The giant fish that won a giant Scrabble prize
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 ก.ย. 2024
- Many high-profile Scrabble tournaments have come down to a climactic final game to decide the big winner. My 2024 Scrabble Players Championship win in the decisive game 5 of the finals was a notable example, but certainly not the only one, even of this past summer.
The 2024 Word Cup in Albuquerque, New Mexico, another 5-day event with a $10,000 top prize, came down to a showdown between two-time defending champ Jackson Smylie and longtime top player Rafi Stern. Jackson had the edge, but then pulled a nightmare draw out of the tile bag, getting FOUR A's on the same rack. Could he possibly keep his scoring train going with such horrendous tiles and win an unprecedented third consecutive title?
One small note on the final play of AE: Rafi's clock was showing "00:00" before his turn. He managed to put down both tiles, and stop the clock before it clicked to negative. Both players were laughing, and I think everyone was happy he didn't flag. :)
Ah I forgot about that
Jackson is the Nigel Richards of Scrabble
Wait a minute...
Or... is Nigel the Jackson Smylie of Scrabble?
In darts, a 170 checkout is called the Big Fish. I guess in scrabble a 70 bingo should be called the Arapaima from now on.
And THAT, folks, is why you study the five-vowel bingos before every tournament!
Now I'm curious to know if PIRARUCU (which is the arapaima fish, but it is how Brazilian people call it 90% of the time) is also a valid word.
it is valid
Yep it's good!
How do I not remember this??! I remember him triple-tripling earlier in the tournament with 3 As (AREAWAYS, once again against Rafi), but not bingoing with 4 of them!
Studied the 5v8s and I'm happy I spotted ARApAI(M)A as well!
Nice job!
A phony bingo that occurred on the first turn of a Scrabble game I played:
My opponent started the game and had the rack AAIJMOR (I know that because of the phony bingo that was played). A play that I might have made with that rack on the first turn is JORAM (which is better than its anagram of MAJOR because it puts the J on the double), but my opponent played the invalid bingo of JIORAMA* instead. He probably thought "If I had the D instead of the J, I would have the bingo of DIORAMA, but I want to bingo anyway, so I'll play JIORAMA* and hope my opponent doesn't notice". I challenged it off the board, and I think there were no more phonies played in the rest of that game.
Yikes... good challenge!
Could Rafi have played SE(R), fishing for a TU draw directly? That would make it two tripletriples open and not trivial to block simultaneously.
Drawing UT is a 1/60 occurrence. But the biggest problem is that your opponent will prioritise blocking the S as it is the biggest threat, leaving you empty-handed.
It's very similarly not certain whether ES is a fish for a triple triple through V or through the S - similarly to the case Macl discussed.
Drawing T after U is half the probability than drawing them simlutaneously: 1/16 for U, and 2/15 for T (Jackson drawing inbetween doesn't change that), i.e. 1/120. (Another explanation: orderless couple is twice as likely as ordered couple.)
Still worth IMHO.
This is a very reasonable idea, and similar to the other thought of PE(p) mentioned below and my the commentators -- the problem, as Violeta has pointed out, is that Jackson is almost certainly going to block the S since there are so many more 3*3 possibilities there than through the V. Also, if Jackson has a 6-letter word to the S, even something as simple as RADON(S), he blocks both simultaneously, effectively ending Rafi's chances on the spot.
rafi almost drew arpeggi after a rather weird fish play
Jackson vs Meller match of the century!
I'd be down! Jackson are you scared of me? 😉
what are your thoughts on rafi playing I1 PE(p) on turn 18, once again hoping for OPAQUEST but this time through the P, as matt canik suggested in the live commentary?
I think it's a really cool idea, my concern is I think Jackson is significantly more likely to block the P in PEp than the V after that play, since it feels a bit easier to hit. That's especially true with 2 S's left from Jackson's POV, and a lot of eights starting SP- (of course not the one Rafi is fishing for, but Jackson can't know that, and that fact hurts Rafi since it incentivizes Jackson to be more afraid of that spot).
If there was a floating T, he could've also played ATARAXIA with a blank X, assuming it's valid in TWL.
