Today's Wordle is so difficult it nearly cost me my 415-game streak

techradar.com:

Some Wordle games are so difficult that they stick with you long after you've completed them. Well, today's game is one of those — and it nearly did for me.

This was far from my first personal nightmare on Wordle. RUPEE, back in March 2022 was one that I screwed up royally, only escaping with a last-gasp 6/6. HOMER, a couple of months later, caused me similar problems.

The worst of all, for me, was GAMER — a puzzle that I agonized over for more than an hour. I was ultimately left with a choice of two words, GAMER or GAZER, and guessed correctly, heart pounding.

Along the way, I sailed through the likes of CAULK, SWILL, TACIT, WATCH, FEWER and EGRET with 3s, 4s or occasionally 5s — but no real jeopardy. My streak extended onwards to its current value of 415 and I began to wonder if I could complete the remainder of Wordle's 2,309 puzzles without a failure. That hope almost ended today.

If you've not played game #613 yet then go away and do so before you return to read the rest of this — because obviously THERE WILL BE SPOILERS. You might well want a few Wordle clues along the way, too.

All done? Good. Then we can continue.

The best measure I have of a Wordle puzzle's difficulty comes from WordleBot, the New York Times' clever AI tool that analyzes each game.

As well as suggesting the best Wordle starting words to use and explaining where you screwed up (in a rather condescending manner), WordleBot reports an average score for the game across a sample of all those who have played it.

Today's game achieves an average score of 5.4. Yes, an average score of 5.4. That's the second highest I've ever seen, behind only PARER (6.3, game #454) and level with FOYER (game #304).

For context, most Wordles are in the range 3.5 to 4.5. That