I won two out of three last night, to take my record to 64-11:
411-313 against Valeria. We played a closed game. Thanks to Jason U. for the photo:
Valeria opened with GONG (12) and then I played ORIeNTED (77). With the rack EFILOS? I missed FLOoZIES through her Z for 77. The board was so clogged I knew that I would never get rid of my two C’s. We each had to subtract tiles from our racks after six consecutive turns of zero. I lost 8 points with the unplayable CCET and Valeria subtracted 3 for IOR. She did however have a way to extend the game by playing RI- onto -FE for RIFE. I then could have played ET on top of RI.
448-228 against Richard. Richard opened with ZIN (24) and I had garbarge vowels, but no E, so I couldn’t have even played ZINE. I spent a long time on my opening play, eventually settling for OUZO (15). I got down two bingos, cONGAED (71) and RACKETED (69). My first bingo hooked the G onto the end of TIN but I was unable to play the flashy DOGvANE / DOGbANE there. Another dancey possibility would have fit, tANGOED. The only other bingo that would have fit under TIN was DONEGAl as the only way to place the bingo was to hook TIN with the hooking letter in fourth position.
364-395 against Max Panitch. I found the only bingo in AIMOOT?, AMOTIOn (67) yet with the letters on the board I see that I could have played that rack through a Y to make MYOTOnIA. And that word takes a front A! Max played GLUNCHeD (82) and DECLINER (63). One bingo lane remained open, provided you played a 7LW that ended in -A or -AE. I held the rack AEEINPR and saw PERINEA for 83. That would seal the win. Max motioned to play at the opposite side of the board, changed his mind, then took the bingo spot with WAE (27). I planned what I would do if that spot was taken, and played PEREIA / QI / AA (40) after, but by then the score was 359-346 in Max’s favour and I couldn’t catch up.