Annotated Game: Jackson Smylie vs. Cedric Lewis
Welcome to another installment of our annotated game series. Once every month or so, we'll take an interesting game from a CoCo tournament, break it down move by move, and ask the players to analyze a few of the key positions.
Not much has changed since the last time we shared a tournament game in this space - we're all still quarantined, and our tournaments are still virtual. So we thought we'd share another game from our Computer Users' Remote Event (CURE) series. This one is from CURE3 - it's a matchup between Jackson Smylie, who would go on to win the tournament, and Cedric Lewis, who also finished near the top.
Thanks to Jackson and Cedric both for sharing their thoughts - and thanks again to Conrad Bassett-Bouchard for the awesome graphic design work on the board diagrams you see below.
Let's get to the game!
Cedric: AEIOORR
exchange AIOOR +0 0
Cedric: I did not consider an opening play like OORIE or OORIER. A vowel dump from the first turn is usually unideal - it presents many scoring opportunities for my opponent and makes it harder to score next turn - and leaving an E floater will often give my opponent a bingo.
Jackson: AEIOQST
H7 QI +22 22
Cedric: ?AAEFLR
8F FAIRLEAd +61 61
Jackson: AEEIOST
I7 IRE +17 39
Jackson: My thought process was to look for plays that played only vowels in order to keep a potent bingo leave like EIST or AEIST. (F)OE was the most aggressive option, keeping the best leave (AEIST) and leaving all the 8s lanes open, but IRE scored 9 more while keeping the albeit clunkier AEOST leave. I felt like that was a worthy sacrifice, but being down by a bit already might favour the more aggressive option. I think I'd go with that if I could do it over.
Cedric: DJORSWY
K5 JOWED +32 93
Jackson: AENOPST
N2 TEOPANS +83 122
Cedric: ANRSVYY
O1 VARY +55 148
Jackson: ?AAMTTT
L4 TAM +23 145
Cedric: GILNSVY
M1 VIG +25 173
Cedric: This play was tough. I regretted here as my initial thought was to play VLY at 9D, since that is the last available lane for a bingo. The GINS keep is definitely better than LNSY, and the extra 8 points from VIG dug a hole for myself.
Jackson: ?ABEETT
10C ABETTEd +63 208
Cedric: ILNNSXY
11C NIX +44 217
Jackson: EGLNPSU
12A PUNG +35 243
Cedric: EELNSWY
A12 PLEW +27 244
Jackson: EEHLORS
B14 HO +25 268
Cedric: DENOSTY
F10 TENTY +27 271
Jackson: ABEELRS
E14 BE +11 279
Jackson: I definitely liked keeping the board bereft of scoring options as it already is - the relative weight of a new scoring spot is very high when there are no others available, so I didn't want to make one spot that Cedric could take while leaving me with nothing. That being said, my rack is better than Cedric's on average, so I did consider some board opening plays like EL(F). Had I been able to fish one tile while making a good lane, I may have gone that aggressive route. I chose BE not because it was inspiring in any way but because it kept a good leave in case Cedric opened the board (and to hit the marginal lanes that were open) and didn't do anything particularly wrong.
Cedric: DEFORSU
F6 OFF +11 282
Cedric: OFF is definitely unideal. Quackle's Championship Player suggests DUFF (F5), and I agree, since there are two more Us in the bag. OFF could have hurt a lot more in retrospect. OFF was also supposed to create another opportunity to bingo since the board is tight. I favor a more open board early on to have comeback opportunities since the pool did not have many heavy consonants left to score with.
Jackson: AEHKLRS
5C HARK +36 315
Cedric: DEIIRSU
G10 TRUE +22 304
Jackson: EILLNSU
4B LUN +15 330
Jackson: I liked LUN because it doesn't allow many overlaps (only words starting in DA-, which severely restricts his options), keeping the board tight with my slight lead. I was happy to block the SHARK hook even though I have an S - with two Ss remaining, I liked taking away any chance at an insta-loss from a bingo by Cedric. I still keep my S for setups or scoring plays in the future, so I felt like I was in a good position. I didn't know the word SKOFF# - had I known it, I certainly would have played LUNES in the same spot for 21 more points to better secure my odds of outrunning in a defensive battle.
Cedric: CDDIIOS
B1 COILS +26 330
Jackson: DEILSTZ
H13 TIZ +39 369
Cedric: ADDIMOO
1B CAMOODI +45 375
Cedric: Cannot go wrong by taking the points here. The bag is favorable for a bingo pickup, and I need to keep the pressure on. The unseen tiles are not ugly. My opponent would have pulled away if I didn't keep the pressure on. At this point, either of us can win the game still.
Jackson: CDEELRS 3A
CID +26 395
Jackson: I felt quite confident I was going to win the game. Although I happen to keep a bingo-beautiful EELRS leave, that was not the motive behind the play. I wanted to score points while leaving 2 tiles in the bag. I knew I wouldn't outrun a bingo, and didn't like my odds of consistently outrunning with plays that blocked one of the marginal bingo lines (such as B1 CODERS). Leaving 2 tiles in the bag with CID decreases Cedric's odds of playing an out in two, since most of his plays will leave him with ~5 tiles in the endgame, allowing me to block any out he may have.
I did not consider the threat of him fishing 1 tile and drawing unblockable bingoes - with the lanes being as bad as they are and the score being quite close, I felt it was more important to ensure victory when he doesn't bingo. I didn't see any 3 tile play that outrun consistently enough. I don't have Quackle open, so I certainly may have missed a star play that accomplishes both goals well!
(Editor's note: Nah, he didn't miss anything.)
Cedric: DEIORSU
E1 OU +2 377
Cedric: It was between OU at E2 or F2. I scanned the unseen tiles and saw that I would be able to hit my bingo in three spots (column L, column M, and row 3) with this fish. Playing OU at F2 limits the playable bingo pool. At the same time, this also means that my opponent would have extra lanes to bingo with. The best lane would be from M8 for my opponent, and a reply from E3 would be insufficient for me to win. Upon further analysis, JA(U)P for 13 points would keep me close enough to potentially win with a bingo.
I would have been in big trouble if my opponent had played more than two tiles the previous turn.
Jackson: EEGLNRS
2G ENGS +12 407
Jackson: After Cedric's amazing fish, he now has two spots to bingo: row C and columns 12/13. I saw if an I is in the bag, he has ROADIES and AERADIOS, and I can't seem to win. If an O is in the bag, I saw he had DAIRIES/OUD. I didn't know the word DIARISED#, which would play from the D on column 13. In reality, assuming Cedric finds his bingoes, I'm toast if an I or O is in the bag (which is quite likely given his fish, certainly more than the 3/8 that raw probability would suggest).
I chose a play that blocked what I thought was the most dangerous lane (row C) and seemed to outrun consistently with all the non-bingo racks Cedric could have. I didn't permute this fully, but played enough tiles to likely leave me with an out and score decently while blocking.
Cedric: ADEIORS
L8 AERADIOS +73 450
(EILR) +8 458
Cedric: This game was fun!
(Editor's note: Yes. Yes, it was.)
Final score: Cedric 458, Jackson 407.
