Playing in Division A in Urbana

Four of us are going to the Urbana, Illinois tournament together. Eric and I are in division 1, Matt and Mark, playing their first ever tournament, are in division 4. They’ve never played anything more serious than a coffee table game, they never study words, and they don’t quite have the twos down – the task that Eric assigned them before the tourney. (We give Matt a cram session on the way from Chicago to Urbana, but he’s still a little shaky going into things. “What about RA?”) They each get a couple of wins though, Mark goes 3-9 and Matt 2-10. Eric has the best tournament at 7-5. I go 6-6, not bad at all given I came in ranked 15th in my field of 18. (I should get a bit of a ratings boost, probably around 25 pts). However, .500 is a bit of a let down given that I was 5-2 after the first day. On to my games…

I start things off against Darin True. With a nearly 1700 rating he’s number 3 coming into the tourney. Late in the game I’m hanging in there despite not getting an S or a blank. I bingoed (TRAINEES) and hit-up a 66 pt triple word score (QUIZ). But down 34 with about 10 tiles left I have take to take a risk. I lay down the potential bingo ARIETTE by hooking an E on VOLVA to make VOLVAE. I don’t know if VOLVAE is good or not (it isn’t), but I figure it’s my only chance to win. Luckily, for me he doesn’t challenge, and instead opens a bingo line for himself, as he has some bingoable tiles and the last blank in his rack. Double luckily for me, however, I draw BANDIES from the bag and bingo out to win by 125. I’m feeling great about this win. I really stole one.

My next game against Linda Hoggatt doesn’t go quite as well. I’m completely outdrawn and lose by 170. At one point I try to get back into the game by playing a phony bingo, IOGENES, but she challenges it right off the board. (It’s kind of close to IONOGENS which is good.) After the game she told me ISOGENE was good in that rack, but it’s actually not. Too bad I didn’t try that one instead, but how can one know one phony will better than another? I give Ken Dutch a 114 point smackdown in my next game. He makes two bad challenges (HAZER, AGINNER/JUGA), which really costs him. One big play is pretty much the difference in my next game. With not many tiles left in the bag, against Jacquelin Fyr, I lay down EXTINCTS across a double word square with the X on a double letter square for 92 pts. I win by 94. I actually wasn’t 100% on EXTINCTS (it’s good), but it was too tantalizing not to hit up. Going into lunch I’m 3-1, and feeling good.

After lunch things pick up right where they left off. I thoroughly outdraw Frank Lee (aka Santa Claus) and win 463-334. It was one of those games where the only plays you can see are great plays. In succession I play: THRASHED (80), QUEAN (48), FEU (27), CUSHY (41), COXES (55). Then after I dump some tiles with WINY (11), I hit back-to-back bingos: TIDIEST (72) and BRINDLED (64). Frank is a great sport (unlike some of the other players there), but even he can’t help muttering under his breath after this one. Another 400+ big win follows against Matthew Ridout. I liked this win because I didn’t get all the great tiles. In fact, he got all the esses and one of the blanks. With the exception of one easy-bingo rack (DEELRT?) I had seemingly terrible tile combinations all game. Still I was able to make solid play after solid play in cruising to a 443-352 win. For example, I had IIIORUV on my rack and was contemplating an exchange when I noticed I could put down VIRTU on a double word square with the V on a triple letter square. It was worth 42 points. I then drew AINX to give me AIIIONX, and was able to play AX for 49 on my next turn. It was that type of game. Afterwards Matthew congratulated me and told me I “just flat outplayed” him. It was a nice compliment. Lisa Slankard totally kills my buzz in the last game of the day. I can’t get anything going, I don’t bingo at all, and I lose 319-388. After the game I have the following exchange:
Her: (looking at phone) My kids keep calling me during my games
Me: Oh
Her: One called to tell me he thinks he’s going to be a father.
Me: Oh, that’s nice.
Her: He’s 21, not married and an alcoholic.
Me:
Her: Then my other son calls to tell me he’s dropping out of college.
Me: Well, at least your tournament is going well. (She’s only lost once.)

