I won all three last Thursday to take my record now to 35-4:
456-348 against John D. I played WEBSTEr (71), INNATELY (63), NOtARIES (66) and UNMOIST (67)*. I held the rack AGIOORS which makes no 7LW but only two 8LW: GRACIOSO and GRAZIOSO. The former is a noun; the latter an adjective.
546-239 against Ramona. I played second and opened with RESOWING (68). I also played sNARLeR (66) and VOICERS (81). Ramona had opened with BAIT (12) and I saw that my opening rack, EGNORSW could build through three of her letters: the A to make WAGONERS, the I for RESOWING, and the T for WRONGEST. I also saw another 8LW, in fact the only other 8LW possible, WRONGERS. One of my racks was DDEFILT and I was hoping for an A to play DEADLIFT. It is not hard to see that word if you arrange the rack in alphabetical order. That is the only 8LW with that particular rack. I also held AHLNRTY which oddly builds through only a W to make THRAWNLY.
404-323 against Jonathan. I played BALLoONS (86). I had a number of interesting racks, including the awful-looking AEEILL? which does in fact make one 7LW, gALILEE. I saw a number of 8LW but they were unplayable. I also held EIOSTVY which only makes two 8LW, VENOSITY and YESHIVOT. I struggled with ALOSWY? yet was unsure of SALlOWY. I was focussing on words ending in -WAY or -WAYS yet saw neither LOgWAYS nor OiLWAYS.
None of my opponents played a single bingo. It helped that I drew all six blanks. In my game against Ramona, I played ZUKE and against Jonathan I chose to play ZUkE again, after having drawn the second blank and being unable to score big with it. I got 36 for ZUkE.
2 Responses
What is the probability to pick up the blanks? In 3 games to pick up 6 blanks you must be really lucky . Time to buy a lottery ticket😊 I think I held you when you played UNMOIST … sometimes when playing a high rated player one does get intimidated ; there is a hesitancy to challenge as one presume that the higher rated player must be equipped with better word knowledge. Wonder how the game would have turned out if I had challenged the phony?
I played UNMOIST on my tenth turn and my score rose to 384. Upon your tenth turn after me, your score was 276. I had five turns after that; you had four. I don’t think I would have lost the game had you challenged but my spread would certainly have been smaller.
I have stated on many occasions on this blog that I would much rather have a dubious word challenged off than be too afraid to play it only to discover afterward that it was an acceptable word. I can live with myself after getting an unacceptable adjudication; it’s the chickening-out moments I loathe. When I check the validity of a word and discover it’s good, and I know that the board layout would have permitted it…I cringe. I am bolder when it comes to playing questionable words.