#player1 John John Chew #player2 Jackson Jackson Smylie #description John Chew vs. Jackson Smylie, Club #3, 2010-03-10, Round 1. Annotated for pedagogical purposes. #title Club #3, 2010-03-10, Round 1 #incomplete >John: AADDOOU 8G AOUDAD +20 20 #note Learn your vowel dumps, see email. >Jackson: EGNRRUY 9E RUNG +12 12 #note You play fast, but a little too fast. Get in the habit of double-checking all your words on the board before hitting your clock. When your opponent makes a play, ask yourself if it's good, if they scored it correctly, and what hooks it takes front and back. >John: AELORSS M3 OARLESS +77 97 #note If you're not sure of AOUDAD(S), you should at least hold the play and think about it. >Jackson: AENRRSY J8 .AY +15 27 #note I wouldn't have found this myself, but DAY is a bad play. Duplicate tiles in your leave are never a good idea, so when you see this rack (and check that there's no place for YARNERS), you should see where you make an R word for a few points. The DWS at L4 is the obvious place for you to play your Y; take a look at Quackle's suggestions there for how to score with it. Develop your board sense by playing some quick practice games against Quackle where you quickly guess where the best play is going to land before asking Quackle for its suggestions. Keep track of how many you get right, try to get that ratio up. >John: AHNPPTT L2 PHT +25 122 #note Learn your consonant dumps, see email. >Jackson: EFINRRS 7F IF +19 46 #note 7G is a good hotspot to use. One R on your rack is better than two Rs, which is why RIF is a lot better than IF. Double-doubles are good ways to dump lots of cheap tiles. If you don't know INFARES now, you'll learn it when you start studying your high-probability bingoes; it's in the top 500 sevens. >John: AIMNPRT N9 IMPART +34 156 #note When you're ahead, make plays that use more tiles, to hasten the end of the game. >Jackson: BDENRRS O5 BENDS +27 73 #note The S is worth 5-10 points on your rack, don't waste it. ENRS is a great leave, RR is a bad one, the difference averages about nine points. >John: AEINOTU N2 ETUI +22 178 #note From the list of vowel dumps, and I played it because it looked like a reasonable play. AUNTIE and UNTIE are much better though: when you see a good play, always take a moment to look for a better one. >Jackson: ?EHIIRR O12 HEIR +46 119 #note Nicely played. >John: ANOQRUY F6 Q. +31 209 #note You were already getting me in time trouble here, with your fast play and our shortened clocks. Keeping AQU is strong: the Q gives a lot of value to the AU combination. >Jackson: ?AGIIRV 8C VIA +9 128 #note Always look for those common suffixes. -ING bingoes account for fewer played bingoes than you'd think, but if you have those tiles on your rack, they're the easiest ones to find. >John: ANORUYZ M12 YO +25 234 #note I'm playing like a human, not a computer here; I'm ahead, so I'm not inclined to give you any new openings. >Jackson: ?BEGINR 9J .B +8 136 #note See previous remark about -ING bingoes. >John: ALNNRUZ O1 UN +8 242 #note I was pressed for time and forgot about the A-YAH hook I'd just set up. For next year, when you have all the threes learned, learn the 3-4 hooks. >Jackson: ?CEGINR 10C REC +10 146 #note Again, -ING bingoes. >John: ?ALNRWZ 2J ZA. +34 276 #note This is painful to look at, but yes, always pay attention to the hooks on the board. When you play YAH, remind yourself about the A-. When you play ORE, remind yourself that it takes BCDFGKLMPSTWY in front. If you think BORE, CORE, ... are all common words except for DORE and KORE, make up a mnemonic like "DK = Donkey Kong, sitting in a mine full of ore". And of course, 76 points for a 5-letter play is worth using a blank for. >Jackson: ?CGINTX L13 NIX +22 168 #note There aren't many bingoes with CG together, so get rid of one. Also, watch those phoneys, you never know when your opponent might notice something like NORE*. >John: ?ELNORW 11D LOWER +30 306 #note If the score were closer, LOWN would be better because ER? bingoes so much better than N?; here I don't need a bingo to win so I might as well take points and tile turnover now. >Jackson: ?CEGOOT 6J COO. +12 180 #note COOL is not a bad play, especially against a computer, but RECTO is much better against a human. To win at this point you're going to need to bingo twice, probably with separate blanks. If you play RECTO, I'll likely have to throw away a few points to make a blocking play on row 14. I might not have the tiles though, and you might draw your first bingo. >John: ?ADLNOW 12B WAD +22 328 #note Quackle thinks that since I have the other blank, it's safe to open up bingo lanes in the bottom left, as no matter what happens you're not going to get a seocnd bingo down. I was in a hurry and figured WAD would also win, but more safely, and there was always a small chance I might trick you into wasting a turn with SWAD*. >Jackson: ?EEEGIT 13A GEE +17 197 #note Quackle is straying into desperation territory with C12 AGEE, hoping for a triple-triple (not a bad chance with EIT?) that I won't block (as if). If you're trying to close spread, then something like B11 EWE is likely better, as it opens up two lanes and gives you a chance at getting one bingo down. >John: ?FGKLNO 10J .OK +15 343 #note When you have time, look for extensions as well as hooks. DAYLONG would have been a pretty play. The rest of the plays are pretty rotten, YOK not too much worse than the rest. >Jackson: ?EIJLOT 11A JO +15 212 #note JO looks fine to me; Quackle is still hoping to save the J for a miraculous triple-triple. >John: ?FGLLNT -FGLLN +0 343 #note I mistracked the number of Ts left; with two Ts to come I should have traded mine in. You play fast enough; when you get a little better, you should think about tracking tiles as you go to help you with choices like this. >Jackson: ?AEINNT 15H rETA. +33 245 #note Of course, don't use the blank if you don't need it. ANNEXE is also acceptable. >John: ?EIMSTV I13 VI. +10 353 #note I think you had me down to a minute on my clock here, but still no excuse for missing a nice little extension like this after setting it up. >Jackson: EFIILNN 13G FI.E +14 259 #note In the late game, always check the number of tiles left before playing. FIVE empties the bag and leaves you with six tiles on your rack, not enough for a bingo. Against the computer, your FIILN leave after NE actually bingoes out the next turn 14% of the time. >John: ?EGLMST A13 .EM +18 371 #note I shouldn't use my only vowel unless I am sure I can play out the next turn. >Jackson: EILNNT 12F EL +13 272 #note Keeping LN threatens going out on the next turn and limits my options. >John: ?GLST K1 G.S +11 382 >Jackson: INNT J12 T.N. +10 282 >John: ?LT 15A .eLT +6 388 >John: (IN) +4 392 #note Thanks for the game.