Is this the most BIZARRE Scrabble ending ever?

Playing a Scrabble turn is pretty simple: make some words and add up your points. But sometimes this seemingly easy process can confuse even experienced tournament players!
Math is hard, and math mistakes happen at all levels of tournament Scrabble. But what happens when an expert misscores his play by a whopping TWENTY-FOUR points? Add that to an already insanely complicated position, and the result is nothing short of absolute chaos!

[@Jkfgjfgjfkjg]

I, too, fail to notice when my opponent underscores his move by 24 points in a close game.

[@mikechappell5849]

But be wary of playing to beat their declared (too low) score and then losing when they find the error at the end. Better to correct their error if you notice it at the time

[@AmaranthRBY]

Love a good "passing is optimal" situation. Really cool endgame!

[@mackmeller]

Thanks! Yeah I always love those too

[@LeviATallaksen]

Wow, I've certainly miscounted a few times myself, but not realizing you're playing an X-bomb is really funny! And nice to see that we got a cool and mathematically interesting story out of it!

[@bruceyuchuanyu]

Overlap with 6 letter is crazy tho

[@mackmeller]

Indeed!

[@HopUpOutDaBed]

What about an intentional phoney like ALF? If it is challenged off it's the same as passing, but if not challenged off it accomplishes the same as blocking with ALT. So either way it's the same win percentage but if the phoney is plausible enough your opponent might not realize what you're doing and throw them off even more.

[@mackmeller]

Interesting! The problem, though, is that Eric has a bingo (i.e. if Froilan draws the F), Eric can, and should, just let ALF* (or whatever Froilan plays) go, bingo out, and win. This doesn't work with passing since there's nothing to let go in that sense, so Eric is forced to deal with a situation where the bag isn't empty. So this boils down to: is Eric more likely to screw up by (1) Froilan passes and Eric slaps down TErTIALS quickly; or (2) Froilan plays ALF* or something and Eric snap challenges and plays TErTIALS, not considering that he can let ALF* go and just bingo out. To me (1) is more likely, since either way Eric has to play TErTIALS, and (2) adds the extra layer that Eric also has to not consider just bingoing out and taking a sure win (which I think he'd do in most cases, especially since ALF* is very odd-looking). Edit: if Froilan is going to phony, ALFA is better than ALF, since he's also making the phony two of FO*. People do occasionally play the unintended phony two, but a phony two AND a phony three on the same play is pretty hard to believe. With ALFA I think it's more conceivable Eric might just think Froilan slipped up and missed FO*, and might be more likely to challenge and not sense something's up; with ALF*/FO* there's no way Eric doesn't smell a rat. This all being said I still maintain passing induces a mistake more often, but it's certainly debatable. Really cool idea to think about, thanks for sharing!

[@alexlatham6836]

ALF is actually good in Collins.

[@redcapped101]

I can't believe they got it wrong! Truly a once-in-a-lifetime moment to get the score incorrect

[@mackmeller]

It's not as rare as you'd think to be off by a couple, but being off by double digits, especially 24, is pretty unheard of haha

[@DadgeCity]

​@@mackmeller I did overscore myself by 30 once!

[@jellomochas]

Is this the dAFFIEST Scrabble ending ever?

[@LeviATallaksen]

Isn't ICE really suggesting Eric has the other I? Which would mean that under the correct score, if we include inference in the equation, FANARTS wins more often than FIATS.

[@mackmeller]

Good point -- it's not guaranteed that he has the other I (he could easily play ICE with a rack of AEEIST?, for example), but it's true that he's probably more likely than average to have it, so FANARTS does seem slightly preferable there (but still worse than ALT).

[@LeviATallaksen]

​@@mackmeller Sure, I guess my main point is that he was probably vowel heavy, making it more likely. In that sense, too bad the bingo hooking ICE doesn't require a vowel to be left in the bag, as that would make ALT even stronger!

[@redreoicy6698]

it is possible to pass even without the bingo theoretically, as there are situations where pass as a bluff is the best play. Sadly artiste is safe from staff here though.

[@ohtani2024]

Passing is one of the most underrated move that many scrabble players always forget!! So many times it saves me in wide open end game situation!

[@mackmeller]

Yeah it's so counterintuitive and easy to miss but comes in handy a surprising amount of the time!

[@joshuatatum8519]

Nice touch with the aspect ratio, makes it much more watchable on mobile

[@mackmeller]

Thanks! Didn't even think about that aspect (pun intended) of it but good to hear

[@Para20Site]

I've seen a number of "passing is the optimal play" reviews now, but has a player actually passed as the optimal play in a tournament game?

[@mackmeller]

Absolutely. Andy Hoang did against me at a tournament earlier this year, if I can find the game I'll maybe make a video on it, and I remember Joe Edley doing it once to avoid drawing the Q which would've doomed him. I'm sure there have been others as well

[@AOOA926]

6:48 un?? It’s pronounced ANNE