I was excited to play in my first Scrabble tournament in over two years, the Scrabble Players Championship in Baltimore. I looked forward to this trip because not only would I be playing top-level Scrabble and seeing many friends whom I hadn’t seen in three or four years, but I would also be visiting three new states (Virginia, Maryland and Delaware) as well as the District of Columbia.
I have included my bingo count for each round. My bingos are listed first, separated from my opponents’ by a virgule. My score is listed first followed by my opponent during that round.
01 MIRACLES (66) / UNRULIEr (74) rEDEfINE (71) GROOMED (80) 289-463 Frank Tangredi
02 FElSITE (73) CHAIRINg (64) / EINSTEIN (63) 369-393 Maddy Kamen [1]
03 gNASHED (77) / NASTIeS (72) 329-324 Julia Bogle [2]
04 pOSTIES (72) / MARGENT (69) 373-371 Joey Payne
05 ATONIES (77) ForGIVEN (102) / none 429-326 Rahn McKeown [3]
06 sATIATE (65) / DIORITE (66) 352-393 Josh Sokol
07 SAGGIER (77) BEIGNETS (62) DILATERs (68) / MURDERED (167) ABUTIlON (86) FRIENDED (92) 382-560 Randy Hersom [4]
08 DISAGREE (74) / ROmAINE (64) RETAILEd (122) 346-450 Jon Shreve [5]
09 DiALOGER (72) CLOSERS (78) / MisTERM (81) 414-341 Michael Baker
10 TEALIKE (69) DOWDIeS (86) RENNASE (81) / none 470-318 Mike Baron [6]
11 none / SATYRID (66) ENSURED (77) SECTORS (81) tOKENING (89) 325-501 Kenji Matsumoto [7]
12 fOZIEST (100) TARPONS (88) / PEYOtES (71) COLLATED (63) 461-340 Sid Murali [8]
13 ORDAInER (68) UPSETTEr (140) / DOWNIER (69) TANDEMS (76) CUTTAGES (62) 500-389 Mitchell Brook [9]
14 iSODOSE (62) sTOOPED (67) / none 301-406 Seth Lipkin
15 RENTIER (68) ALEXIAS (84) / TONEtTE (68) eNGLISH (93) REPUTING (74) 370-501 Paul Holser
16 TRAINEE (71) RENTAlS (79) TROAKeD (67) / MAIDENS (72) DOOLIES (73) 442-383 Jeff Cook
17 MINARET (66) DIgLOTS (84) / UNLOOSE (76) 459-350 Jason Li
18 ELATION (67) / none 355-374 Scott Appel
19 METEORs (78) / REJOINED (68) ERICOID (73) fLOTSAMS (72) 367-443 Lisa Odom
20 eNOLASE (64) / JERObOAM (67) LIBRATE (69) 319-406 Joey Mallick
21 SURLIEST (77) FiLAREES (83) / SATIETY (78) TOOTsIE (76) 411-422 Mark Miller
22 MISTRAL (63) / PINNULAE (70) ODONAtES (68) WRISTED (84) 341-441 Jeff Fiszbein
23 TEGUMInA (64) REQUITAL (86) / OSCULES (74) ThONGIER (77) 409-400 Ian Weinstein
24 DIABASE (68) LAMENTER (90) ORATING (64) / QUaERES (125) 394-448 Mike Early
25 AEROSAT (67) / ORIENTEd (78) VITALIzE (149) 352-463 John Karris [10]
26 SpIRIEST (66) / SARSNEt (75) 327-394 Bradley Whitmarsh
27 POUSSIE (69) AnCIENT (80) / DIORITE (92) ANtIFUR (74) 404-458 Edward De Guzman
28 PaCIEST (74) SAToRIS (83) / NETTLERS (59) 369-289 Mike Baron
29 VAUNTIE (73) / ORGANDIE (70) 375-362 Mike Early [11]
30 CHOOSinG (89) / BESMILE (77) 325-465 Will Anderson [12]
31 RATTLERS (66) DERISIvE (73) / fOREMAN (66) DESTAIN (80) 404-431 Jeff Cook
51 for me / 51 for my opponents
[1] I challenged Maddy’s DEXTRO (scoring 66) unsuccessfully.
[2] I won a NASPA Word List for scoring the lowest win in Division One during the first four rounds.
[3] I challenged off my first purged slur, when Rahn played HOS. At the end of the game he asked if HOS was from the Collins lexicon. It was, but I explained the reason I challenged it off was on account of its slur status. My draw after ATONIES was EEIIIOO. It didn’t take long to decide to exchange on my next turn.
[4] Randy’s triple-triple MURDERED was built through my R immediately after I had played SAGGIER. This would be the first of three triple-triples my opponents would score against me right after I played my own bingo. Randy also challenged off my play of PYING, which I realized before we went up to the challenge computer was not an inflection of the verbs PIE or PI. Besides, I knew that PYIN did not take the -G.
[5] Jon’s triple-triple RETAILEd was built through my final E immediately after I had played DISAGREE.
[6] I challenged off Mike’s play BIGO. After the ruling came back “NO, the play is NOT VALID”, he stared at the computer for a long time. After the game I explained to him that the word in its singular was BIGOS (plural BIGOSES), which I see for sale at the Polish deli all the time.
[7] I played no bingos but did score 67 for ZLOTE.
[8] fOZIEST was my opening play. I immediately saw ZOISiTE with that rack but, in spite of it scoring the same number of points, I still wanted to look for a better play. Unfortunately, fOZIEST wasn’t it. I realized soon after playing it that I should have made the blank a c. Sid had garbage tiles, and could only make a dinky play under the fO. Had I played cOZIEST instead, he wouldn’t have even been able to play that.
[9] Now it was my turn to play a triple-triple, UPSETTEr, yet the second T that I played it through stayed in the 3×3 lane for a long time. I circled the R on the blank slip and Mitchell held the play. I saw him write the word down several times and it looked to me as if he had written down UPSETTED. Since I was looking at his handwriting upside down it may very well have been a R but, nonetheless, when he decided to challenge it, he entered UPSETTED in the computer word judge. I had to pause the challenge and bring him back to our table to show him that the blank slip indicated an R. He said he was going to challenge the play anyway and reentered it as UPSETTER. He couldn’t have withdrawn his challenge anyway, as the fault in blank interpretation was his alone. The play was acceptable.
[10] John’s triple-triple VITALIzE was built through my final T immediately after I had played AEROSAT.
[11] Mike unsuccessfully challenged my play of ABYES, which hooked the S onto ORGANDIES. He thought that ORGANDIE did not take the -S. I won this game, by a slight margin of thirteen, perhaps because Mike mistracked. He told me that he did not realize that I held the last blank.
[12] I held a horrible rack of high-point consonants with both blanks and exchanged tiles, playing CHOOSinG on my next turn. At the end of the game Ian Weinstein informed me that I had the play HOVeRFlY for “a million points”. I held FHOVY?? and the R was between two DWS so had I played it, it would have scored 122. I did not know the word so had no regrets for not seeing or missing it.
Round 15 versus Paul Holser
Round 16 versus Jeff Cook
Round 19 versus Lisa Odom
Mark versus Bill Payne in Round 7
All photos by Roger Cullman