National Scrabble Championship Dallas TX Day 5
Round 29 vs. Zev Kaufman - EROTIZES CREVASSE COLLIDER / STRANGE
By using some fun words,
I was proud of CHARQUI too through the U for 44 points and I kept an S because LS isn't a word. Zev later added a D for CHARQUID and that surprised me because I hadn't thought about that possibility, but I knew it was good.
The -IZE bingo redeemed me for my Scrabble sin of thinking 'oralize' was good (it's from a Monty Python song) one time when I was playing Dave Wiegand (I have only played him once, at the 2010 Dallas Open and I lost.)
After I put CREVASSE and Zev had CREVASSES / STRANGE for 96 (S on double word) I held because I still wasn't completely sure the E shouldn't be an A. It's a word I learned from reading Call of the Wild I'm pretty sure - which was a very long time ago, and I've spelled it wrong in Scrabble before. (Paul Thornton is a scrabble player who has beat me before, and the hero of Call of the Wild, besides the dog Buck, is John Thornton. The book is fun to read because the dog gets into bloody fatal combat here and there, very good for a sensitive growing boy. Wonder if they allow it in the school libraries in Texas.) I have other dog books too, like Prince Tom, Champion Dog - he gets a whole bunch of titles added to his name ...
COL(L)IDeR - found the only bingo using that line.
Won (by 80 i think) mostly because EMERITAS was a 3x3 through the I. Mark had three Is (he told me later) and he knew that was probably bad so he played TITI slotting the I. I had AAERRDS so I played RAD somewhere else and Mark had LIARD somewhere else so then I had the 3x3, only one I had this tournament.
OUTSNORE occurred after an overdraw. Mark turned up UTN and left me with the UT. He realized there was an O open, and then cha-grinned when I played the bingo. People should be really careful when I overdraw (I don't usually overdraw though.)
Lost 284-432
I will definitely Quackle this one to see what I can learn about the board position. Robert had BEANIES on his second turn. I had exchanged and my rack was ABILUXY (shortest steal: ELS) and my answer was BeAUX for 34. Around the third turn all the words were going up to the top right corner, though not in a staircase. I had a beautiful set of tiles I thought except duplicate Is so I fished off an I, XI/AI for 11, and he played PR(I)M(E)D for 11, after which the board was annoyingly difficult to play on. To get around to having it open again I played (D)IRTY for 11, then he played NETT(Y) for 10 which afterwards he thought was too quick and not accurate enough. Then my rack was AELOSSW if I recall right, and I played off (R)OW for 18 and Robert exchanged so I had SOLACES then. However my luck got worse as my opponent scored a couple more bingos. I held WOMANIZE for a few minutes deciding that that I'd be more dead if I challenged it. After that I didn't do very much right. My rack was ACEELRU and nothing I could find looked very good, and I attempted to put CAUL(K)ER but the U and the A were reversed so I lost my turn. There was another W bingo spot I was eyeing but this time my wishful thinking was in vain. Nice game, Robert Ellickson.
So after all that adventure my final standing was 14-17. I was seeded 88th and ended up 87th in the standings and lost 6 ratings points so still never getting up to 1700 yet! Fantastic experience overall though.
By using some fun words,
I was proud of CHARQUI too through the U for 44 points and I kept an S because LS isn't a word. Zev later added a D for CHARQUID and that surprised me because I hadn't thought about that possibility, but I knew it was good.
The -IZE bingo redeemed me for my Scrabble sin of thinking 'oralize' was good (it's from a Monty Python song) one time when I was playing Dave Wiegand (I have only played him once, at the 2010 Dallas Open and I lost.)
After I put CREVASSE and Zev had CREVASSES / STRANGE for 96 (S on double word) I held because I still wasn't completely sure the E shouldn't be an A. It's a word I learned from reading Call of the Wild I'm pretty sure - which was a very long time ago, and I've spelled it wrong in Scrabble before. (Paul Thornton is a scrabble player who has beat me before, and the hero of Call of the Wild, besides the dog Buck, is John Thornton. The book is fun to read because the dog gets into bloody fatal combat here and there, very good for a sensitive growing boy. Wonder if they allow it in the school libraries in Texas.) I have other dog books too, like Prince Tom, Champion Dog - he gets a whole bunch of titles added to his name ...
COL(L)IDeR - found the only bingo using that line.
Won (by 80 i think) mostly because EMERITAS was a 3x3 through the I. Mark had three Is (he told me later) and he knew that was probably bad so he played TITI slotting the I. I had AAERRDS so I played RAD somewhere else and Mark had LIARD somewhere else so then I had the 3x3, only one I had this tournament.
OUTSNORE occurred after an overdraw. Mark turned up UTN and left me with the UT. He realized there was an O open, and then cha-grinned when I played the bingo. People should be really careful when I overdraw (I don't usually overdraw though.)
Lost 284-432
I will definitely Quackle this one to see what I can learn about the board position. Robert had BEANIES on his second turn. I had exchanged and my rack was ABILUXY (shortest steal: ELS) and my answer was BeAUX for 34. Around the third turn all the words were going up to the top right corner, though not in a staircase. I had a beautiful set of tiles I thought except duplicate Is so I fished off an I, XI/AI for 11, and he played PR(I)M(E)D for 11, after which the board was annoyingly difficult to play on. To get around to having it open again I played (D)IRTY for 11, then he played NETT(Y) for 10 which afterwards he thought was too quick and not accurate enough. Then my rack was AELOSSW if I recall right, and I played off (R)OW for 18 and Robert exchanged so I had SOLACES then. However my luck got worse as my opponent scored a couple more bingos. I held WOMANIZE for a few minutes deciding that that I'd be more dead if I challenged it. After that I didn't do very much right. My rack was ACEELRU and nothing I could find looked very good, and I attempted to put CAUL(K)ER but the U and the A were reversed so I lost my turn. There was another W bingo spot I was eyeing but this time my wishful thinking was in vain. Nice game, Robert Ellickson.
So after all that adventure my final standing was 14-17. I was seeded 88th and ended up 87th in the standings and lost 6 ratings points so still never getting up to 1700 yet! Fantastic experience overall though.