Scrabble Adventures

It was quiet at the club last night with a small turn-out.  I think the only "visitor" was Ben Lam.  Didn’t get a chance to chat much as I arrived a bit later than usual, so it’s off to the recaps.  There was a very interesting board situation in the first game that I’d like to share.

Game #1 vs. Geoffrey Newman
This game was close as we both seemed to score decently.  I think the turning point in this game was after Geoffrey’s second bingo when I made an attempt at REMILK* for 57 points.  He held and the challenged the play off.  After that, I was down and worked to give myself a chance to bingo to try and salvage a win.  In the end, I wasn’t able to find a bingo.

The interesting situation is presented below.  Geoffrey’s turn.  What would you play?

Geoffrey: Turn 14

   A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O      Hans    ?ADEMOT   336
   ------------------------------  -> Geoff   ABGIJPS   406
 1|=     '       V       '     O| --Tracking-----------------
 2|  L I N D A N E   "       A W| I?ADEMOT  8
 3|    -       ' N '       - N E|
 4|'     -       U   O F T   O D|
 5|      Q I     L   B E A U T  |
 6|  "     S T E E R I N G   H  |
 7|    '       '   E       ' e L|
 8|=     V I Z O R S     C A R E|
 9|    '   D A H   T A R   U   K|
10|  "     L "     A X E   R "  |
11|    F O Y       G   C E E    |
12|'   O I       Y E T   M I   '|
13|    N       ' O ' U   I -    |
14|  -       "   W   P   R   -  |
15|=     '       S       '     =|
   ------------------------------

When I saw this board position, I was torn between two potential plays:

1. 1A JAB 42 points
2. defend row 15 for the TWS bingo ending with S

Geoffrey played JIG(S) at 15E for 12 points to try and defend against a possible bingo.  Turns out that with the board situation, there was no way that he could lose as I couldn’t generate enough points to catch him (assuming he doesn’t do something crazy like keep the J – even then, that might not be enough).  There was no bingo avaiable to play through the L or across the top of the board through the V or even underneath LINDANE.  My initial thought was to do as Geoffrey did and block the easy bingo lane, but then I thought about playing JAB and taking the 42 points.  Given that he was already ahead by 70 points, my thinking was that another 42 points would surely be enough to keep the lead even if I could find a bingo.  I can’t really fault Geoffrey’s play as it blocks the easier bingo lane.

So, what did the simulation by Quackle reveal?  Something very suprising.

I let Quackle run through over 3500 iterations at 5 plies to give the analysis some robustness.  Two clear plays emerged as "winners".  My play of JAB was rated at 24.72% in terms of win probability and had a -27.6 valuation.  That shocked me.  The second best play was:  14F JA(W) for 29 points and does essentially the same thing as Geoffrey’s but with more points scored.  This play had 87.56% win probability and a (shocking) -6.0 valuation!  The recommended play as B12 PIG for 19 points with 87.56% and 11.9 valuation.  Apparently, PIG allows for the maximum points extraction given the end game.  I had no out play and PIG allows Geoffrey to play A13 JAB for another 49 points!

Needless to say, I’m a bit shocked at this analysis.  Regardless, I think the question for me in this situation was do you take the points (42 points is nothing to scoff at) or do you block a potential bingo lane.

FINAL SCORE:  441 – 380 (LOSS)
BINGOS:  ME – RESTAGE; Geoffrey: STEE(R)ING; ANOTHeR

I had a sit-out for the second round and had a chance to kibbitz Shaun and Vijay’s game.  Watching Shaun play and go over the different options was very interesting.  Many times, I was able to predict Shaun’s play based on the points scored and board position.  I didn’t realize that IBID* is not an acceptable word – guess I forgot that it’s a short form (IBIDEM).

