Mark and I drove to Belleville over the December 13-14 weekend for a two-day tournament. I didn’t do well at all. In fourteen games I only managed to score over 400 in two of them. Fortunately those were two of the five games I won. My average was dismally low, 366 to my opponents’ 408.
01 334-544 Arie Sinke. I played NESTLER (66). Arie opened the game with WEArIES (76). He also played MIAOUED (102, as a DWS-DWS stacked above the last three letters of VAUNT, a word I had played just before) and aTROCITY (78).
02 356-451 Jackson Smylie. I played ESTRIOLS (68) and TZARINAS (89) and Jackson played OLEINES (77) and NONPoLAR (69). The Q was the last tile in the bag and I drew it and got stuck with it.
03 347-443 Joan Buma. I exchanged going first, and then was able to play STRAIGHT (66) and got 69 for INJECT. Joan played SENHORAs (86), SISTERLY (63) and AIRIEST (70).
04 356-380 Marcela Kadanka. I played AIRSIDES (70) and gNATTIER (68). Marcela played OYEZ (78). My horrible rack after AIRSIDES was BIIINTY.
05 340-329 Ben Lam. I played RETREAD (68) and Ben played SAXATILE (96). Ben played OURIE (13) and I followed right after by dumping four vowels through his R also to play OURIE (12).
06 306-370 Caleb Pittman. No bingos from me yet Caleb played SIlAnES (71). I held the rack AADEILR and missed RADIALE.
07 337-456 Hank Hees. I played REPRICES (76) and Hank played OUTLETS (73) as his first move, playing second, and later GLOBaTE (72).
08 377-355 Patrick Beatrez. Patrick opened with QUEST (48) and my first rack was LNNOS?? Instead of playing any of the seven 7LW pluralizing QUEST (LONgaNS, NeLSONs, NONpLuS, NONSeLf, NONSLip, rONNeLS or SOLaNiN) for a maximum score of 72 or even a DWS-DWS through Patrick’s U (aNNULOSe, NONUpLeS or LiNUrRONS) for 74, I decided to split my blanks by playing cONQUEST (48). Thus there were two scores but only one word on the board. The other two three-letter snapbacks for -QUEST are OPA- and UNI-. My replacement draw was IJN so I played through Patrick’s U on my second turn with JUN (10). My third rack was AEILNS? so I played from the top centre c to the right TWS with cArLINES (75). Thus by splitting the blanks I earned 133 points in three turns versus a maximum of 74 by using both at the same time in one turn. I doubt I would have earned 59 points in my subsequent next two turns if I had played off both blanks at once. Patrick bingoed late with AERUGOS (68).
09 493-320 Christopher Sykes. I played JoURNEYS (68) and STONKED (99). Christopher played ALIENER (83). My final rack was GLMORUW and I saw LUGWORM but had noplace to play it. My first 400+ game!
10 372-441 Deen Herrgott. I played AERIEST (68) and DESTINE (64). Deen played UPSTAGED (78) and RaTTLER (78). I was behind so set up an -S spot on a TWS while holding the last S. Deen swooped in to make COVEYs / MINTs for 66. My mind must have been snoozing as I missed SNOOZED while holding DENOOSZ. It would have scored 85, pluralizing Deen’s opening play of KELOID (32). I chickened out of OBELISE. However, I played off the BLO in that rack to make BLOG (21) and then drew DNT so got down DESTINE on my next turn.
11 335-476 Steve Bush. I played CURAREs (66) and STRIaTED (74). Steve played DEGLAZES (91) and BONNIEST (68). One of my racks was AAEIPRR and I missed PAREIRA.
12 441-365 Morris Greenberg. I played ATTENDEd (131, as a triple-triple through the first T) and VALISES (77). Morris challenged VALISES unsuccessfully; that was the only time during fourteen games when I went to the challenge computer. Morris played GNAWErS (78).
13 374-435 Patrick Beatrez. I played TINNERS (67). Patrick went second and his first move was IDIOLECT (63). He also played SNEAPED (81) and INCIseS (63).
14 360-344 Ben Lam. I played LATENING (80) and SEMiNAL (69). Ben played gROYNES (77). Very interesting endgame here. My second bingo was my penultimate play and there were two places to play only two of the possible 7LW, one in each place. I could also have played MANLESs, but somewhere else. With the score before SEMiNAL in Ben’s favour 302-284, I worried about the last tile in the bag. Regardless of whether or not I played SEMiNAL or MANLESs, if the last tile was the J, then I would be stuck with it and likely lose the game. I hemmed and hawed about what to do next. Should I play off one tile and empty the bag, still leaving both bingo lanes open? But if I did in fact draw the J, my bingo chances would be sunk. I decided to play my bingo, which was the proper move of course, and settled for SEMiNAL since I was not 100% sure about MANLESs. As it turns out, both bingos scored the same (69). The last tile in the bag was an R. If it was the J, Ben could have bingoed out from the A in SEMiNAL with EEIRRST to make ARTERIES, so he wouldn’t have had to slow-play me. I did see that if he did have the J, he could make JILTERS along the bottom TWS row for 42, yet that wouldn’t be enough to catch up. I took forever to work out the endgame, and realized that if JILTERS won the game for Ben, then I would play the less-certain MANLESs instead. After SEMiNAL my score rose to 353 and after JILTERS Ben’s rose to 344. I went out on my next turn.
Mark won second place in Division Two with an 11-3 +445 record and attained a new peak rating of 1204. He also won $210:
