I won all three last night, in a dream series of games where I won my first with a score in the 400’s, my second with a score in the 500’s, and the third game with a score over 600. I was burdened with nine of the twelve possible U’s during these games but with these scores I can hardly say my U-heavy racks were unruly. My record is now 46-5:
437-273 against Richard. I played LEARNING (61) and ZAIDA (99). Richard had played CENT, then added an S- to the front to make SCENT. The word started one space below the TWS in the middle of the top row. I saw the possibility for a huge score making ASCENT (24), but I didn’t have an A then. Richard later made a play such that the only way to take advantage of the A- hook would be if you played a word ending in A. My rack was so horrible (AIOOUWY) that I didn’t think the play–my only possible play–of YA (39) was worth it. Look at the dreadful tiles I’d be leaving myself with. I played WOOLY (13) instead. My next rack gave me the dreamy tiles of ADZ, which enabled me to play ZAIDA with the Z on the DLS and the second A on the TWS, to score 99 for a 5LW.
500-357 against Sid. I played MITTENS (77), SAURIAN (69) and PLaTTER (68). Sid played READIlY (77). With that R Sid gave me an opportunity to play a triple-triple with the rack AEEFGI? if the R was in fourth position. The only 8LW I could see was FIlAGREE, which wouldn’t have fit. Turns out there was a triple-triple, which I knew, too: FErRIAGE.
612-156 against Noah. I opened with ZEINS (48) and busted open the board with SHELVERS (104), sORTIED (68), UNSHAMED (83) and dIGITATE (59). I also played QUIFFED naturally (58). Noah did not go overtime.