I end the day at 5-2, not too shabby at all. Eric is 4-3, Mark is 2-5, and Matt is 0-7. Mark hit up EQUALIZE which is pretty sweet.

Back at Mark’s I watch Mark and Matt play a few after-hours games. They are very entertaining. It’s Scrabble wild, wild, west-style. They both know that the dictionary is full of ridiculous words and they both know that the other one doesn’t know the dictionary very well, so the amount of phonies played is off-the-hook (TAIR, RIT, ALBERT, to name a few). Matt wins two games in a row. On the first play of the first game (after not bingoing once in tournament) he busts out BREEZED for nearly 100 points. It was pretty funny (even more so because he didn’t place it so that the Z was on the double letter square). Although, it was not nearly as funny as the night before when Matt missed the center square on the first play of the game. He put down TIE and none of the letters were on the star. There are specific instructions in the rule book for just this situation and once Eric and I were joking about it, because it seemed too ridiculous to ever actually occur. Eric claimed Matt’s misplay was, “the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time.” He was in hysterics laughing about it.

I open the next day’s games against Harriet Lakernick. I really want to beat her because I’ve found her board-side behavior throughout the tournament extremely obnoxious. She complains loudly and frequently when she’s not drawing well. It’s completely distracting and inconsiderate to her opponent and those who are playing near her. She’s also pouty, she curses at the board, and she’s pretty rude. There are about three or four people in this tournament like her. Earlier in the tourney a woman was playing Eric at the board next to mine and it was a non-stop bitch-fest about her tiles. She went so far as to show Eric her racks (I guess so he could see for himself how bad they really were), and she’d sarcastically celebrate when she drew an S. This is such bad sportsmanship. And it’s flat out rude to your opponent. If you play enough Scrabble you will have games where you draw super poorly (and super well). The people in the top division know this and they certainly have had games where they’ve drawn badly before, so you would think they would know how to deal with it in a way that isn’t so self-centered, and irritating.

Anyway, Harriet’s tournament is not going well, as she only won 1 game in the first day. But, she beats me. She gets the blanks and the point tiles and two of the esses. There is little I can do to avoid a 97 point drubbing. In my next game I come out with the short end of the stick in great battle against Samuel Smith. With him up two bingos early I’m able to get back into the game due to a bingo by me, and a gaffe by him. With OIRRWS? in my rack I play WORRIERS through an open R, one of two playable bingos I see (the other one is the almost equivalent WARRIORS). Unfortunately it places the W immediately below the triple word score, setting him up for a big play. However, he plays ACED there not realizing he made EW in doing so. I challenge it off the board (he has a d’oh moment, as we don’t even look it up), and then I play JO there for 42. It pulls me within 28. When I bingo ENTOILED late in the game I really like my chances of winning, as I’m up about 25 with a decent rack, and all the point tiles, both blanks and three esses already played. Unfortunately two turns later he bingos STYLING to clinch a victory. Final score: 403-471.

The next game, a rematch against Darin True, is my favorite game of the tournament (just ahead of the game against Frank Lee). On the second play of the game I hit the 2x2 OILSEED for 96 pts., and subsequently draw CEIMNOP. I see a nice play if gives me an L to play through, which luckily he does. I put down COMPLINE for 70+. He holds the play, and I’m hoping he challenges because this word is on a random word list in my office that I made while watching old games on cross-tables, so I’m almost certain it’s good (it is – def.: the last liturgical prayer of the day). He doesn’t challenge though, instead he counter-bingos (LATTICED) to keep it close. I then spend most the mid-game trying to block bingo lines with my racks of mostly vowels. I’m successful in doing so, as afterwards he tells me I twice blocked his only bingo spot. When I hit up DIVERTS for 80+ with the bag nearly empty I seal a victory. For the second time in the tournament I beat Darin by over 100 points.

