First Tournament: Washington DC

Washington D.C., November 10, 2006

I'm entering this tournament liking my chances of taking home a prize in division 4. Playing a couple of games each night on-line and honing my skills by studying stems while I exercise daily, I think division 3 would be a more appropriate level for me. Despite being so close to home Eric couldn't make this tournament due to teach responsibilities. My UMD Versatiles cohorts Nick Fraher and Ross Putman are both here. Nick and I are about the same skill level. Ross is a notch below, but no pushover.

The games begin nicely. My very first tournament game is against Judy Tipton, whom I beat handily. My success mostly continues and after the first two days of play I'm 11-2-1, and I'm in second place behind Nick who's 12-2. One loss was to Nick and the tie was to a scruffy-looking, mid-20s year-old named Ben Lefstein. I was fortunate to get a tie, bingoing with no tiles left in the bag. My other loss is to Barabara Major, a division 4 Scrabble veteran. She was up by about 20 points and it was her go when I had a bingo in my rack with two open lanes. She put down QUITE on a double word score with the Q on a triple letter score for 70+ points. Also she simultaneously blocked both the open lanes. It was a devestating blow from which I cannot recover. Overall, I have 28 bingos which puts me at the top of the "bingo derby" for D4 participants, just ahead of this colorful old fellow, Ron Millard. He has 27 despite a record right around .500. I think he's a fisherman.

Despite being dog-tired the first round of the last day goes great. I rout Jennifer Cohen, who is certainly the cutest girl at this tournament, and Nick loses -- apparently his opponent hit XI, ZA, and QI all for 50+ points. It's a good to know the twos. Nick and I play the next round and I jump out to an early lead and glide to victory. It would've been close if not for his attempt to backhook ORA with an S in playing a bingo. I knew ORA was already plural, because I looked it up once when making a crossword puzzle. I'm now in 1st by a game and a half with 2 left.

My next opponent is Tobey Roland who I beat earlier in the tournament, and who annoyed me earlier in the tournament. In my first game with Nick I overdrew, but hadn't looked at any of my tiles yet. Neither of us were certain of the exact procedure, so he suggested I just toss one back and call it good, so that's what I did. No advantage was gained, nothing in the game was upset, and Nick was almost certainly going to win anyway. Sitting at a nearby table Tobey sees this, butts into our game and tells Nick that what we did was improper, and that people at his club do that all the time, and it's a pet peeve of his. Nick responded that neither of us cared. I couldn't really hear what was exchanged at the time, but when Nick filled me in later it really irritated me -- it's none of his business, we don't care about his pet peeves, and it's completely out of place to disrupt our game. Anyway, I lose to Tobey. It was nip and tuck the entire way and he got the tiles down the stretch. I also made the mistake of not challenging BAW, which I was 99% sure was phoney, because of that 1% chance it was good, and it was only a 10 point play early in the game. But it might of mattered. Bad decision on my part.

I play Nick in the final round for the D4 championship. Drawing all 4 four esses and a blank he wins easily. I couldn't get any balanced racks and I didn't draw the other blank until everything was already shut down, in part because Nick is good at shutting down bingo lanes. I finish second, so it goes. I also finish second in the bingo derby with 31 behind Ron Millard who hit up 32. Somebody told me Ron told them he would let them win if they kept the bingo lanes open for him. If true, that's pretty cheap, but whatever, he had some nice bingos (e.g. QUERIST) and I have no reason to be bitter. Actually I do, he took home the $100 prize instead of me. But it's hard to be bitter toward an enfeebled Viet Nam vet with the mouth of a sailor. I just congratulate him and take my $125 for 2nd prize.

G.I. Joel Sherman of "Word Wars" fame took the grand prize. Matt Graham came in third and Marlon Hill was there, but didn't place. If Joe Edley were there he would've rounded out the "Word Wars" four. Stefan Fatsis, the NPR correspondent and author of the book "Word Freak" was there also playing in division 2, as well as numerous people who's names I recognize.

When the ratings come out I'm 1170. Not too shabby all things considered.