Third Tournament: Getting lucky in Atlantic City

Eric and I have some trouble making it across New Jersey. We misread the directions (Eric's fault) and end up taking this slow-ass two lane road across the entire state. Then the directions gave us a wrong turn (my fault), because the address of the hotel was entered as Atlantic City instead of West Atlantic City. We get to the tournament about 15 minutes after the stated start time, but things haven't kicked-off yet. We have just enough time to check-in and all that and then find our opponents. My first opponent is Gary Perman, rated in the 1400s. The tournament is open so anybody canplay anybody regardless of division.

In the bathroom before things start, I ask Eric what is the rating of his first opponent. "Uh, I'm not sure," he replies, "but actually he's right here." He turns to the guy at the sink next to him, "Hey, what's your rating?"
"Okay, I'll leave now so you guys can talk about me," the guy says.
"We just want to know your rating," Eric responds.
"No-no-no-no-no... I'll leave so you can talk about me." And he leaves. Scrabble players can be an odd lot.

I beat Perman despite his strong finish. I was up by about a bingo with only a few tiles left. There was one open bingo lane when he made a decent scoring play that put ED at the bottom of the board. This gave him another lane with the last blank in his rack. When I blocked the first open line, he played the 9 lettered bingo MISATONED -- very nice. It wasn't enough though as despite my bad tracking and my fast-approaching-zero clock, I made some nice plays to go out first and win by a few. I won my second game also, before getting killed by 1900+ rated Stefan Rau by over 200 points. It was over after his first two plays when he drew a blank each turn and dropped GYPSTER and FUGITIVE on me. It would've been worse but I finally hit a bingo (TERNION) at the very end of the game. I lost my next game to an unrated player named Sha Shanyel (I was her first ever win) by 150 points. I could've made the spread respectable, but I spent my last few plays dumping letters for just a few points in hopes of drawing the right rack to hit ABDOMENS for a triple-triple. It was idiotic really. Spread can matter. Opening night ends with me at 2-2.

The next day I fall into a pattern. Win a game by a few points, lose a game by a slew of points. After 10 games I am 5-5 with a remarkable spread of -556. My worst loss is to Phil Polsky. I barely put up 200 and lose by 216. Also I lose by over 150 to a frantic middle-aged woman who has a rating of just over 1000. I salvage the day by winning my last two games to be a respectable 7-5. I had no business winning my last game. My opponent drew all 4 esses, both blanks. Luckily for me, after 7 games of Scrabble, she was seemingly even more tired than I was. She played quickly and thoughtlessly and I eked out a 4 point victory by sticking her with the J at the end. Eric is also 7-5, although due to the open format he's been playing better competition. He only lost to Rau by 6 points, and he would've won had he not made a blunder in the end game. He also hit up a pretty sweet bingo -- CAUSEWAY, and he's earning a repuation as one of the "unrated superstars" of the tournament. An unrated 18 year-old, Mike Yowonske, is kicking some serious ass, and that woman Sha, and this other unrated guy, Augustine Abba, are also both playing very well.

After the day two games end, Eric and I head into Atlantic City proper for some food and blackjack. I win $25 at the tables, Eric wins $100. On the way back to the hotel we stop at Un'kind Donuts for a midnight snack. Then on the way back form there we stop at McDonalds so that Eric can get some fries. One thing I learned from this trip -- that dude is always hungry. I don't understand it. His gastronomical rapacity knows no satiety. And while I'm on the topic of being hungry, I noticed a disproportionately high number of pear-shaped people at this tournament. I'm not sure if Scrabble attracts the portly, or if many players forgo exercise for gaming, but I think, collectively, Scrabble folk could really do good by instituting a manditory, between-rounds calisthenics regiment at all tournaments.

In the final day of play the open format and my terrible spread really helped me. You play the people who are ranked near you in the tournament, and since I was ranked last among the people whose record I shared, I generally was playing against weaker competition than them. Not weak competition, mind you, just weaker. Like I was playing 1400-1700 rated people instead of 1700-2000. I win all four of my games the final day by a total of 62 points. I beat Stan Willimas (1476) by 8, Augistine Abba (unr.) by 10, Michael Wolberg (1635) by 6, and Diana Grosman (1483) by 38. I finish 11-5 with a spread of -408. Luckily it didn't come to spread though as my record is the outright best among all division 3 players. I made some nice plays and things broke my way. As a few examples: down by over 40 against Williams near the end of the game, with no open bingo lanes, I fish for an S or a U, draw a U and hit TOQUES for 72 points my next play. Against Wolfberg with INLA?ES in my rack I can't find a bingo that starts with an I (INHALES is an obvious one, I see INLACES but don't know if it's good), so I open a line by playing off AL and then hit STHENIA (pronounced Saint Henia by me as a mnemonic) my next play for about 30 points more than INHALES would have been. It was just that type of day -- combine with the two wins from the previous night I went from 5-5 to 11-5 (just like the 2001 Patriots, team of the all-time double-valid great WR Troy Brown.) I take home $525 in winnings. It's pretty sweet. My rating after this tournament is 1450.

Tournament Notes:
*Eric wins 2nd place in division 4. Mike Yowonske wins D4 coming in 4th overall, and nearly coming in 2nd. He misses SEIZERS against Matt Graham to narrowly lose. Phil Polsky wins D2 and Joe Weinike wins the entire thing.

*At 11-5 I finish ahead of Eric who went 10-6. This is hilarious since he beats me more than 2 out of 3 times we play. I causally mention that I had the better record a few times on the ride home.

*The directors Matt, Vernon and Esla did an excellent job and deserve a heartfelt thanks from all the players.

*With the previous note noted Esla could cut her speaking time by about 75% and still convey all the relevant information. She goes on and on and on, and when you think she's done she says, "Also..." At one point one of the players said quite audibly to those around her, "just shut up and let us play." The sentiment was largely echoed by those in earshot.

*Seth Lipkin spoke about cross-tables at lunch, and I thought it was pretty interesting. Spending many, many hours between the ages of 8 and 18 creating virtual sports leagues on Nintendo, I love the idea of meticulously keeping Scrabble stats. It really adds legitimacy to competitive Scrabble, in my opinion.

*Jello is a valid play, (much to Eric's dismay) but it's not in the OSPD, quite strange since it's not offensive. (Unless you find processed, jiggling food offensive.)

*Why isn't feedings valid? It's in dictionary.com.

*I saw a player literally follow the ass of a woman, who worked at the hotel, right out the elevator on the wrong floor.

*I overheard a female player say that another player (who's like 80 years old) had "made a play" for her at a previous tournament that she didn't appreciate. I found this hysterical.

*Open tournament is the way to go for the simple reason that it's more fun for more people.