I get trounced in each of my last two games meaning I finish 1-4 on the day and lose 5 of my last 6. It sucks to finish this way, but in the context of the entire tournament, my first one in the top division, I’m mostly okay with .500. Also, I would like to note that in those last 6 games I drew only 3 of the 12 possible blanks (one each against, Samuel, Darin and Lisa). In my second to last game Connie Breitbeil puts up over 550 points and beats me by about 220. She plays OUTMANS for a 158 pt 3x3. I unsuccessful challenge, and then she follows with DISRATES on a triple word score for about 75. It would have been worse, but I catch her playing a phony (BITED), and she doesn’t challenge my 96 pt. phony bingo (TETCHES). I liked OUTMANS, and had it not been a 3x3 I would not have challenged. I was by no means 100% on it though, and I feel I have to challenge something that’s that devastating unless I’m sure it’s good. After the computer validated the play she gave a little fist pump, and a smirk right in my face. I just ignored it, but it was pretty obnoxious and unnecessary. There is no reason to gloat about winning a desperation challenge, especially when I said while walking up to the computer, “I like it, but it’s too good to not challenge.” Also, after the game I told her (clearly and audibly) “good game, well done.” And she didn’t even acknowledge me. Eric said she wasn’t a very good sport when he played her also (he crushed her).

Speaking of Eric it just so happens that we’re both 6-5 going into the final round and we play each other. Both of us are out of the money, so the game is just for “better tournament” and bragging rights of the only tournament game we’ve played so far. He gets to brag after this one. I’m mostly outdrawn, and it’s not very close. He hits up some point tiles early and then draws both the blanks. His big play is LOUVRED on a triple word score hooking the O to BEAN to make BEANO – very nice. I do bingo twice late, but it’s not nearly enough, and he wins handily.

Overall, it was probably the most fun I’ve had a tournament. At 6-6 I have no reason to be disappointed, and no reason to be ecstatic. I feel if I could’ve drawn a little better the last day, 8-4 was a serious possibility (although had I drawn worse earlier I could’ve just as easily been 4-8). At 7-5 Eric might get a ratings bump also, but it will probably be small. He started out on fire, but hit a stretch of about 5 games where he drew terribly and lost to players with much lower ratings than him. I’m curious to see where Matt and Mark are rated. They say they’re playing again in October in Wisconsin. I’d love to join them, but there is no way that’s happening. I’m going to hit up Baltimore in September and then after that I might not play a tourney for a while. It’ll just be club and on-line.

Very average in Philly

Yesterday I played in a Philly tournament in which I went 4-3 with a spread of +34. Given that I played 4 people rated lower than me (1387) and 3 people rated higher than me, it was almost an exactly average tourney. I imagine my rating will not see much of a fluctuation, though a little bump up would be nice.

For the third straight time in a Philly tournament I picked a blank on my opening draw of the tournament. Against Linda Oliva (1423) I parlayed it into an easy bingo, DEALING, for 71. A few fishes later I hit up RELAXES for 86. I was never behind and ended up winning by 41. She did a decent job making a game of it, but an unsuccessfully challenge of URP was the nail in the coffin. Incidentally I challenged URP against Peter Barkman in the last Philly tourney, so I knew it was good.

In the next game Brain Galebach (1296) thoroughly outdrew me in a 106 point rout. I know Brain from DC club and I was kind of hoping not to play him, because he was so underrated going into this tournament. (Although I think he went 6-1, so he won't be underrated for long.) He drew both blanks and most the power tiles hitting them all up hard. I did draw all 4 esses, but I had three of them in my rack at one time -- I bingoed AMASSES -- so it was not as good as it sounds. In my third game, against Samuel Moch (1407), I was outdrawn again, though I can't really complain because I might have let a phoney bingo go by at a crucial point. I think he played DAVENERS (I lost the score sheet so I can't check) on me which I forgot to look up immediately after the game, but did so just now -- it's no good. I did not even think to challenge. I do that sometime for some reason. It's really bad. I should at the very least think about challenging words I don't know. New rule: I hold every word I don't know. Really that is just be common sense. It shouldn't even have to be a rule. Anyway, Going into the lunch break I'm 1-2 with a -125 spread.

