"Do you know how non-PLACE he was?"

Here's my post on the New York Time's Wordle Review comments for yesterday.

Wordle 964 5/6

⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩 SHONE   193 WL

⬜⬜🟩⬜🟨 TRAIL         11 WL

⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ DEBUG        4 WL

⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩 FLAME         2 WL

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 PLACE

WordleBot

Skill 96/99

Luck 35/99

Streak 715

I don’t believe I’m suffering from manic depression — just expectations which have gotten out of control.  The Bot advised that “No one in our sample of 1,738,870 completed Wordles faced this scenario!” — and I should hope not.  I didn’t want to face it either. 

Guess #1 gave me only a Green E (193 solutions remaining) — but Guess #2 gave me enough info to get within striking distance of the solution (A - in position & L - out of position).  In fact, PLACE was the first word that came into my mind — but playing too hastily got me into trouble earlier in the week.  So I decided to get into trouble by overthinking things today instead.  

I knew from Game #873 (GLAZE on 11/9/2023)  that about 10 solutions remained after my second guess (OK, probably only 7 adjusting for previous & unlikely solutions) — I thought I should probably play it safe on Guess #3 and try to position myself for a “sure thing” in 4.  But DEBUG didn’t match any letters I didn’t already know about — and didn’t eliminate nearly enough words.  Now I was playing defensively, since solving in 4 wasn’t a sure thing — and a very big number seemed more likely.  So, instead of taking a risk, going with my gut, and playing PLACE — I used FLAME for Guess #4.  It didn’t solve — but I had finally weaseled my way to the right PLACE.  (The Bot claimed CLAVE was another possible solution but…give me a break!  CLAVE?  I don’t *think* so.)

I lost to The Bot (5 vs 2 — hoo boy!) and the (current) NYT avg (5 vs. 3.3).  I think I even lost my self respect (OK, that’s a little dramatic, I know).  Tomorrow is another day and all that. 

Take care and stay safe.