Game #2 vs. Shauna Petrie
I had a feeling that this game was going to be … challenging when on my second turn, Shauna block all of my bingo lanes with her bingo of ORDAInS.  I had ENABLER but didn’t see any open spots or a letter to play through.  The rest of the game was pretty tame as we both made plays.  Shauna seemed to be working to shut the board down even with a small 20 lead.  I wasn’t trying to force anything and so I just played the tiles that I had.  I was able to take a small lead at the end with my bingo, but wasn’t confident in the outcome as I had horrible tiles at the end.  Actually, given the board siuation and tiles, I should have lost this game.  Shauna made a tactical error and didn’t play YORE to finish the game.  After the game ended, she said that she thought I couldn’t go out (a result of her mis-tracking my tiles).  I ust reviewed this game and I didn’t miss any obvioius 7s or 8s.  There were a couple of 9s that were available, but no way I would have seen them.  That’s good to know.
FINAL SCORE:  344 – 338 (WIN)
BINGOS:  ME – AUnTIES; Shauna – ORDAInS

One thing I’ve come to realize is that players make mistakes – I sure make my fair share of them.  Mistakes could be things like mis-tracking tiles or not making the best play.  Shelley Ubeika mentioned how someone told her that if there’s a mistake to be made, assume that your opponent will make it.  Not sure that I completely agree, but sometimes you have to have a bit of luck to win a game.

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With the 2008 Canadian National Scrabble Championship over, it’s back to regular club games.  I had a decent night, but lost my last game because I had almost no vowels for the first 10 turns.  It’s tough to win when you don’t get very many vowels.

Game #1 vs. Mark Hamilton
This game was pretty close.  Mark pulled out to an early lead with plays of KAE (22) and VOX (39).  I spent most of this game playing off vowels and wasn’t able to take the lead until the middle of the game.  Mark seemed to get a bit frustrated and then burned his good bingo prone tiles with a play of NOTICE (22) to try and open the board up.  By then, my tiles started turning for the better ad I just played the game out for a win.
FINAL SCORE:  397 – 316 (WIN)
BINGOS:  ME – SCaRIER; Mark – none

Game #2 vs. Jean Barinque
This game was very close and ended-up turning on a few plays.  Early on, we had back-to-back bingos that blew the board wide open.  The first critical play was a play that Jean seemed hesitant to make, but she did eventually play it after taking back her tiles.  I was able to play QUAI for 52 off of her play and she sort of cringed and said "I knew it!".  A few turns later, she played PROFER* that I held and then challenged.  I wasn’t sure if she was goading me into a challenge, but I had never seen PROFFER with only one F, so I decided to challenge.  The second critical series of plays occurred when I played ZEDS/ETS that Jean accepted, albeit grudgingly.  This allowed me to play SaX on my next play for 60 points.  By then I had pulled ahead by about 85 points and had better tiles at the end.  She was stuck with DDIIIU?.
FINAL SCORE:  395 – 312 (WIN)
BINGOS:  ME – RELA(T)IVE; Jean – CREATI(N)E

Game #3 vs. Sophia Ozorio
The story of this game was that I had almost no vowels for the first two thirds of the game.  I would play off three or four consonants, only to pick-up more consonants.  For example, with my set of BLMRSTY I play off BYRL (17) only to pick up TSSX – granted the S-es are nice, but not when you have no vowels.  On my next turn, I played off S(E)XT (29) and pick up GHM.  My play was M(E)SH (30), and finally get a vowel!  I picked up ING.  Please, can I buy a vowel?!!  Nevertheless, I was only down by about 30 points.  Unfortunately, Sophia plays EQUIPs for 63 points and the game was pretty much over.  The board was getting closed and I wasn’t getting bingo prone tiles.  Sophia managed to play a natural bingo to finish the game.
FINAL SCORE:  430 – 259 (LOSS)
BINGOS:  ME – none; Sophia – rEPAIRE(D), INTERNS

Some observations from last night’s games:

• Jean is a very good player.  I know that she’s just coming back from a long absence, so I’m sure she’ll only get better as she gets back into the groove of things.  I did notice, however, that she seems to run into clock trouble because she plays quite slowly/deliberately early in the game.
• Mark seems to make some tactical errors when he gets frustrated or if he’s got bad tiles.  Not sure how to take advantage of that, but it’s something worth noting.
• Sophia tends to make small overlapping plays that score 20-30 points.  As an opponent, that’s very frustrating because she’s scoring on seemingly rinky-dink plays.  I have noticed, however, that she doesn’t play exotic words.  She doesn’t shut the board down on purpose.  I hate losing to her.

