable with the first thousand for a while now, altho there are about 20 of those that trip me up on my cards (even when I can find them over the board, which seems odd). I wanted to have more down by now, but now that I have kind of taught myself how to study, I think I'll be able to add 8's more quickly and efficiently now. Instead of months to learn a set of 1000, it's taking weeks. I also tried Jumble Time once this past week, which immediately made me feel like a moron. Between the fact that I am a pathetic typist, and that I am not a fast anagrammer, my performance was quite poor. I think I'll wait a while before trying again, as my results were kind of embarrassing. Went to the Rocky River club sunday. Went 3-1, losing only a shootout to Dan Stock 453-439. Pulled of a nice comeback win against Terry O. where I found TUAT(A)RAs. I have never studied it (only TUATERA), but growing up a huge REM fan, I knew the word, as Tuatara was the name of a Peter Buck side project. From there, I just had to hope the OWL agreed with me, and it did. The NAST satty is filling out nicely. We're up to 18 entrants, and the field is a nice mix of Ohio locals, Pittsburgh peeps, a couple of Michiganders, LJers, friends, clubmates, even a new young player who comes to Rocky River every once in a while. I expect to fill it by Dayton, and collect most of the outstanding entry checks there. Should be a fun field, with lots of players in contention for the three spots in the final. Now I have to hope that someone else hosts a satty or two so I can play my way in. Probably (95%) heading to Farmington this weekend. I need some tournament games before Dayton, and now that my rating is starting to edge towards 1400, the field there should be a good preparation for the Dayton field. Would be good to build some momentum before Players, but if nothing else, gets me out of the greater medina area for a while. ipecac_icecap and I met up a couple times this weekend to play a word game of his design. It's fun, as it help with anagramming skills, and has a different set of strategic factors than SCRABBLE. I'll leave any more description of it to its creator, but I highly recommend it... Otherwise, this week... I'll try to get work done, which with Dayton anticipation seems unlikely. I'll keep my workouts going, and probably hit club thursday. otherwise, all quiet here. can't wait to catch you all at dayton, particularly you LJers I know only through this medium. PZ Tags: nast satty, players, scrabble
Current Location: home
Current Mood: mellow
Current Music: September 67- Lucky Shoe
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