After lunch things start out terrifically. I draw the bag against Sharon Moser (1407) and win by 106. I get both blanks in my rack at the same time. I use one of them in a 72 point non-bingo, ROQUES, and then bingo REPTILE with the other a turn later -- a nice little sequence of events. I squeak out a victory against Nancy Hanley (1304) in my next game. I went up a bingo early with NUTRIAS (which I almost didn't play because I had to hook ELD/ELDS and I wasn't 100% on ELDS), and then closed the board down. Oddly, she did not seem to be making an effort to open it. Louis Berney double-blanked and 3-essed me the next game in a 70 point loss to put me at 3-3 on the day. I exchanged all seven tiles in consecutive turns because I had a load of absolute garbage and all the good tiles were unseen. It just killed me. I did miss a hook I should not miss (QUART to QUARTE or QUARTO), but I could not have hit it up very hard anyway.

The last game was make or break for me. If I won I would consider it a salvaged tournament, if I lost I would be pretty disappointed. I won by 91 against Paul Olmick (1295). He bingoed twice early on, but I immediately counter-bingoed to maintain a narrow lead. I was then able to parlay some klutzy racks into big scores -- QI for 46, PETTY for 36, and JOE for 44. When I drew the final ess late in the game and hit up DINS for 44 (it hooked ZAP on a double word square) I could breathe easily. He kept setting up big play spots in hopes that he would draw the final ess. It was really all he could do. Instead I drew and used it to ensure I a positive spread on the day.

Eric had another forgettable Philly tourney. He went 3-4 in D1, a bit of let down because coming in he was rated in the top half off the field. He did rally in his last to games to somewhat salvaged a 1-4 start. Marlon Hill won D1. I'm not exactly sure who won D2, but I think it was Samuel Sussman.

High Game

In an on-line game I scored 633 points. I believe this is my highest score ever. I don't recall ever scoring in the 600s before, and I doubt that I once did so long ago that I don't remember it, because I wouldn't have been that good back then.

It was my second ever five bingo game. I hit HERNIAS (83), LEISTER (86), SHORTIE (84), MARLINES (80), and REGALERS (80). I never exchanged and also made some strong non-bingo plays. I had 455 with 11 tiles in the bag, but I played two bingos and went out to score 178 points in my last 3 turns.

Great game. Let's hope I have one like that in Philly tomorrow.

Highs and lows in Philly (primarily the latter)

I went 7-12 in D2 in a three game tourney in Philly this weekend. I came in as the 2nd lowest rated player and I feel that my rating is pretty accurate right now, especially since I haven't been studying much at all lately, so I haven't improved my game too much. I would've been happy with 10 wins and satisfied with 9, but getting only 7 is a huge let down.

I severely outdrew my opponent 3 times and was severely outdrawn 5 times. In "even draw" games I was 4-7. Like usual, in retrospect, I can't really complain about bad luck too much. I went 2-5 on day 1 and 1-4 on day 3. On day 2 I was a solid 4-3 and I had a 3 game winning streak during which I played great, and remembered why I decided to spend memorial day weekend playing Scrabble. In back-to-back games I bingoed 5 times on Edward Stewart (the first time I've ever done that, including on-line and coffee table games), and beat eventual D2 champ (and in my opinion the best D2er there) Elana Lehrer by 90 in a game where the draws were fairly even. That's what I have to hang my hat on in this one.

Eric faired even worse than me in D1 going 5-13 (1 bye). He beat Dave Koenig though which is pretty cool.

