Comments | scrabbling: a matter of style?

backhoeing in scrabbling

a matter of style?

Jul 10, 2011 12:18

I had an interesting decision on the second turn of my game with Jeff Jacobson at the Bethesda tournament yesterday. After I opened with 8G THORAX for 48, and he responded G6 AN(T)iGENE for 60, I had the very nice rack ?JUMPER. The two best choices are obvious: 14A JUMPERs/ANTiGENEs for 96 or H1 JUMPER for 62 holding the blank. What's not ( Read more... )

Comments 6

wantonhalo July 10 2011, 16:32:59 UTC

Against a weak player or closed player, I would play JUMPER, because I feel I have a strong advantage against these people on an open board. Holding a blank with many bingo lines is a strong advantage against anyone, more so against a someone weak or someone paranoid. Against an open player, I think I'd play JUMPERs, but I'm tempted by JUMPER. It's harder against an open player, because it seems like everything you do will be quite open. So it could be right to do JUMPER.

backhoeing July 10 2011, 16:36:05 UTC

It seems to me that you're implying the board is more open after JUMPER. The board is pretty open either way, but isn't JUMPERs the play that really cranks the volatility up to eleven?

wantonhalo July 10 2011, 16:51:50 UTC

I think JUMPERs leaves more lucrative scoring spots, and JUMPER leaves more available bingo lanes. Against closed and/or weak players, it seems good to limit scoring spots and keep more bingo lanes. Against others, maybe the opposite. In addition, after JUMPER, the blank's value is quite high thanks to the open board.

backhoeing July 10 2011, 18:22:58 UTC

Against closed and/or weak players, it seems good to limit scoring spots and keep more bingo lanes.

This is not obvious to me. If there is a large variety of scoring spots, isn't a weaker player more likely to make a suboptimal choice?

quinquennia July 10 2011, 21:59:12 UTC

Ordinarily, I'd pick JUMPER. It looks like JUMPERs will give those extra points gained right back to your opponent much of the time with stuff like 15A ONE, OH, or a variety of vertical A column plays like THU(J)A, HA(J)I or even RIO(J)A. Another reason for JUMPER would be taming down the potential F6 ZA bomb if you opponent drew the Z. I guess in the case where you need big spread to win the tournament in the final rounds, you play JUMPERs, but that's it.

backhoeing July 11 2011, 03:06:51 UTC

JUMPER seems like the obvious play, and it was my first inclination. If you have a 62 point play and keep the blank, that's gotta be a winner right? But the more I thought about it, I thought 34 points is a lot to give up ( ... )