Annotated Game: Josh Castellano vs. David Whitley
Welcome back to our annotated game series. We're still plugging away at our CURE series of virtual Scrabble tournaments this spring, and every tournament, there's at least one fascinating game that merits a closer look.
This time, it's a matchup between two American experts, Josh Castellano and David Whitley, who did battle at the CURE5 a couple of weeks ago. It was a back-and-forth game with a dramatic ending, and lots of interesting strategic choices made along the way.
Thanks to Josh and David for sharing their analysis, and thanks again to Conrad Bassett-Bouchard for the graphic design work on the board diagrams.
And now, to the game.
David: EEFLNRS
8D FLENSER +78 78
Josh: DEEGIOU
E5 OUGLIED +36 36
David: AIJNSTY
D1 JANTY +51 129
David: I feel like JANTY was the clear choice. After his six-tile draw, Josh might not be able to capitalize on the J, and I'll have a shot at a third big score. I didn't give JAY the consideration it deserved for defense and increased bingo chances, but the JANTY score was irresistible.
Josh: ACDEEEU
D11
EDUCE +21 57
Josh: The situation for me at this point is really dire, so I was trying to be very aggressive. I played this because it was similar to the top equity choices and the J opened another triple line, allowing counterplays in most scenarios. If the other triple line was not available, I would not have done this.
David: DHIORSU
1D JUDOS +39 168
Josh: ?AAAEIZ
C2 ZEA +41 98
David: AHIIQRT
13C QUAIR +30 198
David: Obviously at least Q and I have to go. QI in column B and QAID on row 12 open high-scoring lanes with a lower score than the row 13 options and unimpressive leaves. QUAIR maximizes the score, and I don't mind losing the R with four in the bag and one wide open on the board.
Josh: ?AAEGII
3A AGENE +6 104
Josh: This was probably too aggressive. In this case, the equity loss I'm taking doesn't justify opening another triple line. I did this going for a long-shot triple-triple, but this play just didn't score enough points. I was reluctant to make plays like 9G AIA because they take away all those good floaters. Maybe 12G AIA would be better since it opens more accessible lines with weaker counterplays.
David: EHIMRTV
14B MICHT +48 246
Josh: ?ABIIKL
I6 KIELBAsI +66 170
David: EOORRTV
A1 TRAVE +36 282
Josh: AAILOPU
15F APIOL +24 194
Josh: The objectives for this turn were to turn over most of this crap, keep the existing lines open, and score points. I think this play does all three of those well enough. Though it's worth noting that F4 OUP might be a bit better here.
David: ABEOORR
J5
BOOR +18 300
David: I saw that BOOR scored okay, partially blocked the high-scoring K column and retained AE in a consonant-heavy pool. If I'd seen them, I'm pretty sure I would have preferred ABORE at 2F or BOREE at 10B.
Josh: AGINNUY
12G UNSAYING +76 270
David: AEFPRRT
11K FA +28 328
Josh: DEEOOSW
K5 OW +28 298
Josh: I was low on time here and couldn't see anything better. OW does score decently and keep an okay-ish leave for the bingos I need to win, but M10 OW(N)ED looks much better for that. It keeps a better leave and it also opens another line (though not a great one). The concern here would be X plays on N10, but David probably doesn't have the X since he would have played 11L AX last turn. So after M10 OW(N)ED, David is on turn with two shots at the X and I have four, which are odds I'll take at this score.
David: ELPRRTX
L2 PREX +38 366
David: I continued to miss the R hook at D10, so I didn't see the identical-scoring PREX on row 10, keeping the precious E and blocking the column B bingo lane. PREX also plays on row 4 for 34, but I'd rather float an R than an E with this pool.
Josh: DEEIOST
M8 SIDENOTE +76 374
David: ILNRRTW
15L WELT +33 399
David: Even with a blank unseen and no duplicates in the pool, vowels are scarce and there are a few problem letters. I felt good about my chances after scoring on the bottom right. Choosing WELT over WERT was questionable; my intuition was that INRR would prove less awkward than ILNR.
Josh: ACENSTV
G11
CUR +5 379
Josh: Here I was thinking that all I need to do is draw a bingo to win, so I iterated through all seven tiles to see which fishes hit the most. Ideally, I would fish the V, but it doesn't play anywhere, so I thought my next best choice was to fish the C.
Fishing the C hits bingos with ?IORR (in 5/8 scenarios), four of which are unblockable (B5 NOVATES is easily blocked). However, the problem is that when I draw the R, David has MORpHIN to bingo out and win. So if I think David will see MORpHIN, I have to discount fishes that hit with the R. This means I would only win by drawing one of ?I, which makes C13 (QI)N slightly better, because it wins with equal odds (by drawing one of ?O) but scores more. Since I did not see MORpHIN, I was not burdened by this decision and ignorantly played CUR.
David: HIMNORR
3I MHORR +26 425
Josh: ?AENSTV
B5 SErVANT +65 444
(INR) +6 450
Final score: Josh 450, David 425.
