Disaster struck last night as I lost all three games. I struggled through some awful racks, and recorded the drek that I picked, but I see with my postgame analyses that I also missed some bingos that I definitely knew but just could not see. My record is now 64-14:
347-377 against Sid. I played MONETArY (64) and Sid played BESIdES (88). I made my blank an r and then in my replacement draw I chose three R’s. I had some horrid duplication with racks such as CIOOTTX and EIINOTT. I am not aware of the board situations with each of those racks, but each one builds through only one letter to make a single 8LW: CIOOTTX + O makes OTOTOXIC ( ! ) which is a word I know, but did not recall. I even wrote the letters on the back of my score sheet as TOTOXIC. I had it staring me in the face yet I never said to myself “I wish there was another O”. The other rack EIINOTT + P makes PETITION.
383-495 against Sam. I played AVIATION (63) and TRILBIEs (68) and Sam played ETERNIZE (104), REALTIES (66) and HARDIEST (84). I went first and exchanged five tiles. My new rack was AAIIOTV (more awful duplication) and I hoped Sam would play an N in his opening play, which he did. I could not find the bingo in CEMNRTU. CENTRUM is not hard to anagram. My draw after TRILBIEs was godawful: AAAGGU?
440-472 against Shan. I played FORFENDs (95, to Shan’s s), AENEOUS (72) and AMIDONES (64) and Shan played sUGARIER (62), CARTONS (83) and POTTAGeS (83). If I couldn’t play FORFEND then I was looking for an E to play OFFENDER or REOFFEND, yet I see that FORFEND can also be spelled FOREFEND. My mind was elsewhere during this game as I spent forever with the rack AEHINSS and couldn’t find either HESSIAN or SHENAIS. I may not be familiar with the latter but I knew the former. Sigh. I wrote down the four letters on the board that AEHINSS could possibly play through and the only one that could make an 8LW was an N, and I missed SHANNIES. Another word I knew but did not see. Not concentrating!