I lead things off with a tough loss to Barb Gindlesperger. With the game tight and the bag quickly emptying I left a bingo line open since I had a blank, but she it up and won by 62. Next against Florence Spanfelner I 5 times changed 5 vowel racks and was crush by nearly 150. I split the final two games before lunch, beating Jared Milton and losing to Edward Stewart, both were reasonable close. In the first game after lunch against Jeffrey Jacobson (who I always want to call Jacobson Jeffrey because his name was accidentally transposed on the roster the first tournament I played in with him) I played one of the worst games I've ever played. To begin with I let the phoney bingo NOTIVES stay on the board, despite the fact I know the TONIES stem and know that TONIES + V = no bingos. For some reason it just didn't even register to consider challenging. Then with IGNITES in my rack, and a place to play it. I forgo it instead playing the phoney 3x3 STEINING which is promptly challenged off the board. I play it the next play, but still -- pure foolishness. After that I just completely lost focus. Luckily I thoroughly outdrew Stan Williams the next game for an easy win, but I let the last game of the day, against Peter Barkman, get out of hand early to drop to 2-5 on the day.

I come back the next day mentally rejuvenated. I'm not even too phased after losing my first game to Elana Lehrer to fall to 2-6. She is quite good, and I played decently in a nip and tuck game. I held about a 20 point lead near the end. I figured she had a blank and probably an S, but there was also a decent chance she had the klutzy J or K as both were unseen. There were two bingo lines, but neither one was great. I chose to play off the Q for 28 points in the only decent spot it could play instead of closing off the better of the two lines. Tough call. Probably the right move in general, but not in this instance. She bingos ANISETTE through the N hooking the A on GAM to make GAMA -- terrific play. She then draws the J and K, the last two tiles in the bag. Finally score: 341-392. I beat Marty Fialkow in the next game in large part because I successfully challenge his phoney TOOTIER and then hit up RETEACH for about 90 a few plays later. After that game, Verna Berg draws all 4 S-s and a blank, so despite my phoney bingo that she lets stay -- RAINLIKE, she wins without much struggle. I finally beat David Engelhardt (1-4 lifetime against him) in my next game 477-385. He makes some strong plays to keep it respectable, but I draw both blanks and 3 S-s and bingo four times including the phoney TEATHERS. Embarrassingly I just misspelled TETHERS, but I had so many other bingos (REHEATS, HEATERS, THEATERS, etc.) that he figured it must be good, so he didn't challenge.

Next came my five bingo game against Edward Stewart. I lead it off with GRANOLA. But quickly fall behind due to a huge play by him with the Z on a double letter/triple word that I unsuccessfully challenge (BAIZE) for 86 points. On the next play I change, so I lose two plays in a row. Several turns later with him up by 56 on consecutive plays I hit AERATION, INDITES and PRESIDE. After playing YOK for 35 I lay down VENIRES for my 4th bingo in 5 turns and my 5th of the game. PRESIDE I was only able to lay down after challenging his phoney bingo PRECOUNT. I would probably have challenged that anyway because it sounds fake, but I'm definitely challenging it if it blocks my bingo. After VENIRES I had DAFT?NG and really wanted him to play an R in an open line, but no dice. Now, with my confidence sky high I'm ready to play Elana in a rematch. Things start out well as I'm able to hit up the 2x2 DETENTES for 86 (incidentally "Detente" was the name of my 9th grade cultures project). I continue to make strong plays to build up a 65 point lead. Then I add LOCKING to the previous played RE for the 9-lettered bingo RELOCKING on a double word for 88. She challenges -- an odd decision since she said she knew RELOCKS was good. If you know RELOCKS is good then there is about a 99.99% chance that RELOCKING is good. Certainly the probability it is no good is much less than the probability the spread difference betweeen not challenging and challenging would ultimately matter. Anyway, Barb Gindlesperger kills my buzz the next game beating me soundly. I have to fight through awful racks the entire game, but I can't complain too much because I make the bone-headed challenge of ARCADIAS early in the game thinking that maybe ARCADIA is the plural of ARCADIUM -- a word I invent on the spot. The next play she hits up LYNX for 44 where I would've played had I not lost my turn. I try to get back into the game with the phoney IODATISE, which she doesn't challenge, but it's not nearly enough. One reason I tried a phoney against her is because I saw Jared Milton open with OFFTUNE against her without challenge. I couldn't believe it.

