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Here's my attempt to maximize the amount of remaining words. I ended with 7 still remaining.

It was tough to come up with any sequence that didn't have a 50/50 chance of losing on the last guess.

As a non-English speaker, how is phpht even at word?

I would guess some sort of onomatopoeia, but I couldn't guess what its trying to imitate. Maybe an uncommon spelling of "pfft?"