TLW 87 - Nomads Results

Stewart 1: EEIKNPT (-12)Stewart: “This seemed as good as anything else...”This is one of those situations where you can spend minutes looking for the right move,only to find that there isn’t one - or more accurately, there are lots. KINE or KITE at f6afor 20, KITTEN at j6d... They’re all much of a muchness. The thing to do is to playquickly and get on with the game.KINE F9a 20 20Terry 2: FANNY B10a 44 56Stewart 2: EPT IOOW (-36)Stewart: “Wasn’t happy about the volatility of this play but options seemed limited andthe rack leave was promising.”Slightly better than Stewart’s move is WOOPIE at k6d or k7d for 29. I didn’t knowWOOPIE at last year’s ABSP Masters, and tried WOOPSIE against Di Dennis, which wasdisallowed. So if ever you have a WOOPSIE on your rack, just remember to playWOOPIES instead!WOO C11a 23 43Terry 3: VEG B12a 28 84Stewart 3: EIPT GSX (-41)Stewart: “Went straight for the points here, perhaps sacrificing a potentially strong keep.”Other possibilities include EXIT at i10a for 30, keeping back the S but with the ratherclunky GP. The best rack-balancing move is probably PIG at i10a for 13, leaving ESTX,but 22 points is a lot to sacrifice.PIXES K4d 35 78Terry 4: VIM B12d 16 100Stewart 4: G T EGINT (-22)Stewart: “I’m annoyed with myself for not having been confident enough of NOGG toplay the bonus. GET seemed like a poor alternative.”Yep, it’s an expensive miss. A leave such as TING could go horribly wrong with a 3-consonant pickup. That said, GET is the best of the non-bonus plays.GET A13d 19 97Terry 5: ETAErIOS F5a 57 157Stewart 5: GINT ADE (-60)Stewart: “A lucky pickup given the GINT leave, but since it makes no 7’s I was stilldependent on Terry giving me a place to play an 8. Ah, there we go!”SEDATING plays in the same spot, but is slightly inferior in that it leaves vowels next toboth triple-letter squares.STEADING M5d 63 160Terry 6: REFUSED B6a 74 231Stewart 6: ABDLLOR (-71)Stewart: “When I picked this out of the bag I sighed that this lovely natural bonuswouldn’t go down and when Terry played REFUSED I was disappointed that he’d beeneven luckier than I had, but then I spotted the beautiful overlap. I was so excited Iunderscored it by one point... (should be 86 not 85).”BOLLARD C4a 85 245Terry 7: CURIO L1d 28 259Stewart 7: EEENOY? (-14)Stewart: “After not seeing a bonus to complete the hat-trick I was quite confident this wasthe best play.”I agree, but with a different scoreline (i.e a substantial deficit) plays such as YOGEE atk12a for 20 or YGOE at l12a for 18 would be the best choice, providing two nine-timeropportunities with a blank on the rack.OYE C3a 27 272Terry 8: JIZ L10a 39 298Stewart 8: EEN? AOR (-26)Stewart: “I was well off for time at this point and so spent about seven minutes workingvery hard trying to find a bonus here... if there wasn’t a nine-timer then so be it, but surelysomething was available? The two sevens (ARENOSE and PERAEON) both came to mindand were instantly discarded due to lack of space but I was disappointed not to be able tofind anything around the C of CURIO or the G of STEADING. This is a lesson that if youhave studied all the high-probability bonuses and still can’t find anything then maybethere really isn’t anything there, no matter how promising it looks. As it turns out later,however, ARENOsE (h13) was playable but only if I was prepared to play STEADINGS,which I wasn’t. JEAN was a healthy second best in terms of both score and rack leave.”Interesting to compare this play with move 4. Here, despite scoring 84 points, the missedbonus cost Stewart something like 14 points of equity (the average points gained over thenext couple of moves, as compared with playing ARENOSE/STEADINGS), whereasmissing GETTING on move 4 cost around 40 points. As a general rule, you lose far lessby missing a bonus when you have a blank on your rack, because it usually won’t belong before you do get your bonus down.JEAN L10d 30 02Terry 9: CLAW L1a 27 325Stewart 9: ORE? ARV (-23)Stewart: “It was nice to be confident of this WD bonus after having studied some randomblocks of 7’s with Lexpert. Had absolutely no idea about the wonderful WRApOVER, though.”sAVORER D13a 65 367Terry 10: CRIT H12d 27 352Stewart 10: ABHIIMU (+15)Stewart: “I was attracted by the good score at this tight stage of the game and hoped for abalancing pickup to compensate for my poor leave.”2021