It's not that hard to bingo with 4 E's or O's (VEEPEES, VOODOOS, etc.), but I don't think I've ever seen a bingo with 4 I's.
I have both seen and played a bingo with 4 U's, though. A bot played SUCURUJU against me, and I played SURUCUCU on my second turn against another player, after a one-tile exchange. (I started first with CCDSUU? and traded the D. It would hit a 7 with A/B/I/L/M/O/R/S, and if I went second, I would've had CADUCEUS since he played QUAIL).
Wouldn't Jackson block (OPAQUES)T if OPAQUES did come down and Rafi did draw TW?
Given what they drew, we could actually get OPAQUES into TWA had Rafi fished for it! (if Jackson still plays SOVRAN). Only problem is that Jackson would be the one to get TWA...
Do you think Jackson would have played a Z-bomb in that case? After all, ZEN blocks the bingo line on top, which is open this time, contrary to when he passed up on AZON in the game. And I've certainly seen Jackson trust himself before that worst case scenario doesn't exist in the pool!
Edit: I wrote AXON instead og AZON.
Very hard to say, your opponent fishing 1 tile with an open 3*3 is pretty scary so I could definitely see Jackson blocking the V, but as you said I could also see him playing a Z bomb if he can convince himself the V isn't actually much of a threat. In any case it puts Jackson in a tougher spot, which is why I do like it as Rafi's best option
6:20 What are some 7 or 8 letter verbs that are valid with -IZE but not -ISE ending?
A lot of -ISE words have gotten added, so not a ton, but here are a couple in NWL (there are way fewer in CSW):
ARABIZE ARABISE*
EROTIZE EROTISE*
HEROIZE HEROISE*
ATTICIZE ATTICISE*
CURARIZE CURARISE*
FIBERIZE FIBERISE*
Similarly, there are about 30-35 -IZER words in NWL that are not valid with the -ISER. For example:
ALKALIZER / ALKALISER#
BOTANIZER / BOTANISER#
MAXIMIZER / MAXIMISER#
MEMORIZER / MEMORISER#
MINIMIZER / MINIMIZER#
THEORIZER / THEORIZER#
VOCALIZER / VOCALISER#
Heh, being quite a nerd with regards to River Monsters (TV show) I saw Arapaima right away
Let's go! I used to watch that show all the time with my dad
I think rather than ER down from G2, a better idea was to just play SER down from G1. now you're threatening a triple triple in both spots, and hoping Jackson blocks the A column and that you draw UT, which is still unlikely, but the payoff is OPAQUEST as a triple triple, which could conceivably actually win.
Makes me think- what's the most of a specific letter a play has had?
EDIT: oh I completely misread this comment
it's probably Es, since there are 12 E's and only 9 of the next most frequent tiles (A and I). Many players have drawn 12 E's in a game, but with the possibility of exchanging involved, I wouldn't be surprised if a player has drawn more than 12 E's in a single game. I's are a possible candidate too, since when you have multiple I's, you'll often want to exchange them, since they are far harder to work with than multiple E's. So I wouldn't be surprised if someone has drawn more than 12 I's in a single game.
In Catalan there is the valid word OSSOSOS
In theory you could play six As through disconnected letters in TARAMASALATA. If it weren't for the fact there's only four Ss in the tile bag, there'd be a chance of playing seven Ss in STRESSLESSNESS. Other candidates with multiple Is are INVISIBILITIES, DIVISIBILITIES, IGNITIBILITIES, and lots more. Throwing Scrabble rules out the window, the word with the most instances of the same letter, I believe, is POSSESSIONLESSNESS.
@@rachelblaquiere9134 If we don't care about validity in Scrabble, the state fish of Hawai'i HUMUHUMUNUKUNUKUAPUA'A has 9 U's in it.
@@axcertypo It's an interesting thought experiment but probably no easy way to get an answer. I was actually asking about the highest amount of a specific letter in an individual play eg this one being 4.
It’s funny ive watched multiple shows with arapaima in them, and found the word on aerolith, but missed it here 😂
River Monsters? I used to watch that all the time with my dad
@@mackmeller definitely! Loved that show
AAAA!