I'm coming into the final day at 6-8 with high hopes for a strong finish, but it wasn't to be. I'm severely outdrawn by Jared Milton (all 4 S-s both blanks) and David Engelhardt twice (JKQXZ both times, once with all 4 S-s), and I absolutely botch one against Peter Barkman. My only win is a 4 point eker against Stan Williams (the only player with a worse tournament than me) in which the S-s and blanks are among the last 20 tiles to come out of the bag. My game against Peter really hurt. Due to a few bingos early I have a 40+ point lead with the game winding down. The board is largely shut-off and many of the bingo-prone tiles are gone. The Z is unseen. Peter plays NODI opening a bingo line and putting IT right below a triple letter square. Immediately I should recognized that he might be setting up a phat Z hook, but I don't. Instead of playing LOG across the ODI for a decent score that simultaneously blocks the Z hook and the bingo line, I play GOY under the NO for more points thinking only of the bingo line. He draws on A after playing NODI (he didn't have one before) and hits ZA/ZIT for 63. I'm on the verge of storming out of the venue (a la Marlon in "World Wars"), because I'm so pissed at myself for not seeing that obvious hotspot, but I'm still up by 1 point, so I try to keep my composure. Ultimately it doesn't matter as he gets the agile letters for the closed-board endgame and I'm stuck trying to play off a Q an F and an K. He ends up winning by a bunch because I also mis-track and get stuck with a shit-ton of points.

Seven and twelve. That certainly doesn't sound good. It's not god-awful, but not that far from it.

No tourneys for a while

Looks like I won't be playing any tourneys for a while. I missed Philly this month, and I'll likely miss it next month due to end of the semester ruckus. I really wanted to play a one-dayer in Annapolis on May 12, but I have to proctor my class' final that day -- unfortunate scheduling.

I've started building my rating back up again on-line after a serious slide (see previous entry). I paid for a membership, so that I can use the in-game examiner -- totally worth it. I'm still missing way too many plays that I should see. Tonight I had AIORST? with an E on the board that could end a bingo. JAROSITE, TRAVOISE and OUTRAISE are all words I know from the OSATIRE stem, but for some reason I missed them. Probably just not thinking things through. That's my biggest problem. I just don't spend enough time looking at my racks, which is silly because I'm rarely short on time. I'm still making my best play consistently enough even when it's a word I know. Still tonight I best Eric 3 games out of 4, which is a boon, even if I did mostly outdraw him. My best find was probably STADIUM from ADISTU?, because it was the only playable bingo.

I've got loads of new stems. I'll put them up soon. I think I'm starting to get dimishing returns with my stems. I'd probably be better off learning the 4s and 5s better. It's just way less fun than learning the bingos.

By the way, the Scrabble Newsletter is a pretty shoddy publication. Trust me, I'm not expecting much from a monthly newsletter put together by basically an unpaid staff, that comes free with a membership to the NSA, but is too much to ask to have somebody give it a cursory read before putting it out? In one recent issue the annotated game board was aligned incorrectly making it impossible to follow, and in another a bunch of clues were missing for the anagram crossword puzzle. Those are things that should be pretty easy to spot and fix. Also, what's the deal with the giant barcode that's always somewhere random on the front page? Can't they put that in the corner? It blocked an entire paragraph of text in the most recent issue, and in the issue that featured the record-breaking game it was right over the picture. Front page -- two guys holding the board and right across their faces is a huge barcode. Great pic. All you have to do to make the newsletter decent is not do stuff like that.

Scrabble Low

This weekend might have been the worst two on-line Scrabble days I've had. I remember a time when I temporarily retired from on-line Scrabble that was also pretty bad but this probably topped it. I lost somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 games in a row. I stayed up until 3:22 am -- on a Sunday -- because I needed a win. Stomping Mr. Cqql into submission -- he called me a cheater and logged off after I bingoed the extremely obscure word SOGGIER -- was little consolation. Every time I needed a break I didn't get it.

I wanted to make note of this.

Treading Water

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.