I won two out of three last night to take my record to 69-9:
361-421 against Trevor. I struggled in this game, leaving barely over a minute on my clock. When you’ve got crappy rack after crappy rack, you need time to figure out what to do with them. Trevor bingoed first with EViLEST (73). In an act of desperation I played COREMIAS (95)*. Prior to this move Trevor opened the bottom TWS row by slotting a Z there with WIZ (40) to go further ahead 232-137. I could not capitalize on that Z with a bingo but considered using a C on the top row to score enough to tie. Trevor held me. I did not want to get into mind games but felt that he might leave COREMIAS in order to take the Z for himself. He might miss that opportunity if COREMIAS was acceptable and I swooped onto that Z on my next turn. Trevor released the hold and played RAZOR for 45. I felt I had a chance in this game, albeit briefly, for Trevor’s next play was BOOkINGS (77) which sealed the win, and I was a bingo behind for the rest of the game.
428-342 against John D. I played first and opened with TUGBoAT (70), the only 7LW with that rack. I also scored 84 for WIZENS. John played STARTiNG (77).
495-348 against Dave K. I played KARYONS (84) £, INcEPTOR (80) and SIGNETS (68). Dave played INErTIAL (74). I missed the chance to play the freaky TWL anagram of KARYONS, RYOKANS, which I knew. I saw KARYONS first and thought it was legit; after all, I did know HETEROKARYONS. The only reason I know that 13LW is that it is the shortest steal for RON HOEKSTRA. I figured that HETERO- was merely a prefix and that the root, KARYONS, would therefore also be good. It isn’t, at least according to TWL, but the root also makes PERIKARYON and SYNKARYON(S). Note that the only plural for PERIKARYON is PERIKARYA. I held the rack BEPSTU? and saw UPBEaTS yet chickened out of it. Once again I found a word that wouldn’t have occurred to me out of nowhere, yet I doubted its legitimacy. That rack also produces dUBSTEP (which I did not know) and SUBTyPE, which I did, and should have found by forming the prefix SUB-. I held the high-point-consonant rack ABMNPSY and the shortest steals for it involve six letters: hYPerurBANiSM, PoSteMBrYoNAl and uNeMPloYABleS.