I went 3-4 with a -90 spread at the monthly Philly tournament on Sunday. This was below my lower bound goal -- at worst I wanted to be 4-3 -- but given that I was 0-3 before lunch I'm not completely unhappy with it.
I'll get into the games more in a minute, but first I have to comment on the poor sportsmanship shown by several players. Apparently instead of showing the national tournament this year, ESPN has plans to carry a kids tournament. This is probably a good move as, if the Philly group is any indictation, the amount of petty quibbling among players you'll see is less for a bunch of fifth graders than for a bunch of adults. Seriously, it was pretty absurd. For one, people get so attached to their own personal boards and get into a huff if they have to move. At one point, niether I nor my opponent had a board setup (there are half as many boards as players, so this will happen) so we took an open board knowing that the person who it belonged to was playing so-and-so, who was already setup at his board, so the board we took over would be open. When the woman whose board we were at saw this she got super pissed. She started bitching about how we took her board and how, "we better not ever do that again." And how, "I was winning on my board, now I'm losing." Even after my opponent explained and apologized (an apology she accepted) she still continued to bitch about it. At several minutes of listening to her complain I said to her, "it's just a board, get over it." I probably should not have said anything, as it caused some friction between us that lasted the entire tournament, and culminated in a very small and petty quarrel at the end, but I hate it when people are being completely unreasonable and everybody kowtows to it.
Eric experienced a somewhat similar incident when he and his opponent were trying to find a board to play on and everytime they thought they had found one somebody would kick them off, because they wanted their own board, they can't just take the open board, they have to be difficult and kick people off and play on their own boards. I don't understand. For all intents and purposes it's the exact same thing. There are no hometown fans rooting for you at your own board. It's not college basketball.
Also while observing play I saw somebody blantantly butting into a game he wasn't involved in. With the game already in hand, the soon-to-be-winner went to make a play, then before announcing his score, decided against it, taking some more time to think -- perfectly legal. The nosy observer said, "c'mon, just make the play and take the victory, don't be worried about spread points. You're worried she's gonna play OY, just make the play. [Turning to another observer]. I hate the way this guy plays. He's always going for spread points. They don't matter just take the win." But actually spread points matter very much, especially in a small tournament, so it's reasonable, smart even, to consider them. And even if it weren't, it's completely out of line to make such comments aloud about a game you're not involved in. Had I been playing I would have told the person this, but the guy who was making the plays is only 14, so he probably isn't that comfortable talking back. Eventually he made his play and subsequently won the game. At this point his opponent started being super pouty -- scowling, throwing her score card around, speaking very curtly. Intentionally doing all the little things to let everybody know she was pissed, basically being a total baby about losing. That's such bad sportsmanship -- just fill out the scorecard and thank your opponent. You can vent all you want and be as mopey as you like later in private.
Anyway, on to the games. I played Dave Engelhardt first just as I did in the last tournament, and just as in the last tournament he edged me in the end. I took the lead late by bingoing SATIATED through an open E, but my subsequent draw was DDNNRRI and the only other vowel I drew the rest of game was a single U. He had vowels for the end game, I didn't and there was nothing I could do to avoid a loss. Lorraine Burton crushed me in the next round. I was trying to not get frurstrated by bad draws, but it was to no avail. I know I'm better than her, but she got the tiles. My next match was even worse. Scott Kitchen gave me a serious whooping, 483-340. He drew both blanks, 2 Ss, the Q, the Z, and the X, and he drew9 of the 12 Es. I couldn't compete. Going into the lunch break I was not happy at all. Eric had only slightly more success in D1. He was 1-2 with a bad spread.
In the first game after lunch I beat Mark Miller. Mark is one of the top D2 players, his peak rating is nearly 1800, so beating him is good. It gives me something, at the very least, to hang my hat on. I made a good challenge against him when he played COILINGS (later Eric and I agreed that in general you should challenge the -INGS words, unless you're sure it's good), only to make the gaffe of making a play that put an open RE on the board, allowing him to bingo RECLOSING on his next move. Considering I knew his tiles, that's really idiotic. Still I was able to grab a decent lead and play defense for a 391-365. In the next game I put up my highest point total of the day and lose to Stan Williams 419-447. With me up by about 40 he bingos SCOUTING and CAUSING on consecutive plays to go up by over 100. I hit a bingo and parlay the X and Z into big points, but it's not enough. I'm not unhappy about this loss, at least I was able to compete. I win my final two games to make my tournament record at least respectable. I edge Marty Fialkow, the fastest player in the tournament, by 9 (he had 18 minutes left on his clock at the end, I had 30 seconds), and then I crush Lorraine Burton by 141 in a rematch. The latter of these games is particularly gratifying as this time around I get the tiles. I hit up JUICER, TALKIEST and RELEARNS all for big points. My top play on the day is TRIPLETS for 80, but given the circumstances I think my best find was SATIATED. I had to find a bingo, as there was only one open lane and I knew he'd close it next turn, and I had AA in my rack, and I'm usually not good with the double A words. I also hit up a few new stem bingos (ESTRUAL and ENTOILED) and it's always nice to see a payoff like that.
Overall I beat 2 people rated higher than me and 1 rated lower than me. I lost to 2 people rated higher, and 2 rated lower. I'm expecting a small drop in my ratings, but it shouldn't be anything too substantial. Also, I think I was severely outdrawn in 2 games (Lorraine I and Scott), and I think I severely outdrew my opponent in 1 game (Lorraine II), and in the other 4 games the draws were more or less equal. That puts me at 2-2 with a +40 spread in "even-playing-field" matches. I'd like to get that ratio up to 3:1 for the next tournament. Eric finishes at 2-5, but 2-5 in D1 is at least as good as 3-4 in D2.
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