Prior to the official club games, I played a quick friendly game against Paul Wigley.  It was fun to play Paul as we haven’t played in quite some time.  I was able to play an interesting word – CHEESED – for the first time.  Paul surprised me when he didn’t even hesitate and accept it.  I was able to get him to try and play an S hook on DENARII, drawing a quick challenge from me.

I’m pretty excited about attending the US nationals.  I plan to do some more writing in preparation for the big tournament.

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Was the club’s 20th anniversay so we had a small pot-luck dinner before and during the regular evening.  The club was packed tonight as there were a few people visiting to play practice games in preparation for this weekend’s Canadian National Scrabble® Championship.

Game #1 vs. Gene Tyzska
I’m upset at myself for giving this one away.  I had the Q for four turns without much chance to play it.  Gene played the last U with his bingo (PANDUITS*) and I got fixated on dumping the Q that I let his play go – I played Q(U)ARE for 45 points, so accepting the bingo wasn’t so bad (I think).  The word sounded somewhat familiar, but I couldn’t recall if it was good – apparently Panduit is the name of a networking company.  To make matters worse, I let a spelling error go too!  APAIN* versus APIAN.  I had most of the power tiles, but they all came at once toward the end so I coudn’t do much with them.
FINAL SCORE:  352 – 446 (LOSS)
BINGOS:  ME – (B)lASTIES (that’s BLASTIES); Gene – LIBERTY, (P)ANDUITS*, BOOTIES

Game #2 vs. Shan Abassi
I had better tiles this game and I really made Shan pay.  After my first bingo, Shan tried playing TONK* that I challenged off.  At first I thought he was playing some obscure anagram of KNOT, but decided to challenge it.  After that, he fell behind and then started fishing.  Toward the end, I picked up mostly As and so I couldn’t run up the score even more.  Didn’t matter as the game was already in the bag.  Shan made a late bingo to make up some points.  Interesting thing is that Shan beat Craig Rowland in first game 458 – 425.
FINAL SCORE:  455 – 356 (WIN)
BINGOS:  ME – pET(E)RING, BoOTIES, FLITTED; Shan – RINGERS

Game #3 vs. Shelley Ubeika
I should’ve lost this game except that Shelley screwed up the end by going over time and then panicking.  My mistakes included:  opening up the board when I didn’t have to, making a spelling mistake (POISINS* when I meant POISONS), and letting a phony bingo go.  Shelley commented that she has never seen SARSNET played before.  I was hoping she would challeng it, but because of the blank and 50+ possible bingos, she let it go.
FINAL SCORE:  341 – 329 (WIN)
BINGOS:  ME – sARSNET; Shelley – GROU(S)IER*, Un(P)OLITE

I think I’m still a bit shell-shocked and gun-shy about challenging bingos.  My tentativeness is costing me games (at the club) and I think I need to change this.  The perfect example was in the games against Gene and Shelley.  I regretted accepting two plays in particular (PANDUITS* and GROUSIER*) but chickened out.

Some observations about my opponents:

• GENE – I don’t want to sound arrogant, but I think I should be beating Gene most of the time.  He plays far too many phony words and challenges hi-prob bingos.
• SHAN – Not sure if this was a one game incident, but he fishes far too much.  He was playing off one or two tiles for less than 10 points each turn while I was scoring 20+ each time.  After a few turns of that, he *has* to bingo to make-up the accumulated deficit.  Shan also likes to play phony words.  In his case, I think it’s more a case of not knowing words rather than trying to play phony plays intentionally.
• SHELLEY – Had fun playing Shelley.  She’s crafty in that she’ll play phony words if she thinks you don’t know them.  I also noticed that she plays fairly conservatively and doesn’t really open the board unless she has to do so or has great tiles.  A good strategy against her might be to play conservatively.  If you can get a lead, make her do the work of